http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:03:48 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-517859 Ostentatious displays of wealth are obscene, whether that involves diamonds or not. In my view, there is nothing worse than seeing someone driving around in a Rolls-Royce, when you know the owner could have bought a top-of-the range Ford or Holden, or even an expensive BMW coming in at under $100,000 and given the balance of what they would have spent on the Roller to the children of a starving town in a developing country. Just a fraction of the costs of the motor-vehicle insurance policy alone could put a child through school. And women literally dripping in diamonds aren't much better. There kiddies, that's my little lefty rant for the day ... 517859@blogcritics.org Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:03:48 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-517816 I've been stressing over a year about saving for a diamond engagement ring. I was planning on proposing to my girl friend next month when we go to Vancouver. I saw the movie Blood Diamond during the holidays and found out about the one true Evil Empire that is De Beers. I highly recommend the movie. I hate Leonardo and almost didn't see the movie because of him being in it. He was actually amazing in this movie. I had no idea the diamond industry was so Evil. The conflict or Blood Diamond would not exist if De Beers doesn't hoard diamonds and buys them from whomever to maintain their monopoly. I'm ashamed to admit that despite finding out that the movie does accurately depict the horrors that happened in Africa during the 90s. I was still planning on getting a diamond ring. I was rationalizing it would be the one and only diamond I'll ever buy. I didn't think there was any other way to propose then with a diamond ring. I was like most people and was conditioned to still want that hunk of carbon regardless of how much misery and suffering other human beings have endured because of what essentially is just a vanity. It's not until I found out that the diamond engagement ring tradition was just a product of brilliant marketing and didn't exist before 1939. To also learn that if De Beers didn't successfully condition me to equate love and commitment with the diamond ring it would actually only be worth $5 to $35 a carat if solely used for industrial purposes. I always thought that diamonds were rare and that was the reason for their high price. To ad insult to injury and find out that approximately 100 Million carats are harvested each year and that De Beers stockpiles diamonds in order to set a artificially high price. The retailers pay whatever De Beers wants because they basically have no choice. Then the retailers mark it up 300 % and that's the price we the consumers are supposed to pay. I decided I wanted no part of it. I proposed with out a ring and my girl friend was just as thrilled like I gave her the 1.27 carat hunk of carbon I was stressing over. What I thought would be the symbol of my everlasting love is really the one universal symbol of oppression, misery, exploitation, slavery, dismemberment,and death. How's that for some really good marketing? 517816@blogcritics.org Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:59:31 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-509818 Hopefully you would have been aware of her attitude regarding diamonds before you married her. If she's addicted to stones, try switching her to rubies or emeralds, both actually rarer & more costly than diamonds, even. Or pearls. Or better, go for a week's stay at one of the superdeluxe resorts on Fiji or Thailand. You know: the one featuring your own grass "hut" with your own lagoon, outrigger, & private staff to wait on you hand & foot? 509818@blogcritics.org Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:41:49 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-509776 I don't know how you fight the symbolism angle and since I don't have much at stake in the question I can hardly presume to advise. Although any woman who still wants diamonds after you say "diamonds are boring and the industry in them is sustained by the nastiest kind of marketing and processing, so why don't you choose a different way to blow $5000 to commemorate our love, honey?" isn't a woman I can imagine being a decent sort of imaginative specimen to spend one's life with, symbolism or not. 509776@blogcritics.org Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:08:57 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-509764 How do you fight "it's the symbolism angle?" You have to redirect women if you want to convince them that diamonds are a bit much. Alas, men have started wars to impress women. It's a built in mechanism now. A learned behaviour: Diamonds are forever ergo so will be our marriage if you buy my one every five years. 509764@blogcritics.org Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:39:07 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508911 Actually, I wouldn't have a diamond if I could. I did have, & I sold it, & put the proceeds to a far better use than some idiotic tiny rock sitting around doing nothing. Unfortunately, far too many buy into the stupid marketing lies, but that's the fault of modern culture worldwide (being a cinditioned consumer robot, that is), and hence the subject of a different rant against evil & avaricious, unethical corporations & the marketing/advertising whores who serve them. I believe that's been done before on this site, no? 508911@blogcritics.org Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:28:07 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508895 Yeah, men are fucked over that with that diamond engagement ring shit. So many women are soooo into the mythos. First thing after the engagement, it's a gaggle of ladies crowded around a left hand going "ooooooooooo" like mystified bonobos, instead of "has he paid in fully to his RRSPs?" or "that's all very well, but do you enjoy mutual respect and a constantly evolving sex life?" Men should go on "diamond" strike. Get their fiancées crackerjack rings and motor scooters instead. Man, that would be sweet. 508895@blogcritics.org Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:03:16 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508306 Oh I knew I was being raped. It was like giving money away. I realized the power of the diamond industry when it became apparent there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. They have all men cornered with this. Genius. 508306@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:30:45 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508237 I don't know why it's not talked about either. Conflict diamonds get press, but I don't get why consumers think they'll be nicer people if they don't buy conflict diamonds from evil militants and do buy registered diamonds from evil governments . . . you've got fucking Belarus in the Kimberley Process, for god's sake. Diamonds just fucking suck. Sure, Jane and Marilyn needed them, but that was just because a couple of post-war hussies needed portable wealth and a flattish-vowel two syllable scan. They could just as easily sang "banker's cheques" if that had fit. Pearls ARE better, and they come from delicious, delicious oysters. Waste not, want not. 508237@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:12:07 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508206 I don't care for him much either, for some reason, but I won't see the movie because I have better things to see than that particular one; & I flatter myself I don't need education ref: diamonds since I don't care for the things except in their industrial capacities, besides already being aware of diamonds' dubious provenances etc. Excellent subject, BTW. I'm just surprised it's taken this long for someone to focus on how adverse the effects of diamonds have been. The ad campaign blitzkreig disgusted me, as do those who buy into that sort of marketing bs - same level as the tobacco companies trying to claim their products aren't death-dealing but "cool". I'd rather have pearls, moi ... still, it just wouldn't be the same, Marilyn singing "Rubies are a girl's best friends...." 508206@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:38:49 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508201 Yeah, good for Zwick, but I still don't think I'll be able to watch the movie. For some reason Leonardo di Caprio is really hard for me to look at. I don't know why, it's not as though he's ugly or anything. 508201@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:25:51 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/09/184356.php#comment-508183 I agree totally: nowadays when we have such nifty bling goodies as moissanite & cz, there really is no need for diamonds, unless you're seriously into scratching your name on glass. They ARE boring. IMO, jewelry-wise they're only good in small amounts for adding a little sparkle to really interesting items like colored gemstones or pearls. They're certainly not worth the ridiculous & ridiculously artifically inflated prices demanded by the industry. Good for Zwick for refusing to knuckle under to DeBeers & co. 508183@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:15:10 EST