Rob Bates

Blood Diamonds: Not the Movie
November 2, 2006

As Hedda mentioned, my first post – and probably a lot more from here on out, until the “Blood Diamond” movie goes away – will be on “conflict diamonds.”

Needless to say, I feel that this is an extremely important subject. I have no patience for those in the trade who say things like "every industry does it" and "why don't people blame other commodities?" Sadly, I still hear these arguments, eight years after the issue first arose.  (Fortunately, most industry leaders know better.) And it’s crazy. The diamond trade has a moral obligation to do as much as we can to make sure how our products don't kill people. It's as simple as that.

And how do we stop that? There is only one good solution I've heard so far -- the Kimberley Process. Kimberley began long before DiCaprio and company got involved, and it will still be important long after they’ve gone on to something else. Yeah, Kimberley needs some improving, and you can’t stop a determined smuggler. But no one – including the NGOs – has any better ideas. (And in fact, the NGOs basically came up with Kimberley.) Probably the best all around summary of where Kimberley is -- and isn't -- in the new report from Partnership Africa Canada. For the very little it's worth, I heartily endorse all its recommendations (listed on the report's last page). It is pretty amazing that something as important as the Kimberley Process does not have a formal Secretariat. Perhaps it’s something the trade could fund, as kind of a good-will gesture. It’s true, prior good will gestures have not always been as well-received as one of would like, but hope springs eternal.

For that matter, it sure looks like that the money would be better spent than on the World Diamond Council's counter-publicity campaign. I had misgivings about this campaign when it was first launched, and I have to say they are being borne out. It makes the trade look defensive and it simply gives the issue more publicity. 

Most of the people involved in the campaign are extremely well-meaning, and parts of it I heartily endorse.. Hopefully, it will increase jeweler compliance with the Kimberley Process "System of Warranties," which my magazine’s surveys have found is very low. And certainly this campaign is doing things that needed to be done. For all the talk about industry "spin," the fact is, for seven years or so -- whether out of cheapness or naiveté (probably both) -- this industry had little or no public relations strategy to deal with the "conflict diamond" issue. That's right. None. Industry leaders didn't have talking points.  People just thought, well, we're doing the right thing with Kimberley, and everything else will take care of itself. But it hasn't happened that way.

So getting our PR house in order is all good. But the diamondfacts site, and the ads for it, and the articles about it... very little of that has worked out positively.

And let's face it, it has a tough mission. This campaign is designed to educate people on the importance of diamonds to the economies like South Africa or Botswana. Now this happens to be true. If people stop buying diamonds, the impact on Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and even Sierra Leone will be devastating. To put it in movie terms, it will be like in “Roger and Me,” when General Motors pulled all those jobs out of Flint, Michigan. Except people in Africa have a lot less options than people in Michigan.

But journalists -- and I certainly put myself in this category -- are by nature skeptical. It can be harder to proving something that’s positive than it is proving a negative. You tell people "diamonds are doing good for Africa," and you run into automatic skepticism. And let's face it, this industry's record over the past 15 years has been pretty mixed. So, while, yes, having traveled to African diamond producers, I do believe that diamonds have done a lot of good in Africa, and have the capacity to do even better, it's very hard to get people to believe that.  Even when it was reported that Nelson Mandela will speak out about the importance of the diamond industry to Africa, some bloggers decided that Nelson Mandela must be on De Beers' payroll. (Those links have been removed for some reason.) One even suggested that people in Hollywood know more about Africa than Nelson Mandela does. That's right. The word of a man who spent 27 years in prison to liberate his countrymen means nothing to these people. That is what we are up against. 

Posted by Rob Bates on November 2, 2006 | Comments (0)