I
picked out all the elements and even selected the stone and seeing it all put
together –and on my finger!—is surreal.
STATS: 2.4 carat princess-cut near-colorless Moissanite stone in a white gold Tiffany's style setting on a knife-edge style band. My dream some true!
Here’s
some Moissanite facts, in case you’ve never heard of it:
It
is a near-colorless stone that was originally discovered in meteorites and can
also be created in a lab. Yep,
that’s a little piece of stardust on my finger :) Unlike most semi-precious stones that rank at around 5-7 on
the Moh’s scare of stone hardness (diamonds are a 10), Moissanite ranks at a
9.5, making it a naturally very durable stone, which makes it ideal for daily
wear. Many experts even claim that
Moissanite is more brilliant than
diamonds! But opinions differ on
that. Personally, mine is the
prettiest, sparkliest thing I have ever seen! I am so happy.
I am happy about how it looks, and even more happy about what it
means—I’m marrying my sweetie!
Why
Moissanite?
First, besides its prettiness, I have some humanitarian qualms with diamonds.
From a New York Times Article called, “In Sierra Leone, Still a Tough Dig
for Diamonds,” I take this excerpt:
Diamond
mining in Sierra Leone is no longer the bloody affair made infamous by the
nation's decade-long civil war, in which diamonds played a starring role.
The
conflict - begun by rebels who claimed to be ridding the mines of foreign
control - killed 50,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes, destroyed
the country's economy and shocked the world with its images of amputated limbs
and drug-addled boy soldiers.
An
international regulatory system created after the war has prevented diamonds
from fueling conflicts and financing terrorist networks.
Even
so, diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains a grim business that brings the
government far too little revenue to right the devastated country, yet feeds
off the desperation of some of the world's poorest people.
"The
process is more to sanitize the industry from the market side rather than the
supply side," said John Kanu, a policy adviser to the Integrated Diamond
Management Program, a U.S.-backed effort to improve the government's handling
of diamond money.
"To
make it so people could go to buy a diamond ring and to say, 'Yes, because of
this system, there are no longer any blood diamonds. So my love, and my
conscience, can sleep easily.'
"But
that doesn't mean that there is justice," he said. "That will take a
lot, lot longer to change."
In
many cases, the vilified foreign mine owners have simply been replaced by local
elites with a firm grip on the industry's profits.
At
the losing end are the miners here in Kono district, who work for little or no
pay, hoping to strike it rich but caught in a net of semifeudal relationships
that make it all but impossible that they ever will.
…
The sprawling mining business here
includes about 2,500 small operations. Unlike oil, iron ore and even gold,
diamonds are so easy to transport that if regulations are too onerous and taxes
too high, miners and exporters will simply turn to smuggling.
In 2005, Sierra Leone officially
exported $141 million worth of diamonds, government records show. That is a
vast improvement over the $24 million officially exported in 2001, before
stringent new rules known as the Kimberley Process required diamond deals to be
certified by the authorities. Before that, most diamonds were smuggled out of
the country through Liberia and Guinea and sold for weapons.
...
And from the organization Global Witness:
The value of official exports would be
much higher were it not for
smuggling. Unofficial government estimates
place the level of
smuggling at 50 per cent, and one recent
study suggests that it
is much higher. (this is their citation for that claim--
A 2003 USAID study it is argued that the
“actual market
value” of Sierra Leone’s diamond
production in 2002 was
likely around US$320-400 million,
representing an output
level of approximately two million carats.
The study further
stated that 90 per cent of these diamonds
were being smuggled
out of the county. Sierra Leone Diamond
Sector Financial
Policy Constraints,
Management Systems International,
Freetown/Washington DC, June 2003. These
numbers are
probably too high. The highest level of
diamond exports was
set in the late 1960s. The 2 million
carats exported at that time
represented all alluvial and industrial
production, a level that
could not have been achieved under the
conditions of 2003.)
...
Average price per carat are specified by the government, and
superficially it appears as
though licence holders sell their diamonds
in an open and competitive market.
The truth is, however, that large parts of
the industry are informal
and are, for all practical purposes,
monopolized by a relatively small
group of people who dictate the price of
rough diamonds, reap
most of the economic rewards and exploit
those in the production
chain below them. The reasons can be found
in the lack of market
knowledge among diggers and miners,
limited access to capital,
corruption and the ineffective application
of corrective policies.
So, the Kimberly Process and the "end" of a civil war makes us comfortable with buying diamonds because the minig progress is not organized by warlords and now loosely regulated. But it is still organized basically by slave-owners. Not okay.
These
are just a few things I cannot help but think of when I see diamonds. Frankly, it makes me queasy. Sure, you have a little certificate
from your rinky-dink strip mall jeweler…but do you really know that your diamond was not mined by a virtually enslaved
7-year-old miner, living off of scraps?
Personally, I’m not willing to take that risk.
Second,
aside from humanitarian concerns, I am not about to feed into the vain diamond
marketing machine.
The fact that a diamond engagement ring is an American marital tradition is, well, not fact. Diamond engagement rings are a relatively new, marketing-driven phenomenon.
Here's a little history for you:
In 1938, the diamond cartel De Beers began a marketing campaign that would have a major impact on engagement rings. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the price of diamonds collapsed. At the same time, market research indicated that engagement rings were going out of style with the younger generation. While the first phase of the marketing campaign consisted of market research, the advertising phase began in 1939. One of the first elements of this campaign was to educate the public about the 4 Cs (cut, carats, color, and clarity). In 1947 the slogan, "A Diamond is Forever," was introduced. Ultimately, the De Beers campaign sought to persuade the consumer that an engagement ring is indispensable, and that a diamond is the only acceptable stone for an engagement ring. The campaign was very successful. In 1939 only 10% of engagement rings had diamonds. By 1990, 80% did. (*See Howard, Vick (2008). Brides, Inc: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition.)
Still have doubts about marketing being at the root of all this? Consider this-- one
of the main characteristics in determining the value of a diamond is its
color. So, it stands to reason to
assume that a crap-like brown colored diamond would cost next to nothing and
hardly even be considered a diamond.
Nope. Enter marketing and
now these are somehow desirable “chocolate diamonds.” We are all dumb lemmings in the face of multi-billion dollar
marketing industries, but I digress…
Third,
artificial inflation. I don’t like to waste
money. My fiance’s money will soon
by jointly mine and I’m not about to waste thousands of our dollars on
something that looks IDENTICAL that costs like $70. I’d much rather buy a better quality wedding dress, go to
Europe, re-do our floors, or really use that money on anything else than a shiny little blip that I’ll probably accidentally
lose at some point in the near future anyway…
All that is to say, I am engaged, my stone is not a diamond, and I AM SO HAPPY!
