Quote:
|
Originally Posted by lurkette
A note about diamonds, if you are a conscientious shopper: diamonds are a key resource in illegal weapons trading and financing of conflicts in Africa. Military and guerilla groups mine diamonds (often with slave labor) and sell them to finance their military operations.
|
The easiest way is just to look for a jeweler who sells diamonds from Canada. In recent years Canada has become the world's third-largest diamond producer, and their diamonds are clean: fair pay and working conditions in the mines, etc., profits not going to bloody third-world conflicts, etc. After all, it's Canada. And I hear the diamonds are high-quality, too. Some of the more PC jewelers will actually put up a sign to inform your that they sell Canadian diamonds.
But I'm also with Lurkette on the idea that it needn't be diamond. The demand for diamonds is more about marketing than looks.
Frankly, a one-karat $10 cubic zirconia looks as good as a nothing-special 1-karat diamond, and maybe one person in a few hundred knows enough to tell them apart, and then only if they look at them very closely. I like the colored stones better, as well. I think you're better off getting a really great example of a lesser-priced type of gemstone than paying more for a stone just because it's a diamond.