The Kimberley Process

The fight to keep diamonds conflict free has apparently been effective. Due to the Kimberley Process, the once 4% of diamonds being used to fund conflicts is now down to less than 1%, and this was reported in 2004. Now, 99% of internationally traded diamonds are conflict free. The Kimberley Process was established in 2003, with the goal of preventing rebels from using diamond revenue to fund their wars. Adopting its name from the African state in South Africa in which the original meeting was held to begin this scheme, the Kimberley Process is designed to certify the origin of diamonds of conflict free sources. They do this by “…rough diamonds are sealed in tamper-resistant containers and accompanied by forgery resistant, conflict free certificates with unique serial numbers each time they cross an international border. This was enshrined into national law in the participants”. Countries become apart of this process under 3 conditions:

1. That any diamond originating from the country does not finance a rebel group or other entity seeking to overthrow a UN-recognized government.
2. That every diamond export be accompanied by a Kimberley Process certificate proving
3. That no diamond is imported from, or exported to, a non-member of the scheme.

I wanted to see what the Hip Hop world had done in response to what was going on with the Kimberley Process. So I went to prohiphop.com and found that Hip Hop trendsetter Russell Simmons had his hand in the pot as well. I found that there was a lot Russell Simmons was doing, and there was a lot of information to be sorted out. Simmons had a press conference on December 6, 2006 to “reveal the results of his fact- finding Africa mission”, however I found that others disagreed with his efforts.

http://annansi.com/blog/2006/12/african-diamond-facts-according-to-russell-simmons/

http://www.diamondfacts.org/facts/fact_02.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Process

Bling'd: Blood, Diamonds and Hip Hop- Raising Awareness among Hip Hop Artists

On Thursday, February 22, 2007 Vh1 aired an interesting documentary on the crisis going on in Africa. Vh1 sent 3 well known artists in the Hip Hop world on a trip to Africa to witness first hand the struggle Africans. The significance of this trip was in the irony that the diamonds that Hip Hop artists flaunt and make their hit songs about, are the same diamonds that are dug up by the working hands of struggling Africans. The diamond industry apparently was funding the bloody war that involved rebels. Rebels did things such as invade villages and cut off the hands of anyone who lived there. One man who lost both his hands, told this story, and mentioned that they carried around a bag of hands.
After watching this documentary, and witnessing grown men who claim to have ‘seen it all’ in their struggle here in America, it was evident that this documentary would leave footprints on American hearts and minds. It made me make this blog, in hopes of raising awareness among my own peers.

At one point in the documentary, the rappers sat down with young African men, and tried to explained why diamonds were so important. The reason was apparently, was that since they grew up poor and without anything, they looked up to the men in their community who had

I think on of the most defining points in this documentary was when one of the rappers felt the need to stay in the car, because he couldn’t bare to see the suffering. That same rapper challenged a white man who facilitated some of the diamond mining going on.
I think this documentary is important, as any documentary is important because it has the responsibility of raising the public’s awareness of issues going on around the world. This document fulfilled that responsibility.

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/vh1_rock_docs/115835/episode.jhtml