Funny & not-funny re: deBeers
Dec. 25th, 2001 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mattlistenerFunny:
Seen on a T billboard: a deBeers diamond cartel slogan.
YOU KNEW YOU'D
FALL IN LOVE
AGAIN AND AGAIN
---------------------------
JUST NOT WITH THE
SAME PERSON
(I doubt they intended a polyamorous reading there! :-) )
Not funny:
"Glitter and Greed in South Africa"
http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/afrodia.html
Bit o' background:
deBeers controls the international diamond market and the South African national market using all the methods that anti-trust laws make illegal in the US. The price of diamonds is permanently artificially inflated, and they enjoy a government-enforced monopoly.
deBeers pioneered the concept of product-placement in movies with the use of diamonds in movie-marriages. This is the origin of the idea of diamonds as the rock of choice for a wedding or engagement ring. "Diamonds are forever" is their slogan as well, promoted to reduce competition from a used-diamond market.
The link above discusses how deBeers' practices prolong the massive social inequities of Apartheid.
Conclusion:
You won't catch me buying a diamond this lifetime!
Seen on a T billboard: a deBeers diamond cartel slogan.
YOU KNEW YOU'D
FALL IN LOVE
AGAIN AND AGAIN
---------------------------
JUST NOT WITH THE
SAME PERSON
(I doubt they intended a polyamorous reading there! :-) )
Not funny:
"Glitter and Greed in South Africa"
http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/afrodia.html
Bit o' background:
deBeers controls the international diamond market and the South African national market using all the methods that anti-trust laws make illegal in the US. The price of diamonds is permanently artificially inflated, and they enjoy a government-enforced monopoly.
deBeers pioneered the concept of product-placement in movies with the use of diamonds in movie-marriages. This is the origin of the idea of diamonds as the rock of choice for a wedding or engagement ring. "Diamonds are forever" is their slogan as well, promoted to reduce competition from a used-diamond market.
The link above discusses how deBeers' practices prolong the massive social inequities of Apartheid.
Conclusion:
You won't catch me buying a diamond this lifetime!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2001-12-26 11:16 am (UTC)YOU KNEW YOU'D
FALL IN LOVE
AGAIN AND AGAIN
---------------------------
JUST NOT WITH THE
SAME PERSON
ironic, because I've so far fallen in love with the same person....at 19, 27, and now 31 (he disappears and then invariably comes back). And I doubt *that*'s what they meant, either ;-)