Blood Diamonds

Have I mentioned that I have amazing students?

Recently I assigned my students the task of actually taking action in a campaign important to them. Two of my students choose to raise awareness by writing a song and posting it to youtube. The topic was diamond mining in Africa and how by buying diamonds we are supporting war, corruption, oppression, and poverty. Although I would now suggest never, ever, ever buying diamonds again (which I won't), there are some measures you can take to attempt to assure your diamonds aren't from conflict areas.

This is what my students are singing about here. Pretty powerful stuff. Just ignore the "fart" sticker, lol. I don't think they put a thought into that one. The lyrics are below. And you can click on the video again to take you to the youtube page where you can leave a comment for them if you want!



From the writers: "An original Kenny and I co-wrote for an environmental science project. We wanted to raise awareness about the fact that diamonds aren't always legally excavated, and people still suffer from the production of them."

Go to http://www.diamondfacts.org

Lyrics:

You buy a diamond ring for that girl you love
But do you know what happened in the making of
That shiny piece of jewelry
Imagine if it were you or me
In the midst of civil war, people diggin' up these minerals
Associate with happiness, like Peter Pans and Tinkerbells
But bad things are hidden
Way out of view

Conflict Diamonds
(Every time you hit the jewelry store)
What are they
(You may hurt the problem more)
Gotta stop them
(The solution always starts with you)
So what can you do
You can ask your jeweler a question or two

These diamonds, can you tell me from where they were provided
Does your company have policy, on these conflict diamonds
And can you do something for me
Provide me with a written guarantee
If they can't do these things, then tell them you won't buy them
And we'll weed out companies with conflict diamonds
Without a profit in this, I swear they'll go out of business