NYT: JOHANNESBURG — An advocacy organization that helped to establish an international certification program to prevent the sale of so-called blood diamonds withdrew from the coalition on Monday, saying the effort was no longer effective.
Global Witness, is the first advocacy group to leave the program, known as the Kimberley Process, which was set up in 2003 because conflicts in Angola and Sierra Leone were being fueled by diamond sales.
Although the diamond business may seem like an economic sideshow, it is actually a perfect recipe for cooking up a free market meal ticket.
Cheap expendable labor
Ingredients:
Controlling interest in a ready supply of useless shiny stones
Abundant supply of expendable cheap labor to dig up stones
Marketing Team
Abundant supply of gullible consumers
Small cadre of smart marketing con-artists
Preparation:
1. Grind cheap labor into dirt.
Useless stones
2. Sift to sort out useless shiny stones. Discard excess dirt and laborers.
3. Set aside and allow stones to rest.
4. While useless stones are resting, have marketing team use media to tell stories about how stones are rare and valuable and how when carried on one’s person, will evoke the love and envy of others who have no stones or whose stone are smaller.
Cut and shaped useless stones
5. Cut and polish useless stones to make them glitter as much as possible. A variety of sizes and shapes is recommended to “serve” all market segments.
6. Slowly pour stones into the marketplace, being careful not to spill. Use special care during this step because too many stones poured out at once will cause the meal-ticket to sour.
7. When gullible consumers begin exchanging their money, hard-earned or borrowed, for your useless shiny stones, rake up the money. Set 5% aside for digging up more stones and 5% for shareholders. Place remaining 90% in the bank, preferably offshore accounts.
8. Repeat as often as desired.
This recipe can be applied for virtually any product although results may vary depending on ingredients used and cleverness of marketing team.
Be an innovator. Be creative. The world is your oyster. Like the proverbial candle, burn people at both ends to fully enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Note: Since this recipe is so simple, many use it and competition for quality ingredients such as cheap expendable labor and gullible consumers can become keen and often downright nasty. An especially clever marketing team can do much to advance your place in the meal-ticket line.
Click to print handy copy of this recipe on a 3 x 5 card.
