Is Panama to be Latin America’s Diamond Smuggling Hub?

Posted by Matt in November 2nd, 2009 | no comment

Published in Americas, Diamond Center, Diamond Exports, Diamond Smuggling, Diamonds, DiamondSmugging, Fellow, Hub, International Assessment, Kimberley Process, Large Scale, Latin American, Latin-America, Money Laundering, Panama History, Producers, Rich History, SmugglingDiamonds, Strategy Center, Transparent, Venezuela

“Given Panama’s rich history as a center for both money laundering and smuggling on a very large scale, coupled with Venezuela’s demonstrated unwillingness to be transparent in its diamond exports and withdrawal from the Kimberley Process, I am very concerned about the smuggling of diamonds through Panama,” Doug Farah, a senior fellow with the International [...]

Nigeria’s oil curse

Posted by Matt in June 1st, 2009 | no comment

Published in Africa, Oil, African Man, Audience, Blood Diamond, Cinema, Curse, Diamonds, Government Forces, Lagos Nigeria, Laughter, Leonardo Dicaprio, Leonardo Dicaprio Film, Oil Wealth, Old Man, Photos, Rebels, Sierra Leone, Surveys, Vicious Civil War, Violence

The story in photos behind the fight for Nigeria’s oil wealth.
During a scene in the Leonardo DiCaprio film “Blood Diamond,” an elderly African man surveys a village destroyed in Sierra Leone’s vicious civil war and laments the violence tearing his country apart as rebels and government forces fight for control over access to diamonds and [...]

Why is Russia hoarding diamonds?

Posted by Matt in May 19th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, Alrosa, Arbiter, Business Sense, Carats, Commodity, Diamond Mining, Diamond Prices, Diamonds, Failure, Good Business, Hoarding, Marketing, Natural Gas, New York Times, Rough Diamonds, Russia, Veracity

Regardless of that story’s veracity, one lesson from it is certainly true: Along with oil and natural gas, diamonds are another homegrown commodity that Russia has managed through politics (rather than good business sense) to varying degrees of failure. Most recently, the New York Times reported on May 11 that Russia’s diamond mining and marketing [...]

Blood Diamonds

Posted by Matt in July 17th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Africa, African Nation, Antwerp Belgium, Array, Blood Diamonds, Brutality, Cobblestone Streets, Correspondents, Diamond, Diamonds, Display Cases, Documentary, Finest Jewelry, Full Length, Illicit Diamonds, Insurrection, Jewelry Stores, Landscape, Love Affection, National Geographic, Pits, Precious Gems, Sierra Leone

Full length National Geographic documentary on illicit diamond trafficing.
Long a symbol of love, affection, and faithfulness, the diamond is now increasingly linked with war, blood and brutality. In the diamond rich West African nation of Sierra Leone, rebels used the precious gems to bankroll a violent ten-year insurrection, leaving a terrorized population and a ravaged [...]

Diamonds on Demand

Posted by Matt in June 12th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Off-Topic, Apollo, Barbed Wire, Bryant Linares, Corporate Spies, Diamond Company, Diamond Conference, Diamond Mine, Diamonds, Fast Food Restaurant, Hotel Meeting, Lab Grown Diamonds, Luxury Car, Man Made Diamonds, Meeting Room, Natural Diamond, Nondisclosure Agreement, Public Relations Staff, Scary Moment, Secret Location, Security Guards, Spy Agency, Strip Mall

Scientists and engineers see a world of possibilities in lab-grown diamonds; jewelers are less enthusiastic.
I’m sitting in a fast-food restaurant outside Boston that, because of a nondisclosure agreement I had to sign, I am not allowed to name. I’m waiting to visit Apollo Diamond, a company about as secretive as a Soviet-era spy agency. [...]

The Curse of Oil Wealth

Posted by Matt in May 9th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Oil, Caspian Basin, Chad, Conflict, Correlation, Countries In Africa, Curse, Diamonds, East Timor, Internal Strife, minerals, myanmar, Oil And Gas, Oil Wealth, Ross, Southeast Asia, Violence

And the correlation between oil and violence is likely to grow stronger, since as Ross points out, countries in Africa, the Caspian basin, and Southeast Asia will soon become “significant oil and gas exporters. Some of these countries, including Chad, East Timor, and Myanmar, have already suffered internal strife. Most of the rest are poor, [...]