Like that old man in Sierra Leon said in Blood Diamond: "Hope they don't find oil here!" Frankly, Africa's resources ultimately impoverish Africans either through the labor exploitation (not just sweat shops, but mining, for example, so, black lung, distance from families and elevated rates of HIV/AIDS), or environmental degradation to the point of strangling the local people to death. For example, the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta are cut off from their traditional modes of livelihood tied, as one would expect, TO THE UNIQUE DELTA CLIMATIC CONDITIONS, which had sustained them for centuries. Moreover, youth are demoralized and have no confidence in governance. In fact, governance sits at the center of this exploitation -all these industries could work if regulations were in place. Yet, like Microsoft in India, or the East Indian Tea Company for that matter, which insured that the sun never set on the (Imperial) British Empire, these private corporations, backed by their governments through WTO, IMF, World Bank and UN, hold all the chips. News of a super-gem, then, is quite troublesome for any of us who have family in Africa. From that perspective, the international infrastructure that supports Africa's under-development is neatly crystalized in the diamond industry.

Sent by Diepiriye Kuku-Siemons | 2:21 AM ET | 09-23-2008

Asante sana sana to my African brother Diepiriye for his saga wisdom and analysis above. Bravo..

Now contrast this against Botswana and its historical contours with an economic more than 60 percent reliant and sustained via these pressurized lumps of carbon coal and its environmental record and the one against its own peoples. A lot of wasted, African resources and a spiralling abyss of decline in living standards for the populace and their terrain from whince these rocks are extracted in the quest of filling the bottomless pit of western comsumption.

By any measure, another 'blood diamond'one way or another.

Sent by KMJUMBE | 12:44 AM ET | 09-25-2008