Glitter & Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel

by Janine Farrell-Robert

Rare, romantic, and The diamond industry depends on these myths to reap billions of dollars of profit. This sensational investigation explodes such fallacies and -reveals how multimillion dollar advertising campaigns create the impression of rarity and romance. It reveals, too, a very secret and unromantic world, one that is dominated and controlled by a handful of mighty corporations. Taking us through seven decades of intrigue and -manipulation that span the globe, Janine Roberts has written the most expansive and explosive exposé ever on diamonds; among Roberts'
The inquiry the diamond cartel did not want and tried to stop. . . . If you have ever wondered what tales might lie behind the glitter of a diamond ring, read this account of the most international media investigation ever launched!

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally managed to finish this...

So my rating should actually be both four stars and two stars. The four stars would be for the content of the book. There's a whole lot of informative, interesting, disturbing, unpleasant information here. The author obviously did a tremendous amount of research, covering many aspects of the diamond industry, from the mining of the diamonds to the creation of the diamond myth. She also looks into the history of the diamond industry, going back to De Beer's rise to prominence, and through their actions in World War II, and the current state of the diamond industry.

On the other hand, the book isn't well written or well organized. The first few chapters are particularly bad, and felt like the author had expected me to already be familiar with a lot of background that she didn't explicitly cover. In fact, I barely made it through the first few chapters. The organization improves as the book continues, but the writing is never great. There's often not a sense of a narrative flow, and it sometimes feels more like an information dump (to be fair, there's an awful lot of information). The author also switches between first person narrative and relating of background in a clumsy, and unpredictable manner, which also hurts the book.

So in all, it's a good book, but a difficult one to get through.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes a much-needed look inside the diamond business. The myth is that diamonds are so expensive at the local jewelry store because they are very rare. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

South Africa is one of the world’s major diamond producers. Conditions for the black miners inside the mines can best be described as barbaric. The miners are locked in the mine compound for months at a time, supposedly to protect against diamond theft. Among other things, protective gear is rare or nonexistent, and their pay is microscopic. Apartheid is alive and well in the South Africa diamond mines. In places where diamonds have been found, like the Australian Outback, Botswana and northern Canada, indigenous rights are trampled like they don’t exist.

During World War II, America had a very hard time getting sufficient supplies of industrial diamonds from DeBeers, the cartel that still controls much of the world’s diamond trade. It got to the point where the US threatened to stop all shipments of fighter planes to England unless the British used their influence with DeBeers to ease the restrictions. The Germans, however, had much less trouble getting industrial diamonds from DeBeers.

DeBeers drives up the price of diamonds by simply keeping them off the market, or stockpiling them. It’s common to cut production at a certain mine, or close it completely, in order to keep that type of diamond off the market. Ownership of the various pieces of DeBeers is shuttled around through a seemingly infinite number of shell corporations, most of which are little more than a nameplate on a door of a building in the Cayman Islands or Switzerland. Among other reasons, it’s done to reduce the company’s tax bill, and the fee paid to the government where the mine is located, as much as possible. If a government wants to change the extremely unfair (for them) payment system, DeBeers floods the market with diamonds from that country, depressing the price.

The book spends time looking at the role of diamonds in recent African wars, like the 1970s war in Angola, and the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which America was deeply involved. Last but not least, did you know that there was a working diamond mine in the American state of Arkansas?

This is a major eye-opener. It is a very detailed investigative piece, the likes of which are rarely seen these days. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? Not after reading this highly recommended book.

[J.C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

dry, boring, depressing. barely broke 50 pages.