Russell Simmons Wants To Bring Bling Back To African Diamond Industry
Monday. 11.20.06 10:38 am
Saturday - November 18, 2006 by Alexis Chase
Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons and tsunami survivor/model Petra Nemcova are planning a trip to Botswana and South Africa later this month in order to get in some first hand research about the African diamond trade.
Simmons, who works with popular jeweler DeBeers on his own line of jewelry, has high hopes that the trade can be redirected in order to better benefit the people of Africa.
"I'm making a lot of money by selling diamonds," Simmons told the New York Daily News. "I want to give my money back to the people in Africa. We're starting the Diamond Empowerment Fund to teach Africans how to cut and polish diamonds on the continent, instead of taking the diamonds out. We want more of the black Africans to become executives. The diamond industry should be the leader of African empowerment."
The pair have already made plans to tour diamond mines and factories in both countries, but many inside the diamond industry believe top jewelers will be reluctant to allow Africans to take over cutting their gems. Most companies currently rely on experts in Belgium and Israel to do that job.
The diamond industry has faced ongoing scrutiny over the sale of "conflict diamonds," thanks in part to songs like Kanye West's "Diamonds for Sierra Leone" and the upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond, both which have cast light on how diamonds were used to finance civil war in African countries during the 1990s.
While Simmons has said the industry has gotten much better about avoiding conflict diamonds, he said, "The business can always get better."
In the meantime, Simmons is working toward reaching a point where buying diamonds can be looked at as a more humanitarian act, adding that his hope is to reach a point when "Americans will know that, when they buy a diamond, it doesn't make you an asshole with money, it can make you a person who's empowering Africans."
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