Word: beer
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Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but not if that girl happens to have had both her hands chopped off by Sierra Leone rebels who're financed by the little gems. You'd think this was information that De Beers, the 500-pound gorilla of the diamond industry, would want to keep as far as possible from the minds of young lovers shopping for an adornment to symbolize their commitment. And you'd be wrong. De Beer's, in fact, wants every diamond shopper to know that the industry has sustained years of violence that has claimed tens...
...Starting next July, De Beer's will certify that its diamonds come from clean sources, forcing its suppliers to accept "best practices" rules that outlaw buying from insurgent groups and stones mined by child labor. That's a sign, of course, that the company is feeling the heat. After all, diamonds derive their value from a combination of scarcity and demand generated almost exclusively by advertising, all of which leaves the industry vulnerable to negative publicity and the threat of consumer boycotts...
...With the trade in "blood diamonds" on the agenda of the G8 summit later this month, De Beers is moving quickly to rebrand itself as a concerned corporate citizen of the world. Still, the company may struggle to contain the market backlash that could result from diamonds' being associated with brutality in Africa. De Beer's spokesman Andy Lamont, speaking in London, sounded a defensive note when pressed on industry responsibility for financing insurgencies. "Diamonds don't kill people," said Lamont. "People kill people." Shopworn NRA slogans won't necessarily mollify a potentially fickle market - De Beers may do better...
...muggy Tuesday afternoon, and electric blues is pumping out of a ramshackle red barn that sits in the weeds 50 yards beyond the Dickinsons' trailer homes. Outside the barn, a few people are drinking beer and swapping tall tales about mysterious guitar pickers and the talismanic powers of black-cat bones. Inside, Luther and Cody are jamming with two legendary blues families: the sons and grandsons of R.L. Burnside, 72, and of the late David ("Junior") Kimbrough, both giants of hill-country boogie. On the walls, a gallery of American icons--Betty Page, Casey Jones, Father Flanagan, Mississippi John Hurt...
...that wasn't proof enough, I later discovered I was the ultimate tourist when I schlepped through endless souvenir shops searching for the perfect Union Jack pencil case for my sister, boxers for my boyfriend and tie for my dad. Somehow I didn't mind examining every London beer stein and every London magnet in every single store while my friend looked ready to strangle me along with every other foreigner in sight...