Did you purchase a diamond between between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006? I would really hope you didn’t, but, if you did then say hello to Mr. class action lawsuit against DeBeers for price fixing!
WOOOHOOO!!!
Info here.
And for a little fun, a straight-to-the-point list of why you should never buy or accept diamonds from anyone, EVER. You can find that list here.
If that image isn’t enough to convince you, check out this photo essay: A Trail of Diamonds: Photographs by Kadir van Lohuizen in Foreign Policy Magazine
I realize this is from Fox News…but, it is a good read. Awhile back I had heard about the hair mats used for cleaning up oil spills, but it seems there are quite a few uses for this product.
As I read it, I can’t help but wonder a bit about the origins of the hair and the circumstances surrounding this exchange. It makes me want to see the other side of all of this.
Working at an engineering college and living in a blue collar town, I constantly feel that I have to justify my choice of career. I perceive that people look down on me from time to time, because working in the art field isn’t a “real†job or isn’t as meaningful as an engineer or an IT person. Lately, I have been grappling with this feeling almost every day…and this was especially true over the holidays for whatever reason. As if it isn’t hard enough to do what I do without feeling marginalized on top of it all. At first, I really didn’t give all this a second thought, but something changes when the people closest to you start to play along….
At any rate, I was reading a few interesting tidbits online last night and came across the website for United States Artists. They have a little factoid page that really put some numbers to what has been bothering me over the past few weeks:
A country that loves art, not artists
In a recent survey of attitudes toward artists in the US a vast majority of Americans, 96%, said they were greatly inspired by various kinds of art and highly value art in their lives and communities. But the data suggests astrange paradox.
While Americans value art, the end product, they do not value what artists do, the act of creation. Only 27% of respondents believe that artists contribute “a lot†to the good of society.
Further interview data from the study reflects a strong sentiment in the cultural community that society does not value art-making as legitimate work worthy of compensation. Many perceive the making of art as a frivolous or recreational pursuit.
