Diamonds are the most precious of all precious stones. Hence their name in Latin: regina gemmarum “the queen of the gems”. In virtual all societies, diamonds are associated with perfection and purity. Plato described the axis of the world as a diamond column rising to the skies. In popular traditions diamonds are supposed to make people invisible, cast away bad spirits and draw feminine favors.
In the traditional symbolism of the precious stones, diamonds are associated with the sun. Hildegarde de Bingen (1098 – 1179) stated that “the devil sees in this stone its enemy since it resists to all his endeavors: that’s why the devil hates it day and night”.
Lonicerus, a Renaissance botanist, thought that diamonds could even stop wars, strife and be able to protect us from any poison or temptations bad spirits could bring.
Now you take the floor: what do you associate with diamonds?
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All these comments are so insightful. I agree with you, Savita Vega – I would take anyone giving me a diamond as an insult. For all their beauty, a diamond never kept anyone warm, or nourished a starving child. It’s a lump of compacted carbon – why anyone would sell their soul for it is beyond me.
Power and Money.
Tristemente para mi la asociación es:
Dolor, sufrimiento, sangre, muerte, destrucción y mutilación.
Hace unos años atrás, hubiera dicho que era amor, eternidad, majestad, al igual que muchos de los que contestaron, pero ahora siempre que escucho esa palabra, me recuerda a los horrores que sufrió (sufre) la gente en África en los países que han tenido la desgracia de tener diamantes.
Sadly to me the association is:
Pain, Sufferinf, blood, death, destruction and mutilation.
Years ago I would have said love, eternity, majestic, as many other people who answered before me, but now everytime I hear the word, reminds me of the horrors that people in African countries have suffered (and still suffring) in the countries that have the disgrace of having diamonds.
Diamonds Dogs by Davis Bowie:
This ain’t genocide
As they pulled you out
Of the oxygen tent
You asked for the latest party
With your silicon hump
And your ten inch stump
Dressed like a priest you was,
Todd Browning freak he was
Crawling down the alley on
Your hands and your knees,
I’m sure you’re not protected
For it’s plain to see
Diamond Dogs are poachers
And they hide behind trees
Hunt you to the ground they will,
Mannequins with kill appeal
Will they come?
I keep a friend serene
Will they come?
Oh, baby, come unto me
Will they come?
Well, she’s come, been, and gone
Come out of the garden, baby
You’ll catch a death in the fog
Young girls, they call them
The Diamond Dogs
In the year of the scavenger
Season of the b****
Sashay on the board-walk
Scurry to the ditch
Just another future song
Lonely little Keats
There’s gonna be sorrow
Try and wake up for tomorrow
The Halloween Jack
Is a real cool cat,
And he lives on top
Of Manhattan Chase
The elevators broke
So he slides down a rope
Onto the street below
Oh Tarzie, go man, go
Will they come?
I keep a friend serene
Will they come?
Oh, baby, come unto me
Will they come?
Well, she’s come, been, and gone
Come out of the garden, baby
You’ll catch a death in the fog
Young girls, they call them
The Diamond Dogs
Young girls, they call them
The Diamond Dogs
Who-who-who
Who-who-who
Who-who-who
Who-who-who
a close friend of mine made this image as a response to the commercialization of diamonds and the often horrible situations our demand for diamonds leads to. What is our definition of love? Well worth checking out!! love, simkus
http://www.informedrevolution.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/entry19.jpg
*La utilidad de la virtud es tan evidente que los malvados la practican por interés.*
Vauvenargues
Diamond = woman
Strong, bright, adorable, inviicible, beautiful, impossible to crack
I agree with both Luce and Marie-Ora. Not only would I not purchase a diamond for myself, but if I were given a diamond as a gift, I would likely feel somewhat insulted. I would think that the man who loved me should know me better than that and should think more highly of me than to give me something so “material,” something so cold and blood-stained.
Many might believe that human slavery is of the past, but the truth is that slavery, even child slavery, is on the rise throughout the world. The diamond industry is just one among many that depends upon the use of slaves to support its enormous profits. And guess what? The cheaper your diamond, the better the chances it passed through the hands of an unpaid child laborer in the process of its production. The following are two very good articles on the “new slavery,” as it is called, and the diamond industry:
http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=189
http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/diamonds.htm
Like Paul from Austria, I too made a post to the “Crystals” prompt, and then later was surprised to discover that the thread had disappeared. However, life is forever ripe with incidences of synchronicity, which lend a richer meaning to all experiences. All week long, I have had diamonds on my mind, considering what they mean to me, and just how to express my disgust with diamonds without coming off as bitter and too “politically correct.”
Yesterday, my daughter and I were driving down a popular shopping street in a larger town nearby where we live. (This is a child who both adores and collects crystals.) Suddenly, she screamed out, “Mom, look – a crystal shop! Can we stop? Oh, please, please, can we?” Now I know this town, and I know this area. There would never be a crystal shop where she thought she had seen one. So, I asked her, “What do you mean ‘a crystal shop?’ What makes you think there was a crystal shop back there?” “The thing on top of the roof,” she replied, “It was a giant crystal!” I was more than doubtful, but I agreed to take a closer look on our way back. And sure enough, when we came back through that way and she pointed out to me what she had seen, it was not a crystal but a diamond. On the peak of the facade of the biggest jeweler in town, there is this three dimensional image of a diamond. This is what she had mistaken for a crystal. I explained – or tried to explain – but she insisted, “Can we go in? I just want to see? If diamonds are a kind of crystal, maybe I can buy one.” “No!” I said with the same intensity I might have used if she had asked to enter a pornography shop. Because that’s how I felt, like she was asking entry into and being lured by the world of the obscene “Simply not – that’s it,” was my reply, “It’s not a nice place. Diamonds are not nice.” Of course she wanted to know why, and I explained about the children used to produce them, children her age, as well as about their many sufferings. I think if my daughter grew up to adore diamonds, as many women (and men) do, I would feel as one might whose child grows up to become an alcoholic or drug addict. I would feel a sense of failure on my part, at not having guided her better. I know my stance sounds rather fanatical, but I am only being honest about the repugnance I feel in regards to diamonds.
I will admit though, that my coldness towards diamonds is as much of a personal level as it is of a political. I’ll have to save that story for later, however. Destiny calls in this moment….
For now I’ll leave you with two very good sources on modern slavery:
(for those who want to know more)
http://www.freetheslaves.net/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=183&srcid=-2
http://www.antislavery.org/
Love and good will to all!
Savita Vega
what a reunion! :) :D
diamonds… they mean abundance, clarity & richness to me.
I associate diamonds with poverty, greed and ignorance. I associate it with the destruction of land in the search for it and all the means miners take in order to procure the precious stones. People toiling hours in unhealthy work atmospheres almost like slaves…Children losing their childhoods in diamond polishing factories. People consumed in greed.
I also think its a useless piece of rock which could be used in cutting glass and nothing much else…
I see women valuing their relationships on the basis of the size of diamonds…
actually i associate it with most bleak and fake things… that besides all the tragedies diamonds have caused over centuries…
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