Gold: Our ‘Conflict Diamonds’
by alex
As a balikbayan, sometimes you’re confronted by a situation that makes you embarrassed to have a Canadian passport. This last Christmas season was pretty crushing for both the Filipino and Canadian in me.
I mean what do you say to a Filipino community where the air, food, and water are poisoned? Where almost everyone has heavy metal poisoning? Where many are suffering horrible symptoms, children are being born with physical and metal illness, and some are even loosing limbs and lives to it,–what do you say when the reason for all this ties back to Canada?
Kapisanan Philippine Centre 
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diamonds » Blog Archive » Gold: Our ‘Conflict Diamonds’ said this on February 28, 2008 at 4:55 pm |
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conflict diamonds » Blog Archive » Gold: Our ‘Conflict Diamonds’ said this on February 29, 2008 at 3:09 pm |
Interesting article, Alex.
I know that the Blood Diamond awareness thing took a little while to pick up steam, but once it did… at least a few people changed their minds and at least knew some facts.
I recall first hearing about Sierra Leone through a documentary that MuchMusic did where they brought the Rascalz (the Vancouver hiphop duo) to the mines to experience what was going on. Then Kanye did that song (which didn’t have much to do with Sierra Leone if you listen to the lyrics) and then the DiCaprio movie.
Anyways, it was through the media that Sierra Leone became a well-known issue.
Maybe we have to do something using our media powers.
I’m not really a jewelry person, but I know when I bought our wedding rings, we weren’t concerned too much about where the gold came from and now I’m having second thoughts about the origin of the gold on my own finger.