You Deserve A Round of Applause

There is so much for us to be thankful for, and so much more that we can and should improve, change or create before we could be thankful for more.

First and foremost, we should be thankful for the diamond jewelry buying public. Without them, there is no business. Yes, they are finicky, and at times they buy less, or shift their taste without giving anyone fair warning; but that's OK as long as – overall – they keep buying. We would like to see them buy more for more, but we know it's not always in their hands. So, thank you consumers.

We should also be thankful for living in a time when the global economy is the biggest it ever was. True, we are suffering from a prolong crisis, but tens of billions of dollars worth of diamonds are still being purchased every year. So thank you industry and stock markets for making this happen.

Thank you "A Diamond Is Forever." You, Harry Oppenheimer and Mary Frances Gerety of N.W. Ayer Advertising created this great desire for diamonds that is our business today. The campaign is gone, along with generic diamond advertising, but many still daydream that it will return. It won't, but the connection between diamonds and love is already deeply ingrained in consumer psyches in many important countries around the world. Today, marketing fortunately has an easier job: maintain the desire. That is a different campaign, and it still needs to be developed and set forth.

To the mining companies around the world, that take enormous financial risks, with almost impossibly long horizons on potentially profitable extractions, thank you for your commitment to finding these rare gems, and especially for the care you take in repairing the damage done to our land in extracting this precious resource; and your understanding for the need to not only support, but improve the lives of the indigenous peoples that live around and work in your mines, long after you have completed your work.

And of course, thank you to the hardworking miners, those often under-educated folk, in disadvantaged countries, working long shifts, laboring to extract and separate diamonds from the ground in remote locations around the world.

Diamond traders around the world, turning huge sums of money for limited margins, you take the biggest risk in the business. Pay cash for rough, maintain expensive factories, seal a deal with a handshake and then wait for your payment. You deserve more credit then the world gives you.

Thank you to the jewelry designers that take this otherwise cold stone and, with their vivid imaginations, give birth to an object desired the world around. You bring diamonds to life.

Some don't feel the need, but we should also thank the Kimberley Process. Personally, I like my heroes flawed, troubled and a little loopy, but heroes who still get the job done. Some don't see how well KP works; trying to append to it a prosthesis in the form of additional controls. There is no need for it. Like any good problematic hero, ours needs some tender loving care. We need to nurture it, sustain it, let it evolve, until we really need it, and it will respond in our time of genuine crisis, like all great heroes. There is no need to shove.

To achieve a complete ideal, we may need to improve and change everything, but to be practical, let's be happy for what we have. I am happy for what I have in you, the loyal readers, that send me comments, ideas and requests. Thank you, it is really appreciated.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and a successful holiday season, this year, and for years to come!

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