This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 14 in 2022. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
Your B.M.J.C. (Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket) is still suffering from psycho-motor seizures (convulsive psychotic delirium) at the appearance of certain news items. This time a couple of them are quite yummy (see under letters Ⓑ and Ⓝ). Why should we start with B and N first? It happens that the J.C. has been unknowingly inoculated with a deadly virus (to his readers) which can trigger his relentless graphomania: a subliminal invitation to compose a dictionary of names, titles, attributes and denominations (listed alphabetically) related to Diamond, with special reference to the latest fashionable neologisms assigned to Synthetic Diamonds. Why Synthetic Diamonds more specifically? If you want to know, please hold on to n° 15/2022 of this magazine.
In the meantime, we are going to serve you these two tidbits. The rest would have been too much for your neurons as well as for your stamina!
So, under entry B, in the Dictionary, we find the following descriptions of a Diamond:
Ⓑ
BLESSED: name of a Diamond that has received a blessing, understood as «liturgical rite by which things or persons are sprinkled with lustral water, while at the same time words of invocation for God’s protection and help are pronounced». This practice marked (as for the Diamond) its official and solemn debut on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25, in the year of Our Lord 2021. Location of the august function: VCS (Vatican City State), Rome, Italy. Celebrant: His Holiness Pope Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Object of Blessing: a nearly one inch (2.54 cm) long Cross, cut and faceted (in Xi’an, China) from a single 30 carat rough crystal of Lab-Grown Diamond from the microwave plasma chambers of Diamond Foundry Inc. (Diamond Foundry, located in San Francisco, California, USA) at their facility in Wenatchee, Washington, USA. Presented by Mr. Martin Roscheisen, CEO (Chief Executive Officer and founding partner) of the Diamond Foundry (Figure 1).
Shocking news, in terms of historical significance. The antennas of your J.C. have not only straightened up, but the vibrations have tangled them so much that it took a solid hour of patient untangling.
Further to this, throughout Cricketland dens the news has caused a loud high-decibel buzzing that seriously impaired the hearing threshold, due to the tuning fork effect.
Intruding, ungenerous comments, irreverent questions, insulting allegations, such as: why this Diamond sanctification? Is it not that they want to replace the Apostle Peter’s role as the stone on which the Church is founded, with a stone that is the very symbol of indestructibility, resilience, durability, eternity? And again, why a Synthetic Diamond rather than a Natural one? Why the one from Diamond Foundry and not – let’s say – a Diamond from De Beers or from any other Indian or Chinese manufacturer? By hiring the most popular influencer of the entire globe (at the cost of a single Synthetic Diamond crystal including its workmanship and setting), isn’t it that by any chance foxy Martin Roscheisen, under the excuse of donating such a distinctively religious object (forerunner of a jewelry line named Divine Collection and including Stars of David and Crescent moons in the Diamond Foundry’s VRAI collection to be launched in 2022), has made the advertising coup of his entire career?
It took quite a bit of work, on J.C.’s part, to put the ignominious fuss to rest. Ignoring the initial provocative question, that is a light hearted student spirit (goliardia) rather than anything else, and moving on to more serious issues: why just the Synthetic Diamond from Diamond Foundry? Simply because «the nearly inch-tall VRAI Solitaire Cross (stone approx 4.7 carats and 22mm x 14mm size, bezel 18 K yellow gold) has been fashioned from one single crystal of D.F. Lab-Grown Diamond… and arguably is one of the most iconic pieces of jewelry created in 2,000 years». It is part of a tern of specimens to be auctioned at a charity event organized by VRAI whose profits will be donated to the organization Scholas Occurrentes, an international network of schools promoted by Pope Francis and dedicated to schooling those who cannot afford education. The schools are open to believers of all religious faiths and non-believers alike. The first auction was held on December 27, 2021 and collected a total amount of US $ 89,964.00.
A commendable initiative, indeed! It would be interesting to learn whether the above-mentioned Martin managed to get away with a one-off payment of nearly 90 thousand dollars, and whether or not the story will have a follow-up. For, you see, in the case of a one-off, the loud-mouthed cricketers would be a little right, when claiming that Pope Francis is the most-followed influencer in the world and the least rewarded. And indeed: as of December 31, 2019, the number of Catholics totaled 1,344,403,000 (up by 15,410,000 compared to 2018).
They all, or nearly all, are hanging off the lips of the Roman Pontiff (die-hard followers). Remove even those few pathetic traditionalist radicals who would restore the clock pointers back to the First Vatican Council (1870) or even to the Council of Trent (1545) and then add another billion and more Christians of various denominations who are closely observing what P.F. does and says. Shall we also add those Muslims and Jews who keep an eye on what Rome says? A further 1.8 billion and more. Shall we include pious atheists and observant agnostics in the pot as well? How many of them? 4 billions and some more: half the population of the globe. Am I exaggerating?
And now you tell me: doesn’t Martin Roscheisen deserve the Nobel Prize for communication? And how about an additional Nobel for his shrewdness? Chapeau! My question: how many influencers would he have had to sign up and how much would that be costing him, to achieve such a successful outcome?
But what really dismays us is what these august lips uttered quite bluntly: «Radical paradigm change is required for the entire resource sector… The earth’s resources are being plundered because of short-sighted approaches». He continues saying: «Mining extracts wealth from land that paradoxically does not produce wealth for the local populations who remain poor».
This assertion is counterpointed by the ineffable Martin who confidently states – let me say: no wonder – that «We are greatly honored to present a sustainably Created Diamond that entirely avoids the environmental and human toll of mining…».
I can already picture the cheers of joy, jubilation and glee that must have erupted in the nicely air-conditioned offices of D.F. in San Francisco and in the neat Foundry (foundry?) in Wenatchee.
I also try to understand, Your Holiness, how those people, whose work is contributing to the aforementioned “plundering” must feel. Such people are working in unsanitary mining tunnels, in poorly air-conditioned surface plants and so on.
As you can see, Your Holiness, while the former total 120 employees (perhaps they are more nowadays, as the figures I have just date back to 2018), the others, the Wretched of the Earth, the staff of mining companies engaged in the (Natural) Diamond mining amount to 77,000.
If the workplaces generated in the 4 continents by the activities related to the (“Natural”) Diamond industry are added to these, the number of human beings involved in the galaxy will grow to tens of millions. Having all of these people their own families and households, millions of mouths are assumedly to be fed, since most of them do not live in wealthy and demographically stable California, but in countries with very different standards of living and birth rates.
Many of them have kids to be raised and sent to school, mortgages or rents to be paid, I suppose. If the wish of Mr. Martin Roscheisen came true, while the heavy human and environmental toll would certainly be ended according to his desire to place a stop to the “plundering” of the Earth’s resources, where would these people get their livelihood from? This is in consideration of the fact that in their World (the Third, the Fourth) there are not so many alternatives in terms of retraining and professional replacement. Do we entrust them all to the Divine Providence? Or what?
With all due respect, Your Holiness, I have a question: assuming that You might not have had enough time to spend on such a subject, before expressing Your opinion at the time of the audience with the aforementioned Mr. Roscheisen, I guess that You must have charged one of Your advisors with the task of collecting the necessary information. Being moved by the more than legitimate desire to support Your Franciscan yearnings and to imitate the Saint whose name You bear and whose footsteps You seek to follow, mindful of the universalistic inspiration of His “Canticle of the Creatures”, could it not be that these advisors have failed to duly do their homework?
After all, You see, at the very end there are 12 billion dollars that directly and indirectly benefit the Diamond mining communities (controlled by the mining companies) every year. And 25 billion dollars annually flow through the Diamond manufacturing nebula. Not exactly breadcrumbs that have fallen from the Rich Epulon’s table.
Have Your Distinguished Eminences, the monsignors, the high prelates who support You daily in the arduous task of governing the destiny of the Church, worked to achieve in-depth knowledge? Or did they not take care of it, not having themselves a family to care about and not being obliged to confront themselves with such related problems?
And what about Countries such as Botswana, where the GDP is based on Diamond mining, or other countries where Diamond mining is a substantial component of GDP? Will the Diamond Foundry help?
Not only, but also: I am afraid that Your affirmations can be extended (certainly they can!) also (and especially) to the world of Colored Gems where the percentages are reversed if compared to Diamonds. About 80% of world production is savagely mined with no license control, against about 80% of activity subject to control in the Diamond industry. Those, indeed, are the big problems to contend with. Perhaps much more relevant to Your statements. When it comes to the survival alternatives granted to the people who are experiencing such dramatic working conditions, again the Hamletic dilemma arises. In short words, “beggars can’t be choosers”.
Well, if You allow me a suggestion, Your Holiness – regarding this matter – why don’t You let someone who has been wallowing in it for quite a while explain how things are really going? A French gemologist, Vincent Pardieu by name, has not been missing a single gem bearing hole on the surface of this Planet Earth for the past 20 years, where Colored Gemstones can be mined. He can dispassionately give You, with all knowledge, any and all clarifications on the subject!
And now let’s move on to the letter N, where the second goodie of the set lies:
Ⓝ
NOD: acronym for Not Ordinary Diamond. «Special stones that are the result of two years of testing and research, indistinguishable from diamonds […] in the last two years with the help of an expert in gemology and precious stones we have carried out 27 different experiments to make our stones». This is the text of the seller’s advertising campaign.
In the Kingdom of Crickets, this would be a Court Martial case imposed upon aforementioned gemologist, accused of high treason of consumer trust and felony, for which he would be sentenced first to 27 strokes (as many as the different experiments allegedly done) of the “cat-o’-nine-tails” lash, followed by immediate shooting (in the back).
Being ours a civilized country (Cricketland), the “Middle Age Torture wheel” followed by quartering by a quadrille of horse-crickets has been abolished long ago. A true barbarity, indeed, the latter! To know why and wherefore, read the article entitled “In Italy gemstones can be sold and bought with absolutely no information about what they really are. A case study” at page 50 of this issue of the Magazine.
In the meantime, serious psycho-motor crisis of your G.S. with hospitalization at the “Gryllidae” Hospital in Cricketville. Pending discharge and hoping not to catch the OCV (Omicron Cricket Virus).
Your ever-reverent Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket
Counter-Current Gemology from the “Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket” Luigi Costantini, published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #14, Spring 2022
