This is an announcement from the Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket. Be prepared for an ethical indigestion. The next article I prepared for IGR is intended to connect ethical sanctions imposed to unethical sourced gemstones to the a more comprehensive ethical issue. The title will be “Ethics mocked or ethical mockery?”. How else a better definition can be found on the matter, dear friends at home and abroad?
Let’s get started, then. Was anybody really convinced that at the COP 28 in Dubai (chaired by the former CEO of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Sultan al-Jaber) the turkeys — or rather the oil sheiks — would celebrate Christmas, symbolically banishing fossil fuels?
In the recesses of the net, the delirious chirping in D major (akin to hearty human laughter) of the crickets settled down on the Dolomites celebrating the mocking conclusion of the COP28 in Dubai hasn’t abated yet and again all of a sudden, media present ads by the cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, celebrating 60 years of its presence in Italy. The ethically reassuring headline reads: «A history of innovation. It all starts here. From the people who have made Italy the heart of our transformation towards a smoke-free future»(1). A smoke-free future? Is Philip Morris transforming itself into a colossal producer of smokeless cigarettes (electronic or otherwise) with an Italian heart? And how will these smokeless cigarettes be different from other smokeless cigarettes of another brand? Will smokers become non-smokers, or something else entirely?
In Cricketland, one wonders to what extent people can be taken for a ride. Is that all there is to it, you may ask? Perhaps. We might grasp the twists and turns of commercial advertising, but when institutions claiming to be guiding lights for the 446 million citizens of the European Union step into the picture, the situation is definitely significant, though not entirely serious, as the late and lamented Ennio Flaiano, with his sharp wit, would have ironically pointed out. In this framework your Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket is poised to illustrate the case of European sanctions on the import of Russian diamonds. Please read the full story on the coming issue no. 18 of IGR – Italian Gemological Review.
Notes
(1) – Various Italian newspapers, December 4, 2023; see also: https://www.pmi.com/markets/italy/it/chi-siamo/la-nostra-presenza-in-italia
Article by the “Bad-Mouthed Jiminy Cricket” Luigi Costantini
