| Diamonds Around the World |
| A Virtual Science Fair Project |
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| How Diamonds are Formed |
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| Diamond Production |
| What People Do With Diamonds |
| The Value of Diamonds |
| Interesting Facts |
| The Dark Side |
| Findings |
| Thanks |
Diamond crimes have been the subject of many books and movies, for example Ocean Eleven and the Great Muppets Caper. However there are real life stories of diamond crimes.
In February of 2005, 100m euros or 65m pounds of diamonds where stolen from an under ground vault in Antwerp, Belgium. The robbers used no violence to get what they wanted. Instead they copied the keys to get inside the vaults, to get past the cameras the robbers inserted a video of normal things going on. So all the guards saw was a flicker and then regular activity so no crime was suspected. An Italian gang was suspected but so far not proven to be the culprits. The police found a half eaten sandwich on the ground that had some DNA that might have been from a robber.
Antwerp is one of the largest diamond selling cities in the world, with dozens of jewel shops just a mile from their train station. Many people believe that this was the greatest diamond crime in the history of Belgium.TOP
Blood diamonds are the worst kind of diamonds. People kill each other for them. They make children in their teens dig for them and some children die of that. Some people use diamonds to buy weapons to support violence. Sierra Leone, which is in West Africa, is a place where there are blood diamonds.TOP
Many countries are fighting over diamonds, countries such as Sierra Leone, Kalmanskop and Namibian.
Most of the countries in these "diamond wars" are in Africa, because they have a wealth of diamond mines. These diamonds are often called "conflict diamonds" in the retail world.
The "diamond wars" involve people mining diamonds; many of the people mining the diamonds are children. The stones are then sold sometimes on the black market (illegally) to raise money that is then used to buy weapons, and continue many civil wars.
These "diamond wars" are still going on and many lives have been lost as well as many of the riches of nature as the diamonds get lost in the battles.
Many people will ask when purchasing a diamond if it is a "conflict diamond" if it is they won't buy it.
As they believe these diamonds support the torture and death of many innocent people.TOP
The Hope Diamond is the best known diamond in the world. Is it called the Hope Diamond because it gave hope to its owners? NO! Many people believed it carried a curse. Over 300 years it has had many owners including the King of France (Louis XIV) and Mr. Henry Philip Hope. It gots its name from Mr. Hope.
The diamond was blamed for many misfortunes. For example, Louis XV died of smallpox. Mr. Hope’s wife ran away with another man. And he accidentally shot himself in the leg while hunting and had to have it amputated. The Hope Diamond is now in a museum called the Smithsonian.TOP