Blood Diamond Spotlighted on Oprah
Blood Diamond stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou and director Ed Zwick appeared on Oprah a week before the film's premiere, but the industry was relieved that the talk show hostess who has been so astute at selling products did not try to un-sell diamonds.
The discussion of conflict diamonds was limited to one segment. Host Oprah Winfrey showed a video on Botswana and Namibia and talked about the Kimberley Process, which she mistakenly called “voluntary” and limited to 40 countries. (The Certification Scheme is law in participating countries and encompasses some 70 nations.)
She later quoted “sources” as saying that conflict diamonds were less than 1 percent of the world's total.
Zwick stressed he was not asking viewers not to buy diamonds. “When you walk into a diamond dealer or a jeweler, say, 'I want to see a warranty, I want to see a certificate,”and you can make a difference in thousands of lives,” he said.
Noteworthy Blood Diamond Sites
In the wake of Blood Diamond, three new Web sites have sprung up with consumer information on the topic:
• DiamondFacts.org A site from the World Diamond Council. The “industry” section includes information on how to comply with the Kimberley Process System of Warranties.
• BloodDiamondAction.org This site is a collaboration by the producers of Blood Diamond and the nongovernmental organizations Amnesty International and Global Witness. It includes questions that customers should ask jewelers before buying diamond jewelry. This site was touted in Amnesty Inter-national public service announcements featuring the movie's Jennifer Connelly and director Ed Zwick.
• BloodDiamond.PACweb.org This site from Partnership Africa Canada, an NGO not associated with the movie, covers much of the same ground as the other sites, but in a wider-ranging and arguably more balanced way.
