Blood Diamond should help

Diamonds are a guerrilla’s best friend. You may have heard that it’s ‘girls’ who share a special relationship with the little sparklers, but don’t be fooled; females have simply had a rather more sophisticated advertising campaign working for them over the years. Drug-addled soldiers, morally lobotomised mercenaries and bloodthirsty terrorists are more appreciative of the potential contained in those chalky-white carbon stones than any dewy-eyed fiancée could ever hope to be.

Since the late 1990s, thanks to relentless lobbying by organisations such as Global Witness and Amnesty International, Western fiancées have become more conscious that these expensive symbols of eternal love may not have had the most loving of journeys to their left hand. The term ‘blood diamonds’, or ‘conflict diamonds’, entered the public consciousness at the height of the devastating war in Sierra Leone, when it became increasingly apparent that diamonds were fuelling and facilitating some of Africa’s most brutal conflicts, including those in Liberia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.