Are Blood Diamonds Cheaper

[Billy Habash]

Okayso some suggestions I was thinking about. Why don't we change the blood money into pk points which are on the players account similar to vote points.. all of your bm can be converted into pk points and the pk shops will be changed up and wouldn't contain so much junk that nobody buys because everything is so overpriced with the cost of blood money being a solid 4M.

The new pk shop can contain stuff that people actually use like spec restores, all PVP armour's, vigours, and whatever the majority of pkers on this server want it to have. Maybe even some rare ass items. This will also get rid of the blood pool store, since everything in it is overpriced by 10000trill + (sarcasm) but none the less they are over priced as f0ck....

Secondly change the blood diamond store to contain different items... 150 blood diamonds is equivalent to 90B (street price) and it's the cost of a blood berserker pet, or phoenix which cost under 60b. (b zerk 25b atm phoenix 60) All nex sets are not even worth buying with diamonds because it cost so much more. There is so much items in game of the ones in the shop, if we change the items you can purchase it might help bring prices back to normal.

Also for the donator store, take out the barrelchest weapons, blowpipe, vls's spirit shields except for divine.... and serp helm.. why is that even in the shop if it cost so dirt cheap in game..... 500 d tix for a serp when you can buy for 500m cash, 1000 D tix for a vls that cost 400m, BC at 2000 d tix a piece when they're like 700m in tp always.. Just a bunch of stuff that's useless and can be swapped out with different new items, maybe like new armour / weapons.

I don't know if anyone else agrees with me but just put your opinions below, and put what you wanna see implemented in game aswell.. some of these changes could bring in massive amounts of pkers and have more active pures, hybriders, nhers, risk fighters aswell.

I don't know how i feel about the pk points thing but i do think donator shop needs to changed a bit, i had a guy complain to me that he spent his donator tickets after donating for a serp helm when at the time they were 600m cash, when he could have sold them for 5b. I suggest moving some of the items in the donator shop into the Bh shop or pk shop.

Conflict diamonds or "blood diamonds" are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments. Since the issue of conflict diamonds first gained notice within the diamond industry ten years ago, the flow of blood diamonds has been dramatically reduced, most significantly by implementation of the Kimberley Process.

The Kimberley Process, launched in 2003, is an international initiative to prevent proceeds from the sale of conflict diamonds from financing civil wars, rebel uprisings, and other forms of unrest which have led to the suffering of many innocent people groups.

The 80 countries that participate in the Kimberley Process agree to trade rough diamonds only with those other countries which have adopted the process. The Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003 and Executive Order 13312 were used to legally commit the U.S. to the Kimberley Process, and established a framework for how the process is implemented.

As a result of the Kimberly Process, diamonds are now among the most monitored and audited of any natural resource in the world. The extensive certification process prevents conflict diamonds from entering the supply chain by isolating non-participating countries from the world diamond market. By depriving illegitimate forces of what was once a significant source of funding, the Kimberley Process has become an important factor in restoring civil order and economic stability to developing nations.

Reducing the flow of conflict diamonds from illegitimate sources has also increased the flow of legitimate diamonds from smaller, developing countries which otherwise might have been overlooked in the diamond trade.

The adoption of the Kimberley Process by the world's leading diamond producers and consumers has reduced conflict diamonds from 15% of all diamonds sold in the 1990's, to less than one tenth of one percent today. Conflict-free diamonds are now a source of prosperity, especially in Africa:

Every Lumera Diamond is sourced from Kimberley Process compliant importers. Every Lumera receipt includes the following guarantee:

"This diamond has been purchased from legitimate sources in compliance with United Nations Resolutions. Lumera guarantees that this diamond is conflict free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by our supplier."

For questions regarding conflict diamonds or the Kimberley Process, please call 1-888-658-6372 or contact us at [email protected]. You can also chat online; a representative will respond immediately during store hours.

The diamond trade moves hundreds of millions of euros every year around the globe. Most of them come from third world countries were the diamonds are extracted by very hard means. Even today, diamonds coming from conflict zones and used to finance conflicts and violence are a significant part of the market. Nowadays the production is mainly sold in cities of the United States and Europe and most of those diamonds in some way or another end up passing through the city of Antwerp in Belgium, showing that the Dutch and Belgians still have certain control over the industry.

This text will explore the origins of the city of Antwerp as a centre in the diamond market and of the control by Dutch and Belgians of this particular business; then it will analyse this industry in the new globalised era, and finally explain the relation of the city of Antwerp and the trade of blood diamonds.

Until the 19th century most diamonds came to Europe from India through the ports of Bruges, Antwerp and Amsterdam. The origins of the Low Countries as a centre of diamond craft and trade comes from the 15th century. In 1475 a Flemish jeweller, named Lodewyck van Bercken, invented the scaif, a polishing wheel infused with diamond dust and olive oil. This made easier the cutting of a diamond and revolutionised the industry. Bercken was a protge of Duke Charles de Bold and his techniques were spread all around the Low Countries. For the next years Antwerp and Amsterdam became big competitors in the diamond trade.

In the 17th century Amsterdam was the most important city in Europe concerning diamonds. Because of the religious tolerance of the Netherlands, many Sephardic Jews established themselves in the city moving from Antwerp. There they had acquired knowledge working with diamond due to the guild-system, for the only industry that they were allowed to work in was the diamond industry.

In 1725 diamonds were discovered in Brazil and most of them went through Amsterdam. During the 19th century over 90% of rough diamonds sold in Europe passed through the Dutch city. Due to the colonial power of the Netherlands, the Dutch diamond trade extended over the world, specially to New Amsterdam (New York) and Cape Town, which would become vital bases of the international diamond trade in the 20th and the 21st century. However, after the mines in Brazil started to dry up and the power of the Netherlands began to fade Amsterdam started to lose importance in favour of Antwerp, its biggest rival on the diamond industry, also a culturally Dutch city that would become the diamond's capital of the world. During its golden age Amsterdam developed a high-quality craft industry, but Antwerp managed to be as effective and cheaper as well as more permissive regarding taxes.

In 1866 diamonds were discovered in South Africa, in the Transvaal region, an area mainly populated by Dutch settlers. At the same time the British magnate Cecil Rhodes created the diamond company De Beers, based in Johannesburg. Massive amounts of rough diamonds started then to arrive to Europe, through Cape Town and Antwerp.

By the beginning of the 20th century De Beers controlled over 90% of the diamond industry in the world. In 1927 the company passed from the hands of Cecil Rhodes to the ones of Ernst Oppenheimer, a white South African entrepreneur, whose family still controls the diamond trade around the world.

During the Second World War most Jews from both Amsterdam and Antwerp were either forced to flee or were sent to extermination camps. This had hard consequences on an industry that was mainly controlled by the Jewish community. After the war, Antwerp quickly rebuilt its diamond business.

The Antwerp's diamond industry is concentrated in a part of the city called the diamond district or Diamantkwartier, which covers a complete square mile. According to the ADWC, 84% of the rough diamonds and 50% of the polished ones pass through Antwerp. In 2012 the turnover of the Diamantkwartier was 54 billion euros. Over 16 billion dollars in polished diamonds pass through the district's exchanges each year. There are 380 workshops that serve 1,500 companies. There are also 3,500 brokers, merchants and diamond cutters. The main actions taken in Antwerp are both the trade of rough and cut diamonds and the cut of rough diamonds with modern machinery. They also perform other jobs like applying colour and crafting jewellery. There is even a bank consecrated to the diamond industry, the Antwerp Diamond Bank, which is owned by the KBC Bank.

For Belgium, the importance of Antwerp as the diamond capital of the world has been a source of economic incomes and great prestige. The diamond trade counts for 5% of Belgium's exports to the EU and 15% of its exports outside the EU; it is the 5th largest industry in the country. It also has been the reason for a lot of foreign investment.

During the last decade several other cities outside Western Europe have invested on their diamond industry, like Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Chicago and several cities in South Africa. However, Antwerp still is the most important trade centre in Europe, being Amsterdam its biggest competitor.

3a8082e126