2007 Tiffany Mark Award

I have to say that I find it totally bizarre, or rather disturbing, that a company such as Tiffany’s is honouring people like Eric Hoskins, Samantha Nutt, and tonight, Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida.

Lets take a step back and consider the optics for a moment. Tiffany’s represents and services wealth at the absolute highest levels in this world; it reaps millions of dollars in profits from the process of excavating minerals from the earth; it benefits to no end from the horrifc working conditions and wages that are paid to Africans in particular, who excavate diamonds; it indirectly benefits to no end from civil war and violent conflict fuelled by the blood diamond industry;

War Child Canada and the people mentioned above have made a near life long commitment to alleviate or eliminate the very conditions in African countries, such as Sierra Leone, that are exacerbated by the diamond trade that Tiffany’s so wilfully engages in – without the slightest bit of embarrasment. Are the Tiffany Mark Awards that are presented to these people an act of contrition, of appeasement, maybe to sneak a piece of good karma???

Throught the diamond trade and other venues, Tiffany’s has had its “hands” in African politics and social issues for so long that if they were to pull them out, their arms would be left behind. Since when, in the history of the diamond industry in Africa, has any involved party short of humanitarian organizations, given a shit about Africans, and the sacrifices they endure to excavate diamonds for the likes of Tiffany’s?

It is almost equally as disturbing that these people accepted these awards, and that moreover, the awards are held in a swank, private cocktail reception environment so unbelievable removed from the lived experiences of the people who lives are inadvertenlty represented in the “awards”. It is obvious that the irony is lost on the people who push this kind of agenda, they have been doing it so long now it appears to them as truth.. And we are supposed to donate. And to what cause and agenda exactly are we donating too?