In places in Africa, like South Africa, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, people go into the Diamond mines for up to ten months. That is not good, at all.
In our country, we have coal miners and coal mining is a job that is in the top 17 most dangerous jobs in the world (I thought that it would be higher), along with fisherman, oil rig workers, and pilots.
And some people say that diamond miners have even more of a dangerous job then coal miners
And that is debatable, due to the coal miner's risk of black lung, (a medical condition where particles from coal get into your lungs, and if you are exposed to it long enough, those particles destroy your lungs, and you die from suffocation almost immediately.)
However, the mines in Africa are in terrible condition.
The mines that are in West Virginia and Pennsylvania are at least in stable condition, and they try to make them stay up and not topple on top of it's self.
The mines in Africa are make to be built and to harvest diamonds, and if one falls down, then they just build a new one.
A movie called "Blood Diamond" raised awareness for this cause a few years ago.
It was a surprise hit, although I have not seen this movie, I've heard that it was quite good.
So how do we stop this?
You can help stop this by trying to not buy diamonds, or, you can possibly ask the people at the counter "Where do you get your diamonds from?"
Post questions and comments as comments
Sam
