Diamonds are controversial. And the controversy is über trendy right now. Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “Blood Diamond,” released this week, illuminates the ways diamond mining in places like Angola and Sierra Leone has been used to finance brutal civil wars or even terrorism. Even Kanye West raps about it: “Little was known of Sierra Leone, and how it connect to the diamonds we own … ”
You can ask your jeweler for a certificate proving his diamonds are “conflict-free” — or you can buy your lady a day at the spa, where there’s no such thing as “unrest.”
Diamonds are impractical. Call me a romantic, but I don’t want anything that expensive dangling from my body, where it will likely be sucked up in a treadmill, caught on my $15 scarf, or swallowed by my undiscerning toddler.
Shine is shine, and lots of my friends swore they’d just as soon satisfy their itch for glitz with something that doesn’t need to be insured — sequined flip-flops, say, or a shimmery blush.
“I would much rather have my backyard fixed up,” admitted one. “Now that would sparkle.”
Diamonds are a cop-out. Yeah, yeah, they cost a bundle and come in a cute velvet box, but they don’t absolve a guy who’s too lazy to find out what his girl really wants for Christmas.
Save your money and invest your time in finding out what’s precious to her. It may surprise you.
“Diamonds do nothing for me,” declared one friend of mine. “I want real estate.”