The Savvy Villa Traveller

Did you see the movie? If you haven’t, you should. I haven’t met one person who has seen the movie who hasn’t been moved by it. Well, maybe not moved to the point of never buying another diamond but at least being more mindful before buying a diamond.

So what are blood diamonds – no they aren’t rare red diamonds. They are also known as conflict diamonds which the UN formally defines as “diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.” Often major human rights violations occur in the mining and processing of these diamonds. The poor people of the country get abused and down-trodden while rebels and savvy business people profit. Rebels get money to carry on their illegal reigns of terror. Business people make millions.

A process called the Kimberley Certification Scheme, established in 2003, was designed to certify the origin of diamonds in order to ensure that they are from conflict-free countries. The goal of the process is to prevent these “blood diamonds” from entering the main stream market thereby preventing groups at war from using diamond sales to finance their wars. Several countries are participants in the scheme including the USA.

Some human rights groups such as Amnesty International aren’t so thrilled with the Kimberley scheme as they feel that it doesn’t go far enough. For example, there is no way of ensuring that jewelers only sell diamonds which have been Kimberley certified. Additionally, being the cynic that I can sometimes be, it is hard to know to what degree we can trust the authenticity of the certification paperwork. What’s to prevent a little palm greasing to create fake documents and so forth?

Of course, you can imagine that De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, is in a tissy over this mess as they worry that the popularity of the movie will affect the diamond business. They claim that only 1% of retail diamonds are blood diamonds while other sources suggest the number may be 8% or more.

Is the answer to stop buying diamonds? Tough question. I don’t think so. In some areas, diamond mining provides jobs for many people – granted not high paying jobs; but, nevertheless jobs so they can feed their families. Take a country like Botswana for example. They have seen positive economic growth over the years and this is largely because of their diamond and other mining industries. And, they produce conflict free diamonds. Why punish them?

The idea is to not buy conflict diamonds. The problem is you can’t always tell if they are or not. And that is the disturbing part. What can you do? Before you buy a diamond, ask the store about their policy on conflict diamonds or about the Kimberley process. Also, ask to see the warranties and guarantees for the diamonds. If they don’t know what you are talking about or get testy with you, or refuse to show you the warranties, take your business elsewhere. And, tell all your friends not to buy from them.

If I haven’t convinced you that this is something to take seriously, see the movie. Rent it from your favorite video store. Do a search for “blood or conflict diamond” on the internet. Then let me know what you think. Take a stand. Do you want to feel good about your fabulous diamonds or do you want to live with the weight of thousands of lives pressing on your finger? Think about it. Let’s make a difference.

Click here to learn more about blood diamonds.

So Hurricane Dean came and went - thankfully! The news and the internet had shown projections of a category 4 hurricane passing right over Jamaica - and we were worried. We remembered Gilbert and more recently Ivan and the damage that they left behind. How would we survive a direct hit? The power company shut off the electricity from early Sunday evening in preparation for the hit. We had 1200 gallons of water stored in the water tanks. We had food and candles. We had no internet access and no cellphone service. When the hurricane landed we were fortunate that it had shifted about 20 miles south of the island. As a result, we got primarily wind without much rain - which was unusual. We went up on the roof deck and watched as the sea got angrier and angrier. With the high winds, we were worried about projectiles and so didn’t stay long. In our area we were fortunate. We had only a few downed trees and a lot of broken branches and fallen leaves. We had no structural damage. Electricity did not return until five or six days later. Most businesses were closed or had reduced services in the interim so we didn’t go out much. Strangely enough, this was a great vacation. We read a lot of the books from the villa’s library. We played games like Scrabble, Bingo and Taboo - something we hadn’t done in years. We had candlelight dinners. I didn’t get a thing done (business-wise). I came back to New York on Saturday August 24th more well-rested that I have been in years. What a vacation!

Mais Oui is ready and waiting to host your next vacation! Come visit us soon in Jamaica.

So I am flying out of JFK. They scan my luggage and hello, I get searched. The woman proceeds to take my 2oz bottle of Purell from my diaper bag despite the fact that I have my now 2 year old in tow. I said, “Why? It is below the 3oz limit.” She said, “Yes, but it is a liquid or gel and we don’t allow Purell.” I said, “Well, I am traveling with an infant. What am I supposed to do if I have to change the baby? It is a hand sanitizer. Can you imagine all the nasty bacteria that will be on my hands that will get on e-v-e-r-y single thing that I touch?” During all this time I am creating the appropriate facial gestures to go along with the disgusting picture I am painting. All of a sudden I guess she thought of all the dirty hands and items that must be coming through her checkpoint plus saw that my point was valid and she let me go! Really though, that was just ridiculous. I put up with all sorts of things in the name of national security … but an E.coli or other dreadful outbreak? I’m not contributing to that! By the way, I do think she was misinformed. I didn’t see anything on the TSA website which says Purrell under 3oz size was not allowed.

Do you know that I traveled from New York to Detroit and back with my son when he was a year old and not one ticket agent asked to see any kind of identification such as a birth certificate or proof of relationship during all this time. And this was in December 2006! I sometimes get stopped three and four times by airport security all for the sake of national security. I have had unopened grape jelly (don’t ask) confiscated because it was more than the 3oz size because of national security issues yet I flew a minor across state lines without anyone asking anything. Don’t get me wrong. Not having the hassle of proving who the baby was great; but, it made me nervous. I had never thought of this until I became a mother. Supposed my child had been kidnapped or suppose I didn’t have custody? The safety of our kids is just as important as national security. Are we really serious about child safety?

So we took our two year old to a little amusement park in Brooklyn, New York, called Nellie Bly. It’s a small park which caters to younger kids – say age 2-8 or so. It’s not as well kept as say a Great Adventures where you have manicured lawns and so forth but the rides are really age-appropriate. At first my son insisted on sitting on one of our laps during the rides otherwise it was Scream City. Sitting on the seat beside us was just not going to happen. Needless to say, our selection of rides was limited. Finally, after about two hours, he sat beside me on a flying elephant ride. We had two tickets left and figured let’s try the kiddie roller coaster then go home. As soon as we got on, he started fussing a little about sitting down. At this point we are thinking, ok, this is a mistake. Anyway in less than a minute he was quiet, sat beside my husband and strapped in without a fuss. The ride started and all of a sudden the little dip in the ride seemed way too much for a two year old. What were we thinking? Was this a bad Mommy-on-the-job error? As I am berating myself over this possible lapse in judgment, my husband says, “He is smiling”. The ride ends and the previously timid little boy stands up on the seat and screams, Yeah!!!!!!!! He is truly our child … a future roller coaster junkie. We can’t wait until he is older to take him to some real parks – Great Adventures, Disney World, Disneyland, Cedar Point, Busch Gardens … Yeeeaaaahhhhh!!!!!

P.S. For those of you who are wondering and before you start emailing me, the roller coaster was at a complete stop when he stood up!