I haven't done enough researching to be sure if this article is true... but o man, when i read this in Relevant i was fuming mad! People die everyday for things just and true... but they should never die for something as shallow as a DeBeers publicity stunt! In the magazine, there was a picture of a heart swathed in blood with the words: "Girl's Best Friend" printed below it. It's sick! Okay, maybe i should calm down before i say something i would regret. What do you people think? Do you think i'm just trying to escape from buying something in the future? (Well, i'm not.)

Educate me then.



Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One (2/14/02)By Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist


1. You've Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond
The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.

2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value
The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.

4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS
Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.

8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa
There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.

9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors
Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.

10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling
Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 million small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.

It must be tough being the only female in the family.
"Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

<strong>reprobate</strong>
n.
A morally unprincipled person.
One who is predestined to damnation.

adj.
Morally unprincipled; shameless.
Rejected by God and without hope of salvation.


<strong>importunate</strong>
adj.
Troublesomely urgent or persistent in requesting; pressingly entreating: an importunate job seeker.

<strong>epithet</strong>
n.
An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.

<strong>tacit</strong>
adj.
Not spoken: indicated tacit approval by smiling and winking.
-implied (as by an act or by silence) rather than express <a tacit admission


<strong>adroit</strong>
adj.
Dexterous; deft.
Skillful and adept under pressing conditions

<strong>fain </strong>
adv.
Happily; gladly:I would fain improve every opportunity to wonder and worship, as a sunflower welcomes the light (Henry David Thoreau).
Preferably; rather.

<strong>raiment</strong>
n.
Clothing; garments.

<strong>expostulate</strong>
To reason earnestly with someone in an effort to dissuade or correct; remonstrate

<strong>conflagration</strong>
n.
A large destructive fire.

<strong>profligate </strong>
adj.
Given over to dissipation; dissolute.
Recklessly wasteful; wildly extravagant.

n.
A profligate person; a wastrel.</a>

It is a rare occurence: me vividly remembering a dream that I had. Therefore, it would be good to take time describing it, don't you think?

We were in a ship. But this was no ordinary ship. It was vast, huge, deep, and sturdy. Think a futuristic Noah's Ark. A whole village in the middle of a bowl-like ship. For xbox-ers, think of a city on the man-made planet Halo. Strangely, my community was in that huge bowl-ship floating in the ocean. The waves were massively violent- but it didn't matter because the transport's steel walls were at least a 100-storeys tall and its thickness 20 feet. Pleasant was the evening, it wasn't too bright and neither was it too cold. Tim was set to reach anytime now. It's unbelievable- so crazy that he's coming here. It is going to be his first day in this oddly different place. Weird, did he come by plane? Where's the airport? I see him. He's got his trademark smile and seemed to have already gained a few friends. Besides me was Meg, of course. We went everywhere together. We were happy. I always get lost in her burning, sun-like eyes. "Shall we welcome him, dear?" She nodded yes.

There were no cars or trees- just many people of many shapes walking quickly efficiently on the smooth steel floor. The sky got just a little darker. The cloudspeople were ready to unload their dark bellies of water. Drip drip drip. Soon a crack of thunder. Then no more drip drip drip. It went rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat- crack! rat-tat-tat-tat-tat. Pouring. I remember being flustered- sensed that something was not right. Yes, I knew the walls were thick- but was I afraid of the saltwater breaking and sweeping into the civilization of "the bowl"? No. It was something else.

Anyway, just about all the living beings went borderline chaotic. What's the matter? It's only a bit of rain! Yet I knew I was only pretending to be macho and in control... Fear was building up slowly but surely in me. Then SNAP! - where was the hand in mine? Water blinds me... more shoving and pushing hurriedness. It cannot be- I realize I have lost Meg amidst the crowd.

I didn't even remember walking up to the bowl's rim. Maybe the sea of flesh swept me away from the deep dark lake forming in the bottom of the bowl. I only remember this feeling: "Find Her!" This time the hard rain did not blind me as much. Anxiously I scanned the chaotic mass of people heading for the bowl's rims on the other side. please let her be there let her be there...

Utter chaos. But I finally saw her. And she was not alone. Thank God! Meg and her companions were climbing up the ramp towards the rim! I looked down towards the bottom of the bowl-ship and saw that the swirling dark pool of water had grown to more than twice its size. At the rate of its swelling, Meg would be able to get to safety in time.

The ship hides something cruel though. My relief only transient- snatched quickly by a sudden increase of water from the bottom. It was so quick and so artificial; it could not have been caused by something natural. No doubt someone had mechanically "flushed" the city. It was a dream, but I still thought to myself: "This is unreal!" A few dozen people, including Meg, were totally engulfed. The water receded and in Meg's original whereabout there was but nothing. She had been taken.

I heard screaming. Was it someone else? It could've been myself- however there was no time to lose. Almost instantly I threw my body over the rim... In that long long fall, I no longer felt the rain nor heard the screams. "I am not losing her again!" Awkwardly, the rain at that moment seemed to machine-gun at my face instead of dropping lightly on my head. I was accelerating towards the dark swirling oblivion...

Gasp! I heaved myself up to get my senses right. I survived the fall. Thankfully Meg did also; swimming to her side, I realized she was barely conscious. "It's going to be okay." (cliched Hollywood moment)
Survivors everywhere. Panic everywhere. Grabbing onto a railing, still wading in the now 200-feet deep water, I inspected my companion's injuries more closely. "Wake up, Meg... please."

She was Meg. Yet in a way- she wasn't.

Mark 6:1-6
In the latter part of Mark chapter five, the Beloved One has intruded significantly in the life of a Jairus and his family; his twelve-year-old daughter was called forth from the dead by a grasp of His gentle hand. Not very long before that incident, it is also written that He is the fearsome commander of storms (Mark 4:35-41), a superior adversary of demonic legions (Mark 5:1-20), and a compassionate healer of desperate and fearful (Mark 5:21-34). With that in mind, one must be curious to know why He “could do no mighty work” in Nazareth.
Jesus called this reason “unbelief.” I call it self-glorification. Inspect the disturbingly familiar retorts of Jesus’ stubborn listeners: “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him?” Do not be fooled- these are not words of innocent amazement; if it were innocent, they wouldn’t have took offense at Jesus. Along with these words, one could easily detect a whisper of pride, envy or phony familiarity. All too often, I realize that these whispers are fueled by our own breath. We are prone to glorify the self. It has become familiar to our entire fallen race.
Here is a good example. When faced with the blessings of another, my first inclination is to assume that it must have been given to him - he couldn’t have come up with it on his own. He cannot be original or noble in and of himself. I know him. We shared the same childhood. Something [more] wonderful [than I] cannot possibly come from among us. For I am the best.
And Jesus was amazed at my unbelief.

Just thinking...
I guess when we get older we kind of realize that life is [way] more subjective than it is objective.