You jump for joy as he puts on the shiny ring. The diamond is a beautiful cut and you are so happy, but do you ever think about where the diamond came from?

The gorgeous stones are formed underground under immense amounts of heat and pressure and are mined from various areas in the world. A handful of countries in Africa are in civil wars which are partly fueled by the conflicts over diamonds. The miners of blood diamonds are mostly child laborers and enslaved people who work for practically nothing in horrible conditions. The profit from the diamonds is taken by militias and terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda. That means that the miners either get little money or are enslaved and don't get any for their hard labor! The way we trade is helping the militias continue to grow and prosper.

In addition to dangerous and unhealthy working environments, the miners on average receive about 1/6 of what a helper would receive at a store after markups. The miners, who risk their lives doing all the dirty work of harvesting diamonds, don't get a fraction as much as what they should get in return.

Why do we like the objects in the little black box? With the technology in the 21st-century scientists have the ability to create fake diamonds in labs. These diamonds are popularly made to use for military uses since they are so hard and inexpensive. They aren’t really diamonds but they have the same physical and chemical properties. It’s romantic to have a real diamond ring, but the lab-produced ones decrease the amount of profit that the militias receive, so it indirectly curbs wars and violence.

The four Cs of diamonds are cost, carat, clarity and cut, but many don't know the fifth C, conflict.