Editorial Review:
Rare, romantic, and forever: The diamond industry depends on these myths to reap billions of dollars of profit. This sensational investigation explodes such fallacies and reveals how multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns create the impression of rarity and romance. It reveals a very secret and unromantic world, one that is dominated and controlled by a handful of mighty corporations. With Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie The Blood Diamond making more people than ever aware of the seamy side of the diamond trade, Janine Roberts' explosive expos, taking us through seven decades of intrigue and manipulation, is the right book at the right time.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Gotta love a cartel  2008-07-06
I am so glad I took the time to sit and read this book. What a fantastic story about a world of such greed and cartels. It really is interesting as to how dirty the world of fine jewellery can be. Shame on De Beers for all it has done and encouraged. Congratulations to the author for persevering in circumstances which were clearly stacked against her. I had no idea, when I started reading this book, just how abusive the world of diamonds, and presumably other fine stones/gold etc, is. For what ultimately can be such a beautiful item, it is filled with heartbreak, pain and suffering of an unimaginable scale. I saw "Blood Diamond" and thought it a good insight but this book is so much more. It really does make someone with a consience think about whether they do want those lovely sparkling genuine stones or whether the manmade version would be better. I had no idea about the danger to health, not only from the physical digging but the conditions of asbestosis and the damage caused to the lungs of the cutters in appaling conditions. My hat off to the writer - what a superb book and I hope you enjoyed the long soak in the bath that you were looking for when you finished writing.
Although the book is a bit hardgoing at times, persevere!!!! It is worth it.
All you wanted to know about Debeers and too Much  2007-09-17
The book is a great commentary on the diamond mining and diamond industry. The problem is that author is an advocate against DeBeers and the diamond industry. She does her best to document the facts but every word is through the filter of her hatred of the DTC and DeBeers. It seems that they can do nothing right anywhere at anytime. Myself personally being in the diamond industry I can see her bias, others may not.
Average Read  2007-04-20
I enjoyed this book for the most part. I enjoyed reading it because I was already interested in the concepts. Debeers cover up, master marketing, Bloody wars funded by diamonds that rich people wear. I soon came to realize that there was little of that. This book could have been written much better. All the components of a fascinating story are here. Instead you are left with a feeling of, "I know diamonds are evil stop telling me the same thing over and over!" I wish that this book would have gone deeper into the lives of the people that this industry has a negative effect on.
An important expose 2005-11-04
Written by journalist and human rights activist Janine Roberts, and now in a newly revised edition, Glitter & Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel is a shocking expose of the inequalities, economic manipulation, inhuman treatment, and outright cruelties facilitated and perpetuated by the global Big Diamond industry - most notably the notorious De Beers and Oppenheimer cartels. Chapters go far beyond the injustice covered in the recent popular movie "The Blood Diamond", revealing how some major diamond companies collaborated with Hitler's Germany and industrial diamond supplies were artificially restricted, damaging the American war effort in World War II; how child labor is used to cut diamonds, with horrifically detrimental effects on children's health; how tuberculosis and other life-threatening conditions flourish among diamond miners; how terrorism has milked money from the diamond trade for decades; why the Kimberly Process meant to protect Americans from supporting murderers with their diamond money has failed; and how the myth that diamonds are "rare" has been perpetrated through the fixing of diamond prices and other nefarious means. A chilling expose that not only roots out evidence of cruelty but also proposes reforms and solutions. In an era of rampant corporate greed, immorality, and malfeasance, "Glitter & Greed" is a "must-read" for anyone considering buying a diamond, and carries the absolute highest recommendation.
Diamonds/Price-Fixing/Civil Wars/Child Slavery Are Forever 2005-05-12
Actually, diamonds are not forever, according to this book, as they are brittle and can be destroyed by fire.
On the back cover it says at the top "[Business/History/Human Rights]". I would consider rewording that as "[True Crime/Business/Human Rights Abuses]". The back cover also declares: "The inquiry that De Beers and the Oppenheimer family that control the cartel did not want, that it's people tried to stop." Now that I can believe. It would appear that the author is lucky to still be alive after the 20+ years of her investigations (assuming she hasn't by now been assassinated by agents for the diamond cartel).
Possibly everything you could want to know about the diamond industry is in this book. I had already heard about the De Beers/Botswana government campaign to evict the Bushmen aborigines as this has been reported in the British press. However I was unaware of the role of the Diamond Cartel in the human rights atrocities in the Congo and Sierra Leone, nor of how Indian child workers are kept in a state of "debt bondage" while preparing gems for the diamond market.
All very depressing, and essential reading I would say for anyone thinking of buying a diamond for a loved one, and for anyone interested in the machinations of big business. The one crumb of comfort is that high quality laboratory engineered synthetic diamonds are now commercially available.
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