Monday, March 26, 2007
In Sierra Leone, still a tough dig for diamonds - International Herald Tribune
The tiny stone settled into the calloused grooves of Tambaki Kamanda’s palm, its dull yellow glint almost indiscernible even in the noontime glare.
It was the first stone he had found in days, and he expected to get little more than a dollar for it. It hardly seemed worth it, he said — after days spent up to his haunches in mud, digging, washing, searching the gravel for diamonds.
But farming had brought no money for clothes or schoolbooks for his two wives and five children. He could find no work as a mason.
...
Most days, diggers like Charles Kabia, a 25-year-old grade-school dropout who has been digging since the rebels forced him to mine as a teenager, come up empty - he has not found a stone in two months. That last diamond, a half-carat stone, went for about $65, which he split with his three partners. ...
The tiny stone settled into the calloused grooves of Tambaki Kamanda’s palm, its dull yellow glint almost indiscernible even in the noontime glare.
It was the first stone he had found in days, and he expected to get little more than a dollar for it. It hardly seemed worth it, he said — after days spent up to his haunches in mud, digging, washing, searching the gravel for diamonds.
But farming had brought no money for clothes or schoolbooks for his two wives and five children. He could find no work as a mason.
...
Most days, diggers like Charles Kabia, a 25-year-old grade-school dropout who has been digging since the rebels forced him to mine as a teenager, come up empty - he has not found a stone in two months. That last diamond, a half-carat stone, went for about $65, which he split with his three partners. ...
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