Rose Quartz

[Joan Marie]

I attended a Mineral and Fossil show yesterday and picked up this beauty:

It's a piece of Rose Quartz from Brazil. The picture doesn't do it much justice. I can't wait to see it in the sun if that ever decides to come back to us here in gloomy Germany.

What I like about this piece is it has a lot of clarity to it. So often rose quartz is kind of a milky pink (which is also nice) but this one really has a more glassy quality with interesting veins. One side is smooth and the other is raw. It catches the light beautifully with different effects.

I've been looking for a nice piece of rose quartz for a while, and this one just sort of jumped out to me.

[Diana]

She is a beauty Joan Marie!

The gemstone business has been bothering me for quite some time due to the exploitation and dangerous conditions of those mining them. I'm wondering if there is any way to know whether the stones are mined with some ethical considerations in mind or if this would be impossible to trace. And are there any ethical gemstones these days or do they, like so many other things we use (like our mobile phones) necessarily imply that they have blood on them. Sometimes when I pick up my phone I sort of shudder.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... madagascar

I'm not wanting to put a damper on your thread Joan Marie. But I think it's important for us all to keep this in mind. And also when we pick up our phones, have a little thought at least for those who suffered so we can enjoy our essential luxury.

I bought two beautiful little gemstones for my granddaughter the other day. I did wonder what their story was...

[Joan Marie]

It's the same story with the clothes we wear and the food we eat. With everything we consume.

The solution is political. Until humanitarian concerns are recognised as political issues they'll never be solved. Until there is political will to make life liveable everywhere we'll have unethical labour practices, war and refugees.

I doubt any politician cares if people stop buying pretty rocks. Until it costs them their power.

In the '90s, the US govt offered special trade deals to certain asian countries for their products if they improved working conditions. It gave those countries an advantage in the US markets to treat their workers better. It worked. Then in the 2000s the Bush administration rolled back those trade deals, canceled them. Guess what happened.

Politics isn't a game. There are lives at stake. Everywhere, all the time.

Don't get me started on capitalism.

I still like my stones. The lady I bought them from was very happy. And she had to pay for her table at the mineral show, so maybe I helped a little. The hall was probably cleaned-up later by some underpaid refugee who left a war torn country and is just trying to survive another day.

And maybe that person found a pretty stone that had rolled under something, put in her pocket and gave it to her grand-daughter as a little present.

The world is a strange place filled with beauty and suffering, often both at the same time.