tavie.com

Oh, the diamond factory. Let me talk about that. My mom arranged for she and I to take a bus tour the first day we arrived, Thursday. However, not having slept on the plane, and not being a big fan of tours, I declined to participate. Since she'd paid for me already, she simply had my reservation switched to Saturday.

It's a two-hour bus tour. I slept during the first hour, being inadequately caffeinated (and already having seen much of the city), and was awoken and forced to disembark the bus with the rest of the group. We were herded into a diamond factory, where we were given an intensely boring, self-satisfied "lecture" on the different types and grades of diamonds, shown various cuts of diamonds, allowed to try on various diamond-encrusted jewelry; basically a sales pitch. Like I'm gonna buy a fucking diamond.

I spent about half of this time quietly waiting for someone to mention the centuries of bloodshed and colonialism fueled by the Dutch diamond industry, the effects of which continue to oppress millions of people, particularly in South Africa, to this day. Obviously, no one was going to mention this, so I snuck away from the group and drank some of the free coffee awaiting us at the end of the "presentation". It was the only worthwhile part of the experience.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:00 AM | shower me with attention