The James Bond Books by Ian Fleming: Diamonds Are Forever

After receiving his mission briefing James Bond asks Bill Tanner, the Chief of Staff for the British inexpressive Service, why M is so worried about the case he has just been assigned.

Having received some criticism for setting Moonraker on home soil - what readers wanted was to fly the grey skies of England - Ian Fleming set his fourth James Bond book, Diamonds Are Forever (1956), in America once more.

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007's task is to explore a diamond smuggling pipeline responsible for running diamonds from South Africa to the United States. Assuming the role of Peter Franks, a courier who has just been picked up by the police, he is to infiltrate the operation and find out who is behind it.

When Tanner tells him that M is worried about the American gangs he's likely to have to deal with Bond dismisses them as "a lot of Italian bums with monogrammed shirts who spend the day eating spaghetti and meat-balls and squirting scent over themselves".

Introduced to Tiffany Case, the next link in the chain, Bond smuggles the stones inside golf balls, something Fleming had picked up while in Naval Intelligence; the set of balls in interrogate were designed to smuggle fly materials to British servicemen in German Pow camps while the Second World War.

Having made his delivery, Bond is told to go to Saratoga Springs, where he should bet on a single horse - Shy Smile - in a fixed race. Before departing he bumps into his old friend Felix Leiter. The last time he'd seen him was after having been thrown to a shark and he now had an artificial leg and a hook in place of his missing hand.

Leiter has joined Pinkerton's detective branch after being invalided out of the Cia and quite by coincidence is investigating Shy Smile. He tells Bond that the horse he'll be betting on is not in fact Shy Smile, but other horse altogether and deciding to join military and voyage to Saratoga Springs together Leiter takes Bond for martinis and lunch at Sardi's. Bond also has time to take Tiffany to supper at the 21 Club, so once again we get a good behold of New York as it was in the mid-1950s.

Leiter picks up Bond in his "Studillac", a a Studebaker with a Cadillac engine. Fleming had come over such a car while visiting the United States and while he himself loved American cars, one of his in-jokes is that Bond is regularly considerable of them, although in the case of the Studillac Leiter was able to impress him and the resulting road trip in case,granted more local colour to satisfy those British readers who had complained to Fleming about his former book.

When they get to Saratoga Springs Shy Smile doesn't come in as planned thanks to Leiter's intervention - he bribes the jockey and hence Bond doesn't receive his payment. However, he does survey the way in which the Spangled Mob deals with those who cross it.

Having not received his payoff, is told to go to Las Vegas, where he should "win" his payment; this time it goes as planned. However, when suspicions arise, James Bond is taken to Spectreville, a secretly owned ghost town with its own inexpressive railway where 007 is taken to meet his end.

Although diamond Are Forevers isn't the best of the books it does have some memorable scenes but the reader ends the book feeling it rather lacks something.

The James Bond Books by Ian Fleming: Diamonds Are Forever

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The War Diamonds of Africa

Diamonds are much sought after, but some come with a heavy price. This is no more true then when discussing the war diamonds of Africa.

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As the saying goes, a diamond is forever. Unfortunately, in some circumstances, this saying is true on more than one level. African blood diamonds are those diamonds that are mined in a war zone under harsh circumstances, and then are sold in order to make money to finance warring parties. These diamonds are far from beautiful, and in fact, as their name suggests they are often deadly for those who are forced to mine them.

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African blood diamonds are sometimes referred to as conflict diamonds or war diamonds. The practices and conditions under which these diamonds are obtained have come under much scrutiny in the past few years, and a spotlight has been placed on the existence of these illegally mined and traded diamonds. The song "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" by Kanye West depicted the harsh living and working conditions that the children of Sierra Leone have to endure in order to get these gems. The movie "Blood Diamonds", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, also tells this chilling tale.

Perhaps the most notorious area for blood diamonds is Sierra Leone (although other areas, such as Angola and Liberia have also been involved in this trade). In 1999, Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front signed a peace treaty agreeing to stop warring between their factions. At this point is also when the real information about the blood diamond trade came to light. In 2000, the UN Security Council signed a ban on the import and trade of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone, because of the concerns that this trade was monetarily fueling the war. Only diamonds from the Government of Sierra Leone were allowed to be traded outside the country.

In order to combat the sales and trade of African blood diamonds in the United States, the President signed a bill in 2001 that disallowed the sale and import of diamonds from Liberia as well as those from Sierra Leone. Liberia is known to be a "pipeline" for diamonds being smuggled out of Sierra Leone. In 2003, the US enacted the Clean Diamond Trade Act, which serves to further legislate the trade of diamonds to the United States, which is the world's largest consumer of diamonds.

To be sure they are not purchasing a blood diamond, many people have opted to purchase "conflict-free" diamonds from sources such as Canada (where diamonds are found in small quantities and are mined without issue). These diamonds are guaranteed to be unassociated with any African conflicts.

The War Diamonds of Africa

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