The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever — “forever” in the sense that they should never be resold.
—
Look - diamonds are lovely. But I hate (yes, hate) everything they represent. As tradition-screwing/tacky as it might seem, I’m not going to wear one when I get engaged/married/whatever, and I hope to never own a real diamond in any other form in my life. Why aren’t there more people (and I hate to say it, but especially women) who can at least question the diamond industry and the cult of luxury it’s fabricated around itself? Am I missing something here?
Everyone sounded eerily calm on the phone. No one was screaming. No one was crying. No one said “Why me?” or “We’re cursed.” Even as the aftershocks kept coming, they’d say, “The ground is shaking again,” as though this had become a normal occurrence. They inquired about family members outside Haiti: an elderly relative, a baby, my one-year-old daughter.
I cried and apologized. “I’m sorry I can’t be with you,” I said. “If not for the baby—”
My nearly six-foot-tall twenty-two-year-old cousin—the beauty queen we nicknamed Naomi Campbell—who says that she is hungry and has been sleeping in bushes with dead bodies nearby, stops me.
“Don’t cry,” she says. “That’s life.”
“No, it’s not life,” I say. “Or it should not be.”
“It is,” she insists. “That’s what it is. And life, like death, lasts only yon ti moman.” Only a little while.
—
- f/ edwidge danticat’s brief, beautiful meditation on the devastation of haiti.
Just learned that stairs in Tokyo are generally built outside of buildings. Interesting implications re: lifestyle, exposure and interpersonal interaction there. And serendipitous moments. A stairwell mtg in public space seems very different than one in enclosure. If you’ve seen ‘in the mood for love’ you’ll know what I mean. And maybe ‘irreversible’. Yikes. Ok I’m drunk. Later
“Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies… [They] are formed by dissolution of rock which creates a subsurface void, which may or may not be linked to an active cave system, and the subsequent structural collapse of the rock ceiling above the void.
…Believing that these pools were gateways to the afterlife, the Maya sometimes threw valuable items into them. The discovery of golden sacrificial artifacts in some cenotes led to the archaeological exploration of most cenotes in the first part of the 20th century. Edward Herbert Thompson, an American diplomat who had bought the Chichén Itzá site, began dredging the Sacred Cenote there in 1904. He discovered human skeletons and sacrificial objects confirming a local legend, the Cult of the Cenote, involving human sacrifice to the rain gods (Chaacs) by ritual casting of victims and objects into the cenote.”
this cenote was one of many that can be found @ dos ojos, mexico, about 10 km from tulum. i highly recommend anyone who’s traveling through the yucatan to stop and do a swim here. one of the most haunting, beautiful places i’ve ever been.
** Ah, and if you’re into this creepy cave stuff, check out Ryan McGinley’s Moonmilk collection, too. He takes some nice photos, doesn’t he? (Thanks to <3 lovebryan <3 for the tip)
…And then those concentric circles in blue and violet, trailing feathery fronds like coloured spirals in motion … and then there was a shadow stooping over me, and my face was brushed lightly by a chin overgrown with stubble. It was that bricklayer in the white clothes. He hoisted me out and landed me like a red fish with delicate red fins sprouting from its wrists. I laid my head on his smock, and I heard the hissing of lime as my wet face slaked it, and that smell was the last thing of which I was conscious.
just deleted some photos off of my iphone, all taken during the summer of 2009. i took this video as they were being uploaded onto my computer and wiped from my phone. a weird catharsis in watching all these photos fly by and disappear into nothing.
![“Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies… [They] are formed by dissolution of rock which creates a subsurface void, which may or may not be linked to an active cave system, and the subsequent structural collapse of the rock ceiling above the void.
…Believing that these pools were gateways to the afterlife, the Maya sometimes threw valuable items into them. The discovery of golden sacrificial artifacts in some cenotes led to the archaeological exploration of most cenotes in the first part of the 20th century. Edward Herbert Thompson, an American diplomat who had bought the Chichén Itzá site, began dredging the Sacred Cenote there in 1904. He discovered human skeletons and sacrificial objects confirming a local legend, the Cult of the Cenote, involving human sacrifice to the rain gods (Chaacs) by ritual casting of victims and objects into the cenote.”
(via Wikipedia)
this cenote was one of many that can be found @ dos ojos, mexico, about 10 km from tulum. i highly recommend anyone who’s traveling through the yucatan to stop and do a swim here. one of the most haunting, beautiful places i’ve ever been.
** Ah, and if you’re into this creepy cave stuff, check out Ryan McGinley’s Moonmilk collection, too. He takes some nice photos, doesn’t he? (Thanks to <3 lovebryan <3 for the tip)](http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwwzn9CufP1qz8pubo1_500.png "“Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies… [They] are formed by dissolution of rock which creates a subsurface void, which may or may not be linked to an active cave system, and the subsequent structural collapse of the rock ceiling above the void.
…Believing that these pools were gateways to the afterlife, the Maya sometimes threw valuable items into them. The discovery of golden sacrificial artifacts in some cenotes led to the archaeological exploration of most cenotes in the first part of the 20th century. Edward Herbert Thompson, an American diplomat who had bought the Chichén Itzá site, began dredging the Sacred Cenote there in 1904. He discovered human skeletons and sacrificial objects confirming a local legend, the Cult of the Cenote, involving human sacrifice to the rain gods (Chaacs) by ritual casting of victims and objects into the cenote.”
(via Wikipedia)
this cenote was one of many that can be found @ dos ojos, mexico, about 10 km from tulum. i highly recommend anyone who’s traveling through the yucatan to stop and do a swim here. one of the most haunting, beautiful places i’ve ever been.
** Ah, and if you’re into this creepy cave stuff, check out Ryan McGinley’s Moonmilk collection, too. He takes some nice photos, doesn’t he? (Thanks to <3 lovebryan <3 for the tip)")
