Leo Saves Africa (?)

Hollywood stars. Is there anything they can't do? This seems to be the subtext of an article in the Mail & Guardian with the perhaps slightly overwrought title "Can DeBeers Survive DiCaprio"." The answer is almost assuredly yes, but the company's response is nonetheless an illuminating one:

Pundits have delighted in predicting the death of De Beers. For most of last century, De Beers headed up a world diamond cartel that regulated rough diamond supply and kept prices high. It sold between 80% and 90% of the world’s diamonds. Then things changed. The cartel broke up, the group sold its shares in Anglo American and de-listed, announcing a new strategy. Now De Beers is adapting to being just another company in the luxury goods industry, even though it is still the dominant player in diamonds.

[. . .]

Edward Zwick’s film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a South African mercenary and set in war-torn 1990s Sierra Leone, is only set to open internationally on December 15. But the publicity war has already begun. Diamond advocates are taking out full-page adverts in American newspapers and a website, www.diamondfacts.org, has been launched.

“We welcome the opportunity this film presents to talk about the steps the diamond industry has taken to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds. De Beers finds it unacceptable that revenue from the sale of rough diamonds has been used in the past to fund the activities of rebels and believes that one conflict diamond is one too many; 100% of diamonds from De Beers Group are from conflict-free sources,” said company spokesperson Tom Tweedy.

“It [the film] is absolutely a concern for us,” Guy Leymarie, CEO of De Beers LV, told CNN Money. He added that it was difficult to forecast the impact the film would have on sales.

I am pleased to see so many movies, all still waiting release or at least wide national release, focusing seriously on Africa, including not only Blood Diamond, but also Catch a Fire, about South Africa during the height of the antiapartheid struggle, and the widely acclaimed Last King of Scotland. If the films provoke uncomfortable reactions from come corporations, governments, groups, or individuals, all to the better. Many probably ought to be discomfitted.