Small-scale diamond mines pockmark Venezuela and, as recently as 1997, the country exported 300,000 carats of the gems, worth about $30 million. But these days, the official diamond trade has dwindled to zero. Caracas claims that’s because of environmental concerns, and that it’s adhering to the Kimberley Process (KP), a U.N.-sponsored scheme to eliminate the sale of the blood diamonds that, in the late 20th century, were used to finance wars in which hundreds of thousands of Africans were killed. (The KP does that by requiring its 45 member nations and the EU to certify all rough diamonds—even those mined outside of conflict zones—as clean before sale.)
Still, Caracas hasn’t issued a single certificate since the end of 2004—a stark contrast to the 33,000 carats during the two years prior. And while the government claims there are no gems to certify, it’s probably no coincidence that the exports of next-door Guyana—which has barely increased its mining in the past two years—have mysteriously shot up by the same amount that Venezuela’s have dropped. “It’s all contraband,” says Venezuelan trader Alfonso Avendaño, who argues that the Venezuelan government has left traders like him with no choice but to work with illicit gems.
The effect of all this on the KP could be dire. The convention is voluntary, so there’s no way to force compliance. And although Venezuela’s diamond production is small, its tendency to ignore the rules could provoke a contagion. Those likely to suffer most from the KP’s destruction can do little to keep it alive. —Phil Gunson
Investment: Smart Money You can do better by doing good, say the crunchy green consultants. Much better, say the tough guys at Goldman Sachs. The authors of a new study from the investment bank found that socially responsible companies outperformed a global stock index by a stunning 25 percent. Goldman analyzed factors like pro bono work, corporate codes of conduct, gender diversity, even recycling habits, and found a correlation, if not a causal link, between social responsibility and earnings.
Goldman isn’t the first to spot this trend, and it defines good behavior more narrowly than, say, the Domini Social Equity Fund, a mutual fund that invests in socially responsible companies. (Funds like that care much more about a company’s broad environmental footprint than its relationship with corporate suppliers—one component of Goldman’s study.)
But as evidence mounts that corporate responsibility pays off, companies that embrace it could entice investors once wary of hindering the bottom line. —Adam B. Kushner
By the Numbers Being a Christian missionary has long been hazardous work. But the recent kidnapping of 23 and killing of two South Koreans at the hands of the Taliban highlights how dangerous the calling remains.
Health: Jiffy Boobs The headlines were irresistible: LUNCH-BREAK BOOB JOBS HEADED TO EUROPE. According to some news outlets that carried the story, doctors would be using women’s own belly fat for a one-hour breast-augmentation procedure that could be available as early as next year. But if you think getting a flatter stomach and bigger cup size in the time it takes to eat a sandwich sounds too good to be true, you’re right. So let us set the record straight: there’s no such thing as the one-hour boob job—unless you count some of the architectural wonders now being sold at Victoria’s Secret.
So how did the news-that’s-not get such, um, pickup? Well, there is a globule of truth to the story, in that a small San Diego-based biotech company called Cytori Therapeutics has developed a system that uses the stem cells in fat to make fat grafts more viable. And that’s important if you’re going to relocate fat—say, to your chest. But not only is the Cytori technique still in clinical trials, the procedure will not take place at drive-by speed. “No one is going to leave for lunch, have the procedure and go back to work like it’s no problem,” says Marc Hedrick, president of Cytori and former director of the Regenerative Bioengineering and Repair Laboratory at UCLA’s Department of Surgery. He expects the procedure to take two or more hours under general anesthesia, plus recovery time. “This is surgery, and it carries all the potential risks of any surgical procedure,” he says. And, he notes, Cytori’s focus, at the moment, is breast reconstruction for cancer patients who can’t tolerate artificial implants—not cosmetic breast enlargements. Looks as if there’s no such thing as a free lunch. —Susanna Schrobsdorff
The Debunker We slather kids with sunscreen, force them into hats and hover over them with umbrellas. And despite all that, the more we learn about cancer-causing UV rays, the more we realize how vulnerable our children are. But sun exposure isn’t all bad—and a new study suggests that people who get more sun as children have less of a risk of developing multiple sclerosis as adults.
In a survey of 79 sets of identical twins (who have the same genetic chances of developing the disease), researchers at the University of Southern California found that the twin who spent more time outdoors had a 25 to 57 percent less chance of developing MS. Does that mean we should all strip down and head outdoors? Not quite. The reasoning behind those findings is still unclear, but researchers suspect vitamin D might be the explanation. —Patrick Falby
Books: Oddball Epic Manga is such a mystery. We all sort of know about the Japanese comic books with the Betty Boop-ish kids with the big eyes. But there’s manga, and then there’s Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka, who died in 1989, more or less invented the form as we know it—the man who created an eight-volume graphic biography of the Buddha.
Which brings us to “Apollo’s Song,” a 541-page graphic novel about a mentally disturbed teenage boy, Shogo, that was published in 1970 but is only now being translated into English. The themes and stories of “Apollo’s Song” are quite dark, but it’s clear Tezuka put great care into creating the character of his monster. (Shogo likes to kill small animals and becomes violent when he sees any form of romantic expression.)
Maybe it’s a good thing “Apollo’s Song” wasn’t published in the West until now. Had it appeared there when it first came out, its peculiarity would surely have been dismissed. But now comics sit at the table with the grown-ups, and we should clear a space at the head for Osamu Tezuka and his oddball masterpiece. —Malcolm Jones
Reality Check Psychologists and law enforcement have long wondered if there’s a correlation between men who download child porn and those who actually molest children. Now they have the answer—and it isn’t pretty. In an unpublished government prison study, conducted among volunteers by psychologists at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 85 percent of men who admitted to downloading kiddie porn also said they’d sexually abused children.
