Seven-year-old children work in the cobalt and copper mines, where covetable ‘healing’ stones such as citrine and smoky quartz abound. International NGO Global Witness found that the TALIBAN earns up to $20m a year from Afghanistan’s lapis mines, lapis lazuli being, as crystal websites explain, one of the best stones for activating psychic abilities. It is impossible to know for sure if your crystal was obtained via an environmental and human rights horror show Http://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jun/16/are-crystals-the-new-blood-diamonds-the-truth-about-muky-business-of-healing-stones
@Armchaircouch I use two paints made from it & it’s expensive as fk! For the oil version. I really hope the lapis isn’t being sold to them by those evils
@Armchaircouch yknow, I’m thinking of making our future wedding bands from platinum extracted from catalysts, and any stones will be from estate sales (aka someone died and the family needs money for the funeral).
How nice! And that’s really thoughtful... if stones hold energy, which I think they do, that’s starting off with love right there!
@GlytchMeister
@Armchaircouch Dude smoky quartz is found all over in MD, WV, VA, and NC as are many more expensive stones including blue lapis - there are little mini mining tourism places everywhere and also you can just pan on the side of a stream. My point is it's ridiculous for these "crystals" or "gems" to come from forced and/or child labor when we are perfectly capable of doing it ourselves in our own country.
I say mine your own stones and pay a local jeweler to cut and set them. Harm no children.
@apsuche @Armchaircouch
I'm saving up for a rock tumbler. My grandfather used to make jewelry using local rocks (SoCal) he cut and tumbled.
@Jeber @Armchaircouch We finally got a rock tumbler for Christmas. Stay tuned for cruelty free tumbled pendants! I hope you are close to getting yours as well 🤗
@Armchaircouch as a first gen-ish afghan american, I've heard so much from my father about afghan lapis lazuli, and his own pride in it. However this is from his time in the 50s and onward. I don't find it surprising at all that those bastards would do that, but that earning number seems a bit high. The opium I feel is far more lucrative for the T-ban.
@Armchaircouch I have to wonder how a lot of new age folks reconcile this … probably don’t even know. I didn’t and I’m not a crystal type person, although I do appreciate fine specimens. Glad I don’t buy them. It’s the same reason I don’t wear gold, really. When you think of the many people who have died or have been slaves because of rocks or metals…
@Museek @Armchaircouch
I think most humans don’t lay attention. They are disconnected from their food and water sources. They are disconnected from the natural world around them….its a new weaponized incompetence.
But we all have our smart phones that have rare minerals in them to function.
@Thumprhare @Armchaircouch yep… I think about that, too…
I think about this, often, as well. The couple stones I have purchased were from a dealer who is very particular about which mines she would work with in Brazil or SA., she would visit them, and she knew them well. Others were handed down from grandmothers.
I wanted to start social media, kind of campaigns to get word out to these trend hoppers, I just haven’t made the time to do the current research and created the content. terrible what’s going on because of trends. @Thumprhare @Museek
@Armchaircouch 😲 Good to know!