Well I never thought I´d be trying on diamond rings and being given coffee in a large jewellery emporium but apparently this is the kind of thing that tourists (dressed in vest tops and three quarter length trousers and brandishing backpacks) can do here in Rio. We decided to go down to the jewellery museum (Amsterdam Sauer and H Stern maybe see a few gemstones, some old rings, that kind of thing only to be brought around by a personal guide, sat down and served drinks and shown a lot of different, very valuable and very precious gemstones set in various bits of jewellery made from gold. I felt distinctly out of place (though the place was full of similarly clad, similarly touristy people) but we were all treated with perfect respect and it seemed that they didn´t mind when we decided not to buy the 8000 US dollar solid sapphire watch they were displaying. Some were inlaid with emerald and diamonds too.... I have learned that diamonds are the same all over and we were informed that they would be the same price as diamonds in Europe and encouraged to look at the indigenous (context?) gems instead; sapphire, emerald, opal, topaz, citrine.. the list went on. I mut say I felt a bit guilty in a way because part of the tour included watching people working on the jewellery, cutting, setting and all that malarkey. I don´t know how much they earn but I know they don´t get the full value of every 4000 dollar worth diamond they fashion into jewellery. I´m well aware that the same is true of so much manufacture but given that there is a higher level of poverty here (and that Brazil seems to have more mineral wealth than all of Europe and most likely a lot of other places). I feel maybe the miners are a bit hard done by. Perhaps it´s some socialist (not sure if that´s the right word) impulse that´s not really justified but anyhow. Maybe I just don´t like being put in the same box (easily and understandably done) as the unbelievably arrogant and obnoxious tourists that frequent the place treating the employees like slaves. That probably is it actually. Anyway, back to the shinies.
They also offered us free transport (the entry was free) to our hotel whether we bought something or not. It was rather fun trying all the fancy gems on and looking at the 3 foot tall sculptures of parrots, toucans and eagles made of precious gemstones and gold. Chunks of amethyst are just stuck willy nilly outside shops here - I found a huge one in a church for no apparent reason and one outside a hotel. It´s really amazing. I have always liked the shinies so it´s fun to see them lying around all over the place!
Please excuse the cheesy title by the way but I couldn´t resist. Let´s see what tomorrow brings.
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Welcome to capitalism, where the workers are not valued as highly as the fixed assets, ie, the capital. Though it seems less harsh (cos they pay well relative to the economic background), bear in mind the same is true at home. A worker in, say, Medtronic, will produce, in a week, almost a half a million dollars worth of product. They're paid 600 euros. Which is good, but not even a percentage point of the value of their production. You can say that the investors wouldn't pony up for the research and the setup costs, and that they're the ones risking their capital, so they should be the ones getting the benefits... but where did that capital come from, anyway? Sooner or later, it turns out someone just took it, and property law protects that. Oh well.
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