Say "No" to Blood Rubies.

Today the US Government stands in opposition to the Myanmar Government, preventing the import of rubies and jadeite, sales of which were funding Myanmar's ruling military junta. Myanmar has a long history of human rights violations including the bloody crackdown against the nation's Buddhist monks September 2007, protesting a rise in fuel prices. Both the monk hood and the military are each about 400,000 strong and both are made up of young men, most of whom are from the poorer classes.
Approximately 90% of the world's rubies, and all the top-quality stones are mined in Burma, highly coveted for their 'pigeon-blood' color thus recently entitled 'blood-rubies'. In support of the US's decision not to finance authoritarian dictatorial regimes responsible for human rights violations, the JVC stated that the import of any jadeite and rubies must "...be accompanied by officially validated documentation certifying the country from which the jadeite and rubies were mined or extracted, total carat weight and value of the jadeite or rubies."
Fay Cullen Inc. has not purchased loose Burma Rubies since September 2007 and will make available on our site only Burma rubies that are either presently in inventory or previously mounted in antique ring settings.

Is it a Real Laboratory-grown Synthetic Cultured Diamond?

Some of you may have realized that our diamond supplies are going to be severely curtailed within the next 15 years if demand is going to continue to grow in emerging countries as estimated. This puts the pressure on the industry to come up with some viable alternatives.
On Tuesday, the FTC announced that there is insufficient evidence to establish that the qualified use of the term 'cultured diamonds' is deceptive or unfair when describing lab-created gemstones.
However, the JVC along with 10 jewelry trade associations supported by consumer perception surveys, signed a petition requesting the FTC to amend their guidelines to state that it would be "deceptive or unfair" to apply 'cultured' to describe laboratory-created gemstones, even when the man-made gemstones possess essentially the same optical, chemical, and physical properties of natural, mined gemstones.
Present guidelines advise marketers to use specific qualifying language to clarify the origin of laboratory created gemstones, however, after reviewing the petition, the FTC declined to amend these guidelines. Their reasoning; "Even if the surveys demonstrate that the unqualified use of the term 'cultured' to describe laboratory-created gemstones is misleading, there is no evidence to suggest that the use of the qualifying language set forth in the Guides fails to render the term non-deceptive."
The FCT agreed to "continue to evaluate advertising using the term 'cultured diamonds' on a case-by-case basis and recommend enforcement action when appropriate."
In a response, Cecilia L. Gardner, JVC president, was concerned for consumer deception will be diverted because marketers will be "required to include one of the four clear terms already obligatory under the Guides that disclose the true nature of the product," which are 'laboratory-created cultured diamond', 'laboratory-grown cultured diamond', '(manufacturer)-created cultured diamond' or '(manufacturer)-synthetic cultured diamond.'

Clean Green Habits

Clean Green Habits

So, my 'green' friends, this month we're continuing to elope to greener pastures in search of sustainable habits. How about we start with a little clean-up? Decline all unsolicited credit card offers at www.optoutprescreen.com and call 1-888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688) to eliminate flier delivery, then reduce your catalog sponsorship (if the economy hasn't curtailed printing already) by going to www.catalogchoice.org and every time a catalog arrives on your doorstep, enter the company name in the database to decline future issues. Companies will stop printing them when we stop receiving them. The time is Now. Alternatively type in www.greendimes.com and click on 'Consumer Opt Out' to eliminate your name from this popular catalog database.

Incase you think that the whole world is 'Going Green', I have news for you, the magazine covers and carbon-offset taxes are just a start. If you have not woken up to the very real changes happening in society today, I can promise you that when it impacts your wallet, you will soon and here's how your garbage is going to cost you money.

Remember the first time that you discovered people actually 'paid' for utilities ('Monopoly' didn't really do a very good job of explaining it) it was quite a shock if you remember correctly and part of the responsible adulthood-thing that happens as we loose teenager-ship. Well, the story gets a lot more serious. You may not understand the concept of purchasing carbon credits but you will soon. When a company hires an accountant to calculate their balance sheet, there has historically been no accounting for environmental impact, meaning that businesses were formerly at liberty to deposit their waste and leave the surroundings (land, water and air) as they saw fit. The time has come when there will be no more dumping, there is going to be absolute transparency of waste systems because Mother Nature demands it. There is a scurry of carbon credit purchasing going on while companies assess their energy usage in addition to the waste they produce and how they are going to recycle it to minimize their commercial carbon footprint.
Very shortly, waste is going to be more important than manufacturing, meaning that if a business is not sustainable, it has no future because the cost of not being sustainable will be more expensive than the cost of running the business. Think about that and take a look at all the wonderful local home-grown businesses sprouting up in your town, using both ethical and sustainable practices, such as the local manufacture of quality items, these are businesses we all need to support so let's put the 'US' back in USA. Did you know that 66% of all waste is from packaging? Our shopping habits create this waste and we need to change. The good news is that approximately 88% of our waste CAN be recycled. Trash feeds landfills which give off methane, a greenhouse gas, and leak toxic materials into the soil and ground-water. As a result, Mother Earth worked a generous deal with her custodial landlords, considering the way we have treated her and so PAYT or Pay As You Throw was born. This is a method of charging for garbage just as one would pay for electricity, it's just a reverse concept, paying only for what you throw just as we pay only for what we use. This is a great incentive to recycle so buy your paper shredder NOW!
You will be massively surprised as to just how much of your waste is actually paper, which can all be shredded so get the kids busy; my 'teenage' son actually operates the one at home and work with great pride! Our local mayor has instigated a Gift Certificate incentive system for up to $25 every month that can be used at a local grocery store, pharmacy or Starbucks, so there's an incentive. If enough people contribute, Starbucks wouldn't have to close 600 stores nationwide! How about that for sustainability?
Did you know that our food travels an average of 22,000 miles to reach our plate? A 'locavore' won't eat anything grown more than 100 miles from the dinner plate and a real 'locavore' wont use a plate made more than 100 miles away.

A locavore is someone who strives to eat food grown locally in the belief that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. They also see the practice as environmentally friendly since fuel is not spent shipping food long distances.
Mass farming depends on fossil fuels, depletes soils and poisons waterways, think local and eat organic. Next month, my family is renting an apartment for $1,000 less each month and we are 'Going Organic', our food quality over-ruled our accommodation choices in importance this year! Did you know that the elapsed time and processes between picking and eating your veggies accounts for a 75% loss of phytonutrients? Add to this the chemical cocktail we can essentially term 'cancer-mins' and you have your recipe for life. We won't be 'eating' an additional $1000 of veggies each month so we decided to pay for our apartment to be cleaned (upgrading from it being a united family project!) to save us all time to address environmental issues by volunteering to work with 'Hands on Miami'.

In August, we shared our Feng Shui chart with you, this month, we are going to start to walk you around our offices as we adopt some sustainable 'green-tinted' Feng Shui practices. However, before we do so, how about this sustainable New York idea thought up by four architects as a solution to Green Vertical Farms on Canal Street.