Russell Simmons, hip-hop impresario, U.N. ambassador and diamond industry afficionado, is on a fact-finding mission in South Africa and Botswana, exploring "how the diamond industry, in conjunction with Simmons Jewelry Company, can empower the lives of African people and communities where diamonds are a natural resource." The trip is being sponsored by the Diamond Information Center, which just happens to be the De Beers cartel's U.S. marketing arm.

So what has he found so far? An abundance of hardhats, apparently.

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