The AIDS Monster in Africa is clearly raging out of control and it is taking its toll killing so many, as this happens children are being born with AIDS and children’s parents are dying leaving them orphaned. The challenges seem nearly impossible to fix and yet there is a glimmer of hope from some very smart and innovative groups.

Groups like KENWA are using a multi-faceted approach to solving this crisis by working in small community villages. The millions facing sure death is almost an overwhelming catastrophe, but by setting precedence and showing that their model has a proven success rate.

Yet they realize that even if they are able to stop AIDS in these villages from spreading that there are also issues with sustainable agriculture and education to deal with as well. Education will help in breaking the cultural norms and preventing AIDS, but also primary education too is needed for the children who will soon be running things as the older folks have died or are dying of AIDS?

Then there is the issue of the Digital Divide a chasm which is hard to cross when these regions have no power or electricity either. Perhaps you have heard of the $100 computers that MIT is working on, these can be used for the classrooms and yes schools need to be built too. Prefab pop-up construction technologies and simple dome shaped houses are available.

There are over 1.5 million orphaned children in the world. There are over 20,000 living in American foster care. Although foster care is not great, these kids have a much better chance of making it in the adult world than an orphaned child in other countries.

Russia has over 700,000 orphans with only about 25% of them housed. By age 15 or 16 a Russian orphan will age-out of the orphanage system. They are sent back into the streets with about $30 and nothing else. Of course, due to poor conditions in the orphanages many of these kids run away long before they age out. More than half of these kids end up in jail or prostitution. A Russian orphan will have his passport stamped ‘Orphan’. People do not want to hire orphans and do not want them marrying their children. They are considered outcasts. Many boys will join the military but because of their orphan status will get the most dangerous jobs. Only one out of 10 orphans will make to their 21st birthday. Most can’t get jobs and the cycle of orphans continues.

In China an orphan must live in the orphanage their entire life if they are not adopted. Once they get old enough they become workers for the orphanage. They don’t get much of an education as they will never leave the institution.

As far as orphanages go, some are better than others. However, even a good orphanage has little time for the children and usually is quite poor. The bottom line is that an orphanage is no place for children to grow up. Children need the stability of a family to grow and prosper. It is everyone’s duty to help orphans around the world…to give them hope for a better future…and to end the cycle of homeless children.

Recently I came across Plant A Flower Day. While thinking of flowers my thoughts went to orphans. I began thinking about orphans, their parents, and those who take care of them.

What kind of parents are these who leave their child on the steps of an orphanage and that too an infant. The infant who needs mothers love is dropped on the steps, in the hope that the infant will cry, someone will listen and come and pick up the infant. What can be a more brutal act than this? Mother is compared to God. Who do I compare such mothers with? I have had close interactions with an orphanage in India. When I began asking for the list of food items that they need for the infants, I was given a list of food that the infant should rightfully get from mother. Nature never imagined that the infant will be thrown away, so nature never provided for defenses that are needed, if mothers milk is not provided. Why the mother should deprive an infant of this? How will the mother live after throwing away her child. Sometimes I think that unless the mother is absolute evil, she will go crazy searching for her child. The guilt would kill her. How can she eat when she does not know if her child has had food? How will she laugh, when she is unsure if her child is not crying? How will she ever know if her child is alive or dead?

Such parents should be given such a punishment that others dare not repeat such acts. Small children are softer than flowers. They need all the love and protection of their mothers lap and not the cold hard surface of the orphanage steps. One must salute the people who care for these children in such homes. Feeding them, cleaning them, changing clothes, giving medicines and keeping them happy. One day the child will ask- where are my parents. Who will give the answer and what tremendous pain will the person who is asked this question undergo?

After the devastating China earthquake at May 12, thousands children were turned to orphans overnight. Their fate became the hot topic of numerous articles, discussions and forums. Tens of thousands of families, inside and outside China, extended their hands and offered to provide these young victims a safe harbor to grow up. Many news agencies have opened up hot line for adoption. For example, as of today, just in Sina.com, a popular Internet portal, there are 91,547 applications from China and 304 from abroad.

In another popular portal, Netease.com, 128,643 netizens expressed their inclination to take one home. China Life, the largest insurance company in China, even announced that they would cover all the living expenses of these kids before they turn to 18. Well, there are about “only” 4000 (which I wish to be 0) earthquake orphans according to the local government of Sichuan, where the earthquake stroke. Given the large number of the willing families and the sensitivity of the case, it can be expected that there will be a strict process of selection.

Meanwhile, although there is a strong demand of adopting the earthquake orphans, it will be too early to see it happen anytime soon. First, the relief work is still underway after just one month of the earthquake with nearly twenty thousands people are still missing. Many children are still considered “temporary” orphans since their parents are still considered missing. Second, the identify of every child needs to be verified. It is difficult since many kids are still too young to give complete information. Third, the children have to undergo physical and psychological recovery first to help them heal the injury and trauma brought by the earthquake and its consequences. If not treated properly, the shadow may accompany them a long time even after they are adopted and seemingly behave normally.

Compare to the aftermath of Tangshan earthquake at 1976, which recorded a death toll of more than 240 thousands, there were about equal number of earthquake orphans under 16 left. About three quarters are adopted by relatives or caring families, and the others were sent to orphanages or similar organizations. With better living condition, stronger government and social support, and the effect of one child policy, it is not surprise to expect that all Sichuan earthquake orphans will find a loving family and be cared and educated well. For the mental health, a good news we can bank on is that the majority of the Tangshan earthquake orphans are doing well today.

“The Germans began loading the train…There was still room for more inside. Urged on by whips, more and more were packed in. Suddenly the brute in charge ordered the children to be brought forward. Korczak was at the head. I’ll never forget that sight until the end of my life. The heads held high, a silent protest against the murderers. All the Jewish police saluted them and snapped to attention.

“Korczak stood at his full height as he stepped into the boxcar. Carefully he helped the others climb in…They waited with dignity for the doors to be closed and sealed, then for the train to start up. The last recorded sight of him, then as in his whole life, was of a solitary man comforting the children.”

These were the words of a member of Warsaw’s Jewish police in 1942–forced by the Nazis to facilitate the loading of Jews destined for death. This cattle car contained ghetto youngsters from the orphanage founded 29 years previously by author, educator and pediatrician Janusz Korczak [Yanush Kor-Jacques].

Although he was offered a chance for survival, Korczak, in order to ease the anxiety of his charges, chose to accompany them to certain death. Initially a pen name of Henryk Goldszmit’s, he assumed this name and died with it.

Mark Bernheim’s book about Korczak, “Father of the Orphans,” discussed the book with this reporter. He told of the difficulties encountered in his research. Although the pedagogical and humanitarian sides of Korczak are well known in Poland and Israel, American research facilities contained little information about this obscure hero.

While researching the book, Bernheim received many anecdotes and pictures from people who had been residents of Korczak’s orphanage before the Nazis invaded Poland.

“I don’t make it too horrible or too gruesome,” he said, because the book is aimed at younger readers.

After a brief introduction to Korczak and the children, Bernheim flashes back to Korczak’s birth in 1878. The Goldszmit’s were well-to-do non-religious Jews, successfully assimilated into the Polish mainstream–or so they thought. From that point, events progress in a linear fashion.

Henryk’s father, an attorney, encountered anti-Semitism and became mentally ill. He started to hallucinate while recuperating at home.

Dramatizing the scene, Bernheim describes what happened as Henryk’s father, lying in bed, asks his 11-year-old son to come enter the bedroom.

Murmuring, he told the boy, “Listen to me carefully. I may be sick now, but I can see some things I wouldn’t admit for a long time. I must warn you. Be on your guard always. Life is war and you never know when the real battle is going to start. Many people want to hurt us. Sometimes they only laugh and if you laugh back, they’ll go away. But there are much worse ones. They are really dangerous. They aren’t content with making fun, no–they want to hurt…

“They are evil. They only want to hurt those who do good. And this is the worst: They rule the world. They make the laws for their good, not ours…They’ve beaten me Henryk. I can’t fight them any more.”

Soon thereafter, his father was committed to a mental institution where he died. Because of the costs of treating his father, family possessions were sold, servants let go and the family became impoverished.

“Part of that comes from (Korczak’s) diaries,” Bernheim said. “Part of it comes from me…because so much about (his life as a child) was destroyed in the war…When I actually sat down to write the book and I needed more details about it–you invent…

“It’s a historical biography,” he said. “You do as much research as you possibly can and…then you research the period.”

In his grief over the ensuing years, Henryk secretly wrote poems, a novel and a play. After entering medical school under a miniscule quota for Jews, he submitted his play to a literary competition. Under the Polish-sounding pseudonym of Janusz Korczak, he was awarded an honorable mention.

After receiving his medical degree, he continued a dual career as pediatrician Henryk Goldszmit, an assimilated Jew who ran two children’s orphanages, and famous Polish writer-radio personality Janusz Korczak.

During the 1930s Korczak made two trips to Palestine. Just before the Nazis invaded in 1939, he decided the children and orphanage should relocate to Jerusalem–however, by then it was too late.

“He was going to divide his time,” Bernheim said. “He was an idealist…a lot of Jews thought they could work with the Germans.”

“Father of the Orphans” takes the reader to that infamous 1942 march from the Warsaw Ghetto orphanage to the railroad yard–a point at which Bernheim became stumped.

“How am I going to write that last chapter?” he recalled. “How am I going to describe cramming them into the gas chamber? How am I going to do this?”

Bernheim decided his description would be “very spare and very factual and very unemotional…What could I say? That everything was OK; that they were in heaven with their parents?

At a stage however, the yellow color in a diamond is so vivid and so intense that it crosses out of the traditional diamond color chart and is considered a ‘fancy’ colored diamond. Fancy colored diamonds are exceptionally rare and exceptionally valuable, commanding prices of 10’s and 100’s of thousands of dollars. But what causes colored diamonds? Why are some white and some not-so-white and some blue or pink or brown or red?

Quite simply, the color in diamonds is caused by chemical impurities or deformation of the diamond crystal structure. Ironic, when you consider that on the A-Z diamond color scale, less pure means less value!

Let’s start with white diamonds. Diamond is comprised almost entirely of the element Carbon and a pure blue-white diamond (graded color ‘D’) will contain no chemical impurities – it is a pure form of Carbon. However, the area of the earth where diamonds grow is essentially a chemical hot-pot, with many other elements waiting to be snapped up by minerals as they grow. One of the more common elements is Nitrogen and, when a diamond has a significant amount of Nitrogen in its structure, the diamond takes on a yellow color. The more nitrogen in the structure, the more yellow the diamond.

The presence of nitrogen can also impart an orange color, but orange diamonds are exceptionally rare. Violet colored diamonds are also very rare and are believed to be caused by the presence of hydrogen in the diamond structure.

Blue diamonds are amongst the most prized colors and are found in only a limited number of areas worldwide. Blue diamonds are caused when the element Boron is incorporated during the growth of a diamond. As is the case with Nitrogen and yellow diamonds, the more Boron there is in a diamond, the darker the blue color will be.

Black diamonds are the result of a massive number of imperfections and inclusions (often graphite inclusions) within a diamond. There are so many inclusions that the diamond is almost opaque and allows almost no light to pass through, resulting in a black appearance. Black diamonds can almost be considered as industrial diamonds and are thus traditionally priced lower than white diamonds. The degree of imperfections makes black diamonds very hard to cut and you will often only find black diamonds cut into round brilliant shapes.

Brown diamonds and pink diamonds are thought to be the result of the same process – crystal deformation. Diamonds, like other crystals, have a regular arrangement of atoms and bonds, but under pressure, these atoms and bonds can shift out of position and it is this shift that results in a color change to either brown or pink, possibly depending on the degree of shift. This process is also believed to account for red and purple diamonds that are occasionally discovered.

Green diamonds are exceptionally rare and are the result of a diamond having been subjected to radiation, normally deep within the earth’s crust or mantle, millions of years ago. Don’t worry though, if you have a green diamond, it’s not radioactive!

An important fact to bear in mind when buying coloured diamonds is to ask the retailer or diamond dealer whether the diamond colour is natural or enhanced. Many laboratory techniques can be used impart, improve or alter the natural colour of diamonds and such information must be given to the diamond purchaser.

We have been invited to a very important wealth seminar sponsored by the Sovereign Society in Panama City in May.  The seminar is expected to bring together over 300 investors to discuss opportunities in the global financial markets.

Our two contributions to Two major investment books in 2008 are expected to be published in the spring.  Both periodicals are expected to see sales in the tens of thousands of copies and we are excited to be working on both periodicals as a means of expanding our client base and helping people understand the fundamentals of the rare colored diamond market.

A diamond is just pure carbon crystal. If you look at the chemistry of diamond, it is pure carbon. The arrangement of the carbon atoms differently makes it a unique gem. A diamond is considered precious from the ancient times and is popular for its strength.

How a diamond is formed?

Diamonds are formed in the earth thousands of years ago under extreme heat and pressure. This extreme heat and pressure in the earth transforms this carbon into crystals and colorless. Although diamonds are formed in the earth, the volcanic activities are thought to have brought them to the surface of the earth in the early days. Hence, these volcanic pipes are found to have diamonds in them. When some of the minerals mix with the carbon, the diamond takes some other color in it. Such diamonds that are colored are very rare and valued much than the normal diamond, which is colorless.

Some of the diamond mines

Diamond mines are found in Canada and Australia. Diavik Diamond Mines is found in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories Canada. It is estimated that this diamond mine reserves are 95.6 million carats. The Argyle diamond mine found in the Kimberley region in the far north of Western Australia is one of the popular mines that produce the Argyle diamonds. This mine produces more than one third of the world’s production of diamonds.

How diamonds are valued?

Diamonds are valued by their Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat weight. You should remember the four C’s that are used to value diamonds. Cut, Color, and Clarity are used to measure the quality of the diamond and the final C, which is Carat, is used to measure the size of the diamond. Man creates cut in a diamond and the other C’s are formed in nature.

Types of diamonds

When minerals are mixed in nature with the diamond, it gives the characteristic color for the diamond. Based on the type of mineral that is mixed, we can classify the diamonds in to many types. The following are the colors that are found in the diamond.

Yellow: this color is formed when Nitrogen is combined with diamond crystals.

Blue: During the formation of the diamond if elements of Boron are mixed then the diamond will be in blue color

Green: Green color is caused due to a missed out atom in the lattice of atoms.

Brown: Any dislocation in the lattice of atoms causes brown coloring in the diamonds.

Pink: Dislocations in the lattice missed out atoms, and some impurities that are non-nitrogen causes pink color in diamonds.

Believe it or not, there is a big difference between simulated diamonds and fake diamonds. When you think of a fake diamond, you may think of one that is being presented as genuine when it is actually anything but the real thing. A simulated diamond is one that is designed specifically to imitate the appearance, characteristics and conditions of a natural gemstone and is clearly defined as such. It’s important to note, however, that simulated diamonds are not genuine diamonds. Today, the world’s most popular simulate diamonds are known as cubic zirconia. Retailers who offer this popular manmade diamond replica are enjoying its rising popularity in a ‘shining’ fashion.

There are many benefits to owning simulated diamonds, such as an affordable price, a bold look and less heartbreak if something were to happen to your jewelry. When you wear genuine diamonds, you risk losing something that may cost you a small fortune to replace. With simulated diamonds, however, most jewelry pieces can be replaced without putting yourself or your finances in a pinch.

When it comes to size and appearance, simulated diamonds are created to look identical to a natural diamond. They are available in all of the sizes, shapes, cuts and colors as a real diamond and, in most cases, are eye clean in an effort to provide the wearer with a flawless look.

If you are in the market for simulated diamonds, make sure that you purchase your jewelry from a reputable business. An informed shopper is a happy shopper, and an important part of that is knowing who you do business with. Some retailers who specifically deal in simulated diamonds can provide the best variety and pricing, which makes them a popular pick among jewelry lovers. Not only can they offer beautiful designs in simulated diamonds, but they also offer a wide selection of product where there is almost always something to suit every buyer.

In conclusion, cubic zirconia is currently the most popular and accepted of the simulated diamonds on the market. Because it measures an 8.5 on the scale of hardness, it is harder than all other gemstones with the exception of the diamond, ruby and sapphire. In addition, it’s high reflective index of 2.15 is just short of that of a genuine diamond, which measures a 2.41 on reflection. For the wearer of cubic zirconia simulated diamonds, this means that the brilliance and shine of a cubic zirconia is not far behind that of a diamond. Durability, shine, sparkle and price are among the most appealing characteristics of cubic zirconia simulated diamonds. Not only that, but the fact that most people could never afford a large, flawless diamond solitaire also makes cubic zirconia a popular pick for both engagement rings and wedding rings.