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?

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.