Pollywogs!

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond

…huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton…British financiers…quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value…feared that…diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems.

7 pages long, thats my kind of article…my own opinion is to imbue something understated and personal with signifigance, and imbue a rock which symbolizes ‘pulling the wool over’ (whether we’re talking about denying Africian nations the wealth of their own natural resources, the virtual slavery under which the rocks are harvested, or the century long marketing campaign that has brainwashed the masses) with the correct perspective.