Gemscentric

Written by Julian Robov


Fifty One


After reaching his residence, Rudy called James on his cell-phone.
“I need to talk to you.”
“In fact, I’m at the entrance.”
Rudy rushed to the front door welcoming him in. “Drinks?”
“Singha will do for a good start,” James sighed, following Rudy to the kitchen.
“You know, a lot of unexpected things are cropping up just now. Khun Somboon had a stroke, so the meeting had to be canceled. And this fucking Seri and Meechai are back to their old games. Maybe Khun Prapan was right. We shouldn’t have pursued Seri again. I don’t know. It’s just a thought. What do you think?” Rudy said.
“You shouldn’t worry too much. We aren’t in deep shit yet. Our two enemies are dead already. I don’t know who the fuck had the guts to silence them, and the joke is the investigation is still going on. I think Ms Jambo will do the job for us, and then let the world nail the fucking sonofabitch publicly once and for all. Let’s concentrate on our business—period,” James replied.
“You think so?”
“Yeah! Now regarding the Blue Color City project, let it go parallel. In the end, we will be remembered as the Dalai Lama of the gem industry—good for us. At least some farangs (foreigners) had the balls and heart to save the country. What I think is good for us is to do something different. After Seri is gone, we are going to revolutionize blue sapphire trading and later we should add other colors as well. MASS CUSTOMIZATION AND GLOCALIZATION (going global with a local flavor / tint). That’s the next big thing yet to happen for the gem industry. It’s gonna take some time, but with the help of our ladies, we have the mines, stones, and we will give what our customers want. No more dictation,” James concluded.
Rudy looked intensely satisfied. “Good point. Go ahead.”
“What do we have? Ovals and cushions(shape). That’s the standard shape for the big stones—for both blue sapphires and rubies. Other fancy shapes are difficult to cut, because the market believes so in the name of size and shape of the rough and all that stuff. Are they right or wrong? Maybe—but we are going to change that for good. We will cut whatever our customers request at a cost. With the Internet picking up speed like hell, we can satisfy our customers anytime anywhere. We are not going to dictate to them with color, clarity or even cut. People are different, so are the stones, and we are ready to make them happy,” James reasoned.
“I think I need to get you more drinks, “ Rudy said, dashing to the kitchen. At the same time he was scribbling the details madly on a piece of paper.
“We should also duplicate a bit from De Beers. They control the best rough diamonds in the world. They have the experience, financial resources, and clout to match the competition. We are not De Beers, but we can modify ourselves to meet our customers demand. We have got to work with the miners closely, because today’s customers are loaded with information, environmental and country-of-origin conscious, and price sensitive. We don’t want people asking questions such as, is this blue sapphire from undemocratic Burma? Were the gemstones cut in a prison in China? Because the country violates human rights and all that stuff? Impossible! If they don’t want Burmese or Chinese sapphires, we don’t give,” James said.
Rudy interrupted, “How on earth would they know the blue sapphires came from Burma or China?”
“Gem Laboratory!” James added. “Peter should be able to help us out. They are the rocket scientists who have the expertise, the right tools, and the authority to make God-like statements such as, this blue sapphire is not from Burma nor China.”
“That means back to square one. Mines. If we don’t have access to productive gem mines, we can’t cut gemstones. Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, United States, and South America are the producers of gemstones. Some of the countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and South Asia are politically unstable and corrupt. We don’t have any institutions to monitor who is smuggling from where and swapping stones in the name of this or that, you understand? We can’t influence the leadership, because we are different. I mean, we will have supply problems given the conditions you know already. It’s impossible,” Rudy replied.
“Educate and sell,” James whispered. “People aren’t stupid. Once you have convinced the customers transparently with less technical jargons, they will believe what we say. We are telling the truth. Otherwise, they will check the information from the Internet or somewhere. We are different. But we have something that others don’t have. We’ll tell where our gemstone came from, how it was mined, where it was cut, why we had to identify and grade, then they will give us our price. We have gone the extra mile to tell the truth. FULL DISCLOSURE! And that’s how we are going to win the competition.”
“You became my hero today,” Rudy said merrily. “No wonder we worked together in a past life.”
“I will fucking believe that. Let’s go for another drink.”
After emptying ten bottles of beer, James remained cool and focused.
“What else buddy?”
“Did you settle Khun Prapan’s and Johnny’s account?”
“Yep. Their money is in a safe account in Singapore.”
“Good.”
“You know what? Stay with me tonight.”
“Speaking of past life, do you really believe in it?” James asked, frankly curious.
“Honestly speaking, I don’t know a thing, “ Rudy said quietly. “All the women I had fucked say I did the same in a past life. I don’t know whom to believe. Maybe they are right. Why?”
“Because I believe in it. Once we have cleared up the mess, we both should go for meditation. I don’t know. Something tells me,” James said absently.
“Wow! Strange! Now have we become Buddhists or Christians?” Rudy asked.
“Interesting. Where did you get this idea?”
“Vipassana and Christian meditation,” James smiled. “That’s what we need. Once we habitualize calm and insight, aggregates, knowledge and freedom, the mind, origination, impermanence, rediscovery, peace, progress, and noble path, we will prepare ourselves for rebirth, as they say. The Christian version is more inclined to the Bible. I would go for Christian meditation when the mess is all cleared up. The theme is flexible and global.”
“I didn’t know that you knew so much about Buddhism and Christianity, and all that religious stuff. This is a seismic shift. What happened? I think you need some rest. It must be the beer,” Rudy said seriously.
“I’m fine.”
Two hours later, Rudy looked over at James, sleeping like a baby, his face fluorescent and unaware. In his bed.