Gemscentric

Written by Julian Robov


Fifty Two


Next day, Rudy called Thomas Smith at his London office. After a detailed deliberation, Tom announced that Ms Jambo would be arriving in Bangkok in two days time. That was good news. There was a great uproar in the gem market when the local newspapers printed a front page article on one Morakot Chan, a gemstone dealer, and a one time close associate of Suvit. It was a horrible color picture. He was found dead with his eyes gouged out hanging on a telephone post off Ramintra Road. There had been a lot of killing among different factions within the Hong Kong Triad gangs who had accomplices in Bangkok and its environs. Some were caught, mostly the wrong ones, while the real culprits were successfully escorted out of the country by the establishment. It always depended on connections and illicit contracts. But it was difficult to judge if Morakot had any affiliation with such sophisticated groups. All that Rudy had known about Morakot was he had helped Seri do some of the surface diffusion-treatments, especially with synthetic flame-fusion blue sapphires. They looked so real, even a world famous gemologist with thirty years experience had to quit her job becoming a Buddhist nun after a catastrophic misidentification in New York. She decided to move to a forest monastery in the Northeast of Thailand awaiting her enlightenment and eventual Nirvana.

Now Rudy began to think. What on earth was going on? The suspects were dying one by one mysteriously with the exception of Seri and Meechai. Who could be behind the gemsicutions? It was hard to predict. He began to literally fear for his life knowing the threat Seri had issued a few days ago. This was not his country, and all he had were a few influential friends with the right connections. But that didn’t mean a farang (foreigner) was safe. Hiring gunmen from the street cost only a few hundred dollars. That was the price of a human being. A bit cheaper than a one carat fair quality natural blue sapphire.

He walked all the way to Pratunam junction to hail a taxi. The streets were crowded with tourists, tuk-tuks, hawkers, and a group of teen-agers with countless cell-phones in different colors chatting in amazing postures. Bangkok had always been a tolerant city. This sight would have been impossible in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. They were pretty close to naked with amazing assets. Amazing Thailand!

He had a meeting with Lec Dutoit across the Chao Phraya river at a safe condominium. He had always wanted to own a 100 foot-long barge just for the sake of the experience. River life fascinated him. Women in clinging pha thung (sarong-like garment), bathing quite skillfully, and naked children diving into the water from boat houses was a sight he could have hardly missed. His eagle eyes roamed all over the place. The whole scene looked natural and wholesome. Though he had seen the colossal Temple of the Dawn several times before for some reasons he couldn’t explain why it looked fluorescent from a distance. He then thought of James and Vipassana Meditation. He smiled.
Lec was watching a video when Rudy arrived.
“What’s up?”
“Did you read the newspaper report? Gem dealers dying like flies? One Morakot hanging from a telephone post? What’s going on? The trade thinks it’s a conspiracy by some farangs (foreigners) to dominate the market. I’m thinking of hiring North Korean body guards.”
“You never know. I want to ask you about the Madagascar option.”
“I have some information for you, but double-check before you make any commitment. As you know too well lies, rumors, and misinformation are part of the equation. If I’m not wrong, it’s the fourth largest island in the world. The gem deposits are primarily pegmatites. It’s often called the Beryl island, because of its enormous gem deposits. The country is corrupt and inefficient—like some of the gem producing countries in this part of the world. I am told the President lives abroad eight to nine months a year, can you believe it? You are forced to work with several government agencies, and the top bureaucrats are mostly close relatives of the President or his cronies. Export regulations are tough and opaque. So there you are. Drinks?”
“Thanks, buddy. I will go for Singha beer.” Rudy made some notes on his palm pc.
“Now with corundum, mostly parcels are offered to foreign buyers as natural ruby and sapphire rough, and like in any other corundum producing countries in the world, there are always a mixtures of natural red spinels, garnets and zircons. Lately, heat-treatment has become quite popular with mixed results. Mining is very crude, sometimes even destroying the crystals. The asking prices for the parcels are outrageous, even for low grade material. Regulations regarding the quality and authenticity of the gem materials are pretty sketchy. Anybody can sell anything. Snacks?”
“What do you have? Anything nutritious?”
Lec laughed. “Of course. Jacob’s Weetameal—light and crispy, delicious and wholesome, enriched with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, D and E. No MSG added. No preservative, coloring and flavoring—pretty close to natural.”
“Wow! I didn’t expect a detailed description, but thank you,” Rudy said politely.
“The country is full of imitation gems. The reasons are simple. The small foreign population consists of diplomats and international agencies—who are genuinely or deceptively rich with very little knowledge about gemstones. I’m told thugs on the streets are experts in cutting women’s ears stealing earrings, and the joke is most of them are either synthetic flame-fusion sapphires or synthetic flame-fusion blue spinels. Assholes.”
Rudy grinned. “Maybe we should help them with education and information. How about that?”
“I wish I had been optimistic like you,” Lec said. “The government’s laboratory isn’t up to the international standards due to lack of proper funding. You are forced to work with the so-called government experts whatever they say. Numerous obstacles are awaiting for any gemstone researchers and gemological evangelists, because of new regulations, customs clearance and getting an export permit from the office of the Director of Mines can be a hell, and time consuming. They can also play a lot of games, if they don’t like you. You will end up paying ‘bonus’ to the officials, till your money well goes bone-dry. The roads are so fucking bad that without a 4-wheel drive you go nowhere, and due to the exorbitant customs duty, only the serious ones can stay put. So to make a long story short, tight bureaucracy, institutionalized cronyism, illicit mining cannot save the fucking country. Education is least important for the politicians and bureaucrats. So what do we do? Fuck them all.”
“How come there are so many blue sapphires and rubies in the Bangkok market from Madagascar?” Rudy asked.
Lec paused. “Because of one man. Prapan Chantabun! Anyone who has close association with this god father will get the cream. All we are seeing nowadays in the Bangkok market are perhaps the second or third best quality blue sapphires. You can call him the Ruby King or Blue Sapphire King. He has everything. He knows the right people at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, persuading them to provide grants for several programs, including funding for new mining regulations. Madagascar is not Burma, but quite close. And, he is quite successful too. Wine?”
Taken aback by Lec’s revelation, Rudy said, “Okay. I have some more time to soak myself. You’ve been a good pal.”
Later, Lec arrived with several bottles of Sauvignon Blanc-based wines and Cabernet Sauvignon along with an electronic wine sniffer called Robonose; it’s real name, Neotronics Olfactory Sensing Equipment (Nose). As he explained the benefits of using the instrument with the help of a computer, Rudy listened attentively wondering how on earth could a computer replace traditional tasting, because the subtleties in a wine varied from year to year, vineyard to vineyard, and only an experienced human nose and palate had the ability to replace such a notion. He recalled the conversation he had with Peter regarding color grading of rubies and sapphires. Though subjective, new gadgets were always coming from nowhere, and now even the simple wine couldn’t escape from the clutches of a computer. They drank five bottles of wine opining in a subjective tone with scientific standards. It was fun.