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Blood diamonds
Supermodel Naomi Campbell’s testimony at the war crimes trial of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, this month has once again thrust the issue of conflict diamonds into the spotlight.
In Africa the diamond trade has been used by rebel groups to help finance wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo, Ivory Coast, and has resulted in the slaughter and mutilation of millions.
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Ivory
For decades both African and Asian elephants have been hunted relentlessly for their valuable ivory tusks.
And although the United National Convention imposed a global ban on the international trade of ivory in 1989 in attempt to reduce the killings, illegal trading and poaching still continues today.
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Chinese medicine
The strong demand for traditional medicine in many Asian countries is a major force behind the illegal trading of endangered wildlife.
The Rhino horn for example is considered by many to be a powerful aphrodisiac, and as a result the Rhinoceros is under serious threat of being poached into extinction.
Tiger bone meanwhile continues to prove popular on the black market as a cure of rheumatism and arthritis.
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Life settlements
Life settlement, or viatical, policies can make even the most morbid of investors feel slightly uncomfortable.
The investor buys someone else’s life insurance policy in the US, (usually someone with a short life expectancy), continues to pay the premiums and then collects the payout when the seller dies.
However, if the seller doesn’t die ‘on time’ the investor could lose out. Put simply therefore: the quicker they die the more profit you make.
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Investing in arms companies
Arms, tobacco, alcohol, gambling and p*rnography companies are widely considered as some of the most unethical industries to invest it.
These days, most major investment organisations offer ethical or ‘socially responsible’ funds, which specifically avoid this type of investment and opt for investments which are ‘green’ and make positive contributions to society instead.
Although the criteria for what is deemed ‘ethical’ varies hugely from business to business.
