The Battle For Greenland's Rubies {Luxist}

Oct 3rd 2008 8:48PM I see in Marc Choyt's article that Mr. Madson was accused by the police of ruby smuggling. I had a search on the internet and found that there was an article in the Greenland news about an American being arrested at the airport for ruby smuggling. It was less than two weeks before Mr. Madson's arrest. Maybe that has something to do with why the government was so sensitive about this.

http://www.sikunews.com/art.html?catid=6&artid=3593

When you think of it, Greenland has free medical care, education, and many other benefits. It is not a poor country where people are desparate. How can they pay for all these expensive things if people are avoiding paying taxes on rubies or smuggling rubies? I think it is a lot more ethical to have a small company like True North Gems mine these rubies using local people, and share the tax money with the government, rather than have anyone come in and take what they want. In Columbia, people are routinely killed fighting over emeralds. Having a safe, enclosed mining operation that pays taxes sounds like a far more reasonable and ethical solution. This True North Gems sounds very ethical too.