Burma has significant quantities of high quality but corruption has prevented the income from these resources from benefiting the country as whole.

precious gems

Explanation:

It is known as pigeon blood for its pure red color and without spots, has a value superior to diamond and has captivated the royal courts of the world for eight centuries. Miners in the Mogok Valley look for the coveted gemstone among tons of mud, working from dawn to dusk for a pay that, when it arrives, does not always do so in the form of money. "Heroine," says teaching his toothless mouth Mahn Win Maung, a miner who has been working in these quarries for two years. "Sometimes they pay in heroin."

The drug payment guarantees that the workers will return the next day to extract the rubies that finance the Burmese dictatorship, enslave thousands of workers and decorate the necks of the elite ladies in the salons of Tokyo, Milan or New York. The fate of pigeon blood could no longer contrast with its origin: poverty, AIDS, drugs and the state of semi-slavery turn the Ruby Valley, surrounded by the mountains of the border of the state of Shan, into a place taken from another time.

Ruby is a precious stone that appears in the nature of different sizes and shapes, so it offers a great possibility when carved.

Its hardness is only lower than that of the diamond which makes it one of the most resistant gemstones. In addition, as it does not have splits, it is very difficult to suffer breakages.

Ruby is a type of red corundum; those that are blue are known as sapphires, so we can actually deduce that rubies and sapphires are practically the same stones except for their color.