Botswana’s economy needs more than diamonds to shine

Sotheby’s attempted Wednesday to auction the largest diamond discovered in over a century — a hunk of transparent rock the size of a tennis ball. It was found last November at an open-pit mine in the southern African country of Botswana. At 1,109 carats it’s second in size only to the storied “Cullinan” diamond found in South Africa in 1905 and cut down into nine of the gems in the United Kingdom’s Crown Jewels.

But what about Botswana — one of the world’s biggest suppliers of rough diamonds? How much do sales like this benefit the country?

After all, in many parts of Africa, the discovery of diamonds hasn’t been a blessing.