Robber Baron and Business Men Essays

Robber Baron and Business Men Essays Robber Baron and Business Men Essay Robber Baron and Business Men Essay During this Gilded Age business men have been creating large business organizations known as trusts, this ingenuity of these entrepreneurs has been earning them the title Captains of Industry yet their ruthlessness in the building of their industries and wealth at the expense of their competitors has been earning some of these men the title of Robber Barons. I personally believe that these business men have negatively affected the people around them, making them titled as Robber Barons. I chose to talk about documents A, D, E because they show / describe the Robber Barons the best. In document A it shows the picture named Puck. In this picture it shows the workers on the bottom, putting all this work into holding up this company up, or in the picture the ship and the owners or the business men do nothing but make all the money. This truly shows that the owners should be counted as Robber Barons mostly because they arent helping anyone but themselves by making other people to do their Job, and not paying them even close to what he could pay them. In document D it demonstrates the picture The Great Race for the Western Stakes 1870. In this comment these two men are competing to build off the railroad, but the difference is, Vanderbilt, the person on the left of this picture, with the two R. Ors is very successful and rich and Just not giving anyone else the chance to have any success, while the one to the right Just wants to try and expand his R. R company, but Vanderbilt, isnt letting that happen. In document E this cartoon is titled The Trust Giants Point of View. This document shows Rockefeller looking down upon the Whitehorse, making a point that hes bigger and better than everyone with his oil industry. All three document show these men showing that they are Robber Barons by how badly they treat society and how they look down on everyone else. I believe that this Gilded Age has been negatively affected by the actions of these business men mostly to the fact that they are taking advantage of something they should be privileged to have. These men have showed no remorse for people who are not as privileged or even people coming from poverty and the middle class, they will do anything to make as much money as they possibly can, making it unfair for anyone else. Robber Baron and Business Men By reincarnations

Mark Twain Quotes on Religion

Mark Twain Quotes on Religion Mark Twain had strong opinions on religion. He was not one to be swayed by religious propaganda or sermons. However, Mark Twain was not considered an atheist. He was evidently against conventional religion; and the traditions and dogma that prevail within religion. Religious Intolerance Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isnt straight. So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbors religion is. Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many  religions; but  no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code. The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. The Christians Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes. Religious Training In religion and politics peoples beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination. A religion that comes of thought, and study, and deliberate conviction, sticks best. It aint those parts of the Bible that I cant understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live. Church No sinner is ever saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon. Satan hasnt a single salaried helper; the Opposition  employ  a million. Zeal and sincerity can carry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and sword. India has 2,000,000 gods, and worships them all. In religion, other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire. Morality and Human Nature Man is kind enough when he is not excited by religion. It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. By temperament, which is the real law of God, many men are goats and cant help committing adultery when they get a chance; whereas there are numbers of men who, by temperament, can keep their purity and let an opportunity go by if the woman lacks in attractiveness. If God had meant for us to be naked, wed have been born that way. God puts something good and lovable in every man His hands create. But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most? God pours out love upon all with a lavish hand but He reserves vengeance for His very own.

Slap Stick Comedy and American Novelists Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Slap Stick Comedy and American Novelists - Essay Example Cartman, mocking the hungry by showing his desire only for the sports watch and not for helping a hungry nation, finds himself lost in a third world country. Another similarity between Grandmother and Cartman is that neither of them are more concerned about others or their surroundings than they are with themselves. Grandmother has her own reasons for not wanting to go to Florida. She uses her family’s safety as an excuse not to go, claiming that there was the chance that the Misfit might catch up with them. However, the safety of her family is the least of her worries. Furthermore, when the Misfit is having his men carry off her family into the woods to meet their end, the Grandmother can do nothing but plead for her own life. She only displays the slightest bit of concern that her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren are not being returned to her. Cartman could not care less about the conditions of starving people in third world countries, even one of their occupants is d elivered to his doorstep. He is more concerned with getting his watch. Then, when he is starving along with the other Ethiopians, he is still more concerned with his own welfare than of those around him. Grandmother and Cartman both rely on the help of God when all else has failed.

Business environment Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business environment Report - Essay Example The changing business strategies to cope with the fast transforming socio-economical paradigms of the times have become crucial factors that enable the businesses to compete against their rivals. The external factors are often the major proponents that necessitate organizational changes. The world economy is presently undergoing tremendous turmoil. In the recent past, the American economy has been under tremendous strain with its deteriorating job market and dismal performance of its various public private companies. Its offshore business has also suffered as a result of bad economic policies of the current republican government, headed by George Bush. The bankruptcy of few of its major financial institutions has resulted in the financial meltdown that has created a serious crisis situation in the American economy that has cascaded down to the rest of the world. The recessive trend in the American economy has forced the businesses to meet the challenges with creative business strategies and embrace the changing business compulsions with vigour and vitality. In a news report in the ‘Guardian’ on 3 December 2008, it was reported that UK’s top retailer, Tesco was really struggling against ‘Morrisons’ to maintain its position. While Tesco had registered its worst sales in 14 years during the Christmas, Morrisons had surged ahead towards the position of top retailer! The article was succinct in describing the cause and effects of the current recessive trend in the retail industry and the various ways through which they were trying to meet the challenges and attract customers to increase their sales. In yet another news item in the same issue, Christ Hirst had highlighted the ‘Christmas supermarket advertisements’. Hirst has revealed that the advertisements play a significant role in the boosting the sales figure and Morrisons’ ‘The campaign is about freshness and provenance,

The Effects of Social Networking on Our Society Essay Example for Free

The Effects of Social Networking on Our Society Essay The use of electronic and social media has become a staple in our society. No matter where one travels one can have access to this great resource. But has this accessibility and dependence upon electronic and social media gone too far? Is this passion for instant gratification affecting our ability to communicate with those around us on a personal level? Another question to ask is whether or not this constant access to technology will help our children develop the necessary skills to succeed in life; whether through multitasking or being able to adapt to new situations. There have been many studies that argue both sides of this issue. Some say these new technologies will improve the quality of life for our children and others argue that instead of helping, it will hinder their ability to effectively communicate. The impact of the internet and social media has permanently altered the lives of all who participate in its web. Kevin Cain’s article, â€Å"The Negative Effects of Facebook on Communication† argues that Facebook is completely changing how we communicate with one other. He says it is creating a society that values, â€Å"†¦frequent communication more than meaningful communication,† (Cain). He believes this has caused us to have shrinking attention spans and has made us want to share more personal information that we normally would not be comfortable sharing with others. â€Å"[We] overshare a variety of information that was once unthinkable for public consumption,† (Cain). On the other hand, Lori Takeuchi’s more researched article, â€Å"How Tweens Use Digital Media to Develop Their Identities† is not quite sure what kind of consequences our overexposure to the internet will have. She believes it can have both positive and negative effects based on a child’s exposure to the internet and the parental involvement surrounding its use. Takeuchi writes, â€Å"†¦reading Club Penguin’s newspaper, for example, can help foster children’s reading comprehension skill and negotiate, collaborate, and evaluate,† (Takeuchi). Even though Takeuchi believes these can be important aids to our children’s learning curve, she does not think that it should completely replace the non-technological part of our lives. She states, â€Å"Rather than replacing or eliminating activities, digital media represent an additional layer of their everyday lives,† (Takeuchi). Takeuchi is very clear in stating family and outdoor activities are still very important and necessary. Although it is clear that electronic and social media is having a powerful impact on our society, it still is not entirely clear whether this influence is for the betterment of the society as a whole. It is however, unquestionable that the internet has changed our lives forever. Although the long term effect of electronic and social me dia has not been thoroughly vetted, it seems as if the misuse of this resource can leave us with undesirable results. Electronic and social media has positive functionality in our everyday life. It can enable a person to research a wide range of topics including, searching medical diagnoses or treatments on sites like WebMD for injuries or illnesses, collecting material for school projects, or it can reconnect you with old friends through Facebook and Twitter. Although communication through Facebook and Twitter can be entertaining and fun, it consumes untold hours each month. Surprising, most users are unaware of this fact. A study in August of 2011 showed that Facebook usage alone accounted for nearly eight hours of online time per person. Twitter did not register quite as high on the scale of online time usage, but it is believed to be because Twitter, like most other websites, does not track the time spent using mobile phones. So, â€Å"these numbers only track visits to Twitter.com, and do not take into account mobile usage,† (Konrardy). That means that the total time spent on these websites is actually much higher. If one takes into account how much time one observes people on cell phones checking their social media, the total time wasted on these sites would be much higher. Not only are people spending an exorbitant amount of time on social networking sites, they are also developing a tendency to be more comfortable having serious conversations through social media or some other form of non-personal communication. This is especially prevalent amongst children ages thirteen to eighteen, â€Å"young Facebook users are relying less on interpersonal communication skills and more on technology to communicate for them,† (Konrardy). This can be a huge detriment to their development of interpersonal skills. If children do not learn how to communicate effectively at a young age, it can hinder them in the future whether in job interviews or when dealing with personal conflict in relationships. Communication is necessary to live peaceably in our society. If children are taught that Facebook and other social networking sites are acceptable forms of serious conversation, they will be less likely to succeed in their personal and public lives. Susan Tardanico said in an article that, â€Å"†¦these generations – which will comprise more than 50% of the workforce by 2020 – would prefer to use instant messaging or other social media than stop by an office and talk with someone,† (Tardanico 1). This change in communication styles has made it difficult for employers to build trust and employee loyalty which then, in turn, can negatively impact productivity. Cell phones and social networking sites cannot offer true communication because â€Å"A whopping 93% [of communication] is based on nonverbal body language,† (Tardanico 1). This makes it extremely difficult for an individual to discern what another person might be meaning through words alone. In October of 2011 Sharon Seline was texting her daughter, who was off at college, asking how her life was going at school. Her daughter continually responded with positive responses, smiley faces, and hearts. This made Seline believe her daughter was quite happy and having a wonderful time at college. In reality, she never left her dorm room and showed tales tell signs of depression, a fact that did not come across in her texts and social networking posts. Later in the same night while she was ‘talking’ with her mother, she tried to commit suicide. Because the daughter’s non-verbal communication was absent from their conversations, her mother was unable to decipher the seriousness of the situation. She had to take her daughter’s written word as fact because she was, unable to â€Å"hear [her] tone of voice or look into [her] eyes†¦ [and] know when â€Å"I’m fine† doesn’t mean [she’s] fine at all†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Tardanico 1). If Seline would have been able to see her daughter’s body language, she would have easily recognized, through non-verbal communication that she was not okay and needed help. In this case, face-to-face communication might have been able to keep a young lady from attempting suicide. There is also a direct correlation between the usage of Facebook and other social media sites to a person’s shyness. A study showed that those who have a tendency to be shy, generally have less ‘friends’ but spend more time on these sites. â€Å"†¦although shy individuals do not have as many contacts on their Facebook profiles, they still regard this tool as an appealing method of communication and spend more time on Facebook than do nonshy individuals,† (Liebert 339). Although it may be appealing to those who have a hard time meeting others, what it really does is immobilize them from entering into meaning relationships with others. It reinforces their shyness and perpetuates their lack of social ability in the ‘real’ world. They use it as a means of communication, so they do not have to go out into the world to overcome their shyness. It is easy to see that this study’s, â€Å"†¦findings might be explained by the anonymity afforded by online communication, specifically, the removal of many of the verbal and nonverbal cues associated with face-to-face interactions,† (Liebert 339). Again, this ability to hide in an online community does nothing to help an individual overcome their shyness. In fact this behavior hurts them by creating a false connection and an altered reality by inhibiting them from actual interpersonal relationships’. Without practice, a shy individual will have limited exposure to verbal and nonverbal cues that could in turn negatively impact them in job interviews or other â€Å"real† life situations. Unadulterated social networking has also been observed to negatively impact college student’s grades. Megan Puglisi says that, â€Å"According to Northern Michigan University, college students who used Facebook while studying, even just having it in the background, earned grades 20 percent lower on average than non-users in 2010,† (Puglisi). The impact of lower grades in college could adversely affect ones future life and well-being. For example, if a student can achieve a 20 percent improvement in their GPA simply by removing the constant interruption of social media sites from their environment, this could result in not only better grades, but scholarship opportunities. This in turn could improve that student’s financial burden. If, however, ones grades drop by 20 percent, because of the constant interruption from social media sites, at the extreme end of the spectrum, one could get kicked out of college which would hinder one’s ability to acquire future employment. So sacrificing a little time on Facebook could greatly affect ones present and future life. Puglisi also found that college students’ tendencies to use social media reduced their relationship with their professors. In her article, she quoted Dr. Kelley Crowley, a professor who â€Å"teaches public relations writing and principles of advertising at West Virginia University,† (Puglisi). According to Crowley, students should be pursuing real relationships. She believes that, â€Å"‘Avoiding personal interactions harms the competency of young professionals (Its difficult for students) to speak to respected professionals during interviews because they lack the necessary nonverbal behaviors, like eye contact,’† (Puglisi). Again, this directly relates to how social media can adversely affect college age students when applying to the work force. By not developing proper communication skills necessary for success, these students are affecting their life in a negative way. Puglisi is also a strong advocate for writing correctly on social networking sites. She believes making poor grammatical mistakes can make one look bad. She believes if one proof reads what one says before one posts it, one can â€Å"prevent looking like a fool in front of professors, friends and future colleagues,† (Puglisi). Employers now search out a person’s social media site to see what type of individual they really are. If one used poor grammar and made careless mistakes, the company would be much less likely to hire them. The many articles and researched opinions on this matter coincide with everyday observable behaviors. On any given day, one can walk down the street and see someone on their phone, texting, on Facebook, or looking at different internet sites. People are simply occupied with their electronic devices rather than with the world around them. This lack of interaction with the outside world can cause chronic electronic users to make stupid and sometimes irreparable mistakes. The other day my friend was riding his bike to class. A girl distracted while looking at her phone, walked out in front of him. He had to swerve out of the way so he would not hit her. He ended up crashing his bike, and spraining his ankle; a relatively small injury compared to what could have happened. In this instance, if the girl would not have been checking her phone, she would not have stepped out in front of him, and he would not have been injured. Another more personal incident occurred while I was driving my parent’s car. I only had my permit and my brother and I were heading to my swim practice when I w ent to turn left at a green light. A young lady was texting on her cell phone and went through her red light and nearly hit us. That young lady was tremendously lucky because had she hit us, I would have, in all likely hood, been killed. Two seconds separated me from life and death. This distraction of electronic media can sometimes have very tragic results. In 2012, a Philadelphia man was walking while using his cell phone. Because he was distracted, he fell onto a set of train tracks. Luckily, no train was coming and he was able to recover and get himself out before being crushed. In this case, distracted walking almost cost a man his life. More and more reports of injuries due to distracted walkers are being reported. A study showed that, â€Å"[All]though overall traffic deaths were lower in 2012 than the year before, pedestrian fatalities rose by 4.2 percent and injuries by 19 percent,† (Lowy). This shows a direct correlation between the use of social media and pedestrian deaths. This is no surprise to researchers, â€Å"‘I see students as soon as they break from a class, they have their cellphones out and theyre texting to one another. Theyre walking through the door and bumping into one another, said Jack Nasar, an Ohio State University professor and expert on environmental psychology,† (Lowy). This distraction can easily turn into something much bigger and cause serious injuries. â€Å"A study Nasar conducted at intersections on campus found that people talking on cellphones were significantly more likely to walk in front of cars than pedestrians not using phones†¦ reports of injuries to distracted walkers treated at hospital emergency rooms have more than quadrupled in the past seven years† (Lowry). These studies and reports show how social media and networking sites can greatly harm an individual when undivided attention is not given to the task at hand. Social media has also completely changed the way we read and process information. Nicholas Carr in is article, â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid† talks about how the internet has made it more difficult for people to stay focused. â€Å"The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing,† (Carr). This can greatly affect your studying and work ability. By having this inability to be focused, you may have trouble gathering information you may need for a class or work project. This can negatively affect your performance and cause you to do poorer than you originally would. Carr also states that, â€Å"Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.† (Carr). Again, this inability to make connections and interpret the written text can make us less marketable, which in turn damages our quality of life. Carr, when researching his article, came across a five-year long research program. The scientists studied the behaviors of visitors to two different research sites, both offering any different forms of written information. In the study, â€Å"They found that people using the sites exhibited â€Å"a form of skimming activity,† hopping from one source to another†¦ They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before they would â€Å"bounce† out to another site,† (Carr). This type of skimming and non-ability to analyze written word has become a great drawback of social media. Social media and networking sites have had a great impact on our society. It has given us the ability to access any information we want, whenever we want. But this gift has taken us to a level we could never have imagined , and it has not always been in a good way. Through continually having access to social media, we have created many dangerous side effects. By not being able to read one’s body language, we can have a difficult time discerning what they really mean. By hiding behind a computer screen, we can lose many of the abilities to communicate effectively. By constantly having our faces glued to our cell phones, we can cause bodily harm to ourselves and to others. All of these negative ramifications can greatly hinder our capacity to find a decent job, do well in school, and communicate in an effective manner. If people do not become conscience of our misuse of this great resource, we may see even worse side effects than we have already encountered. Works Cited Cane, Kevin. The Negative Effects of Facebook on Communication. Social Media Today RSS. Social Media Today, 29 June 2012. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. . Carr, Nicholas. â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. Web, 16 Nov. 2012. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/. Konrardy, Nate. Face-to-Facebook Communication. The Northern Iowan. The Northern Iowan, 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. . Lowry, Joan. Distracted Walking: Smartphone-wielding Pedestrians Stumble into Danger. The Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. Orr, Robert R. et al. The Influence Of Shyness On The Use Of Facebook In An Undergraduate Sample. Cyberpsychology Behavior 12.3 (2009): 337-340. Puglisi, Megan. Social Networking Hurts the Communication Skills of College Students. The Daily Athenaeum. The DA Online, 13 Oct. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. . Takeuchi, Lori. MindShift. MindShift RSS. Mind Shift, 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. .

Corruption in Hamlet :: Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

Corruption in Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   An incidental comment from a minor character lays down, in the opening moments of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the theme which is to pin together all its aspects. Francisco the guard says, 'I am sick at heart.' [Act I. Sc. I, 29]. Francisco's sick melancholy is in keeping with the atmosphere of corruption and decay which permeates the play; unexplained, difficult to define, but with a clear component of dread. And, typically, his expression of misgivings is misinterpreted, perhaps even underestimated. Barnardo, seeking palpable reasons for Francisco's distraction, asks whether Francisco has had a quiet watch. Perhaps he wonders if the ghost has disturbed Francisco, but whatever is ailing Franciso remains secret, simply becoming a part of the anxious atmosphere.       We are constantly reminded of the pervading atmosphere of decay through the imagery used in the play. It is a significant point that the ghost, the only character that could arguably be termed an outside observer, and who is certainly qualified to make some form of prophetic judgement, should be one of the prime sources of imagery of decay, poison and rotting.    Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebona in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment . . . . . . doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, the thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine. And a most instant tetter barked about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust All my smooth body [Act I, Sc. v, 66 - 78]    A graphic description, especially since only moments before the ghost had instructed Hamlet not to pity it!    Throughout the play we can trace a progression of corruption, that leads to death, through 'disease' in the characters of Polonius, Claudius and Hamlet.       Polonius is perhaps the most obviously corrupt character in Hamlet. His corruption has occurred long before the play begins; the progression is in the extent to which it is revealed to us. From this courteous, almost comically long-winded member of the court, emerges a personality that is first dominating (as he instructs Laertes: 'These few precepts in thy memory/ Look thou character.' [Act I, Sc. iii, 63]), clearly abusive towards Ophelia:    Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance,

Children Rights for Education

In John Holts essay, â€Å"Freedom for Children† he discusses how children should have their own right to decide how much, when, and what to learn. Holt states that by taking children†s right to learn, we are taking a fundamental right away from them. He also states that, to adults, the right to decide what does and does not interest us is taken for granted and that we are unknowingly taking this right away from children. Holt also states that by sending children to school six hours a day, 180 days a year, for about 10 years we are limiting them. Holt concludes that children are no longer learning, but rather are taught what adults think they should know. I personally disagree with Holts on this matter. If children had the right to control their education, what would stop them from even going or learning things that could be damaging to society? I feel the have plenty of rights as it is. Children today have many rights already in the field of education. In elementary school, no one forces them to stop learning. They can always choose to further their education, by reading perhaps. In high school, there are a variety of classes a student can choose from. All these classes can be selected to fit an individual student. Classes ranging from art and drama all the way up to advanced placement physics are at the disposal of those who want to learn. No one forces children to take these classes. Students take these classes of their own free will. Once in college, a student has the right to choose whatever major they feel fit to be in. If they don†t like that major, they can always change it. What would happen if students were allowed to come and go as they please? All too often, students would never go to class. They would abuse their right and spend their days having fun. I have personally seen friends leave school because they don†t want to be there. If they didn†t have to be there they would not have come in the first place. There are certain things that students should know. Basic math and English skills are required jus to get by in today†s society. If these basic skills are never learned, we risk having an underdeveloped society full of uneducated people. Our world would literally crumble because we run the chance of people not knowing anything. Limiting what children learn today is not the way we want to have them grow up. If we did that, we would have them grow up with a natural tendency to learn what is harmful or wrong to society. What we are trying to do is guide them in life so what they can make the right decisions in life. Exposing them to what is right in the world will help them open up to new opportunities and experiences. As we can see, we are not limiting on what a person can learn, but only protecting that person from abusing it. So many things can go wrong if a person were allowed to take control of their own education. Abuse and neglect are only a few possibilities. The way education is now was designed to be the best for those willing and even unwilling to learn. Those willing can receive the best education their mind is able to give them. The unwilling receive the basics and don†t become a burden on society. Holts† idea of unhindered learning may be an idealistic one, but in the end there are too many flaws and loopholes. An education like that could be societies downfall when our system is extremely efficient now.

Coin

I was born in the fires of an ancient forge in the hilss of the Hindu Kush. Amid the clatter of hammers and the chatter of Greek, I paused on a battered anvil for the final pangs of my creation. Beneath me lay a hardened die bearing the image of my king; atop me pressed another, etched with horsemen and some mirror-image words. Then the hammer struck, hard and heavy, ringing out the news of my nativity. With each belo the dies dug deeper into my flesh, stamping their images as father and mother of a freshly minted coin.As I look back across two millennia for these earliest memories, I marbel at my long, now legendary, journey from mine to mint to market to museum. I remeber Rome as a rising power, a century before the first Caesars; I recall the early days of Emperor Asoka's moral conquests and the builing of China's Great Wall. I have outlived six of the seven wonders of the ancient world. (I am told the Great Pyramid still stands) Yet I am no mute ruin: money talks. Mine is the voi ce of history, recorded by numismatists trained to hear my ancient stories of art, industry, worship, and war.My eloquence youth, when legends traced my origins to a colony of giant ants. Most gold in ancient times was mined by condemned criminals and slaves whose lives meant little to their taskmasters. In my days, the mines of Egypt were legendary hives of human misery. But it was said that gold in great abundance could be found near India, where giant ants piled gold-bearing dust at the entrances of their tunnels. These ants–nearly the size of dogs, the legend said–defended their burrows fiercely against men who dared to steal the spoils of their digging.But such danger was trivial given the normal costs of ancient mining, and so the legend spread as far as Greece. When Alexander the Great invaded the Indus Valley in the fourth century BC, his Greek soldiers eagerly searched for this legendary lode. Local guides displayed for them the dappled skins of the ants thems elves, but the invaders could not find a single mound of precious gold Only a few generations later, however, Greek settlers were gathering large quantities of gold in this very region.These descendants of Alexander's warriors created a wealthy kingdom called Bactria, famous for its beautiful silver and gold coins like me. (See Aramco World, May/June 1994) Where, scholars have long wondered, did the Greek kings of Bactria find so much precious metal? International trade constitutes one obvious source, but giant â€Å"ants† might be another. Two thousand years after I was born, explorers discovered that burrowing marmots on the remote Dansar Plateau, near the borders of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, do indeed heap mounds of gold-bearing earth at the mouths of their burrows.These stocky rodents, called â€Å"mountain ants† by the Persians who passed the legend on to the Greeks, grow to the size of small dogs and pitch up meter-high hills of auriferous subsoil. Even in modern times, local tribes harvest this gold in an age-old tradition that recalls the legends of my youth. It is possible, after all, that inhuman marmots, rather than inhuman misery, brought my gold to the forges of man. From the moment I left the royal mint of my king Eucratides, eager hands grasped for me. I was a beauty then, the envy of every monarch and merchant from the Indus to the Euphrates.Great artists had carved my parent dies in mirror-image, etching tiny Greek words and figures backward so that these negative forms would produce positive impressions on my two faces. The result, when smashed into 8. 5 grams (0. 3 oz) of gold, is a splendid coin called a stater — a treasure of art as well as riches. My obserse (the â€Å"heads† face produced by the lower, anvil die) boasts a once-brilliant portrait of King Eucratides, framed in a circle of small dots. Behind the king's neck trails the royal diadem, a ribbon tied around his head as the unmistakble em blem of his office.His cloak, engraved in high relief, is that of a cavalry commander, and his great crested helmet resembles a Boeotian design lauded by the historian Xenophon as the best headgear for cavalrymen. Attached to my king's helmet is a frontlet that sweeps back and ends in bull's horns and ears. Some consider this a symbolic evocation of Alexander the Great's war-horse Bucephalus (â€Å"Ox-head†), who had horns according to some accounts, and who had been buried by Alexander near my own birthplace. Like Alexander, my king rode with valor at the head of his elite cavalry and conquered with an aggressive Greek spirit.In fact, Eucratides called himself â€Å"the Great† long before that title was given to Alexander by the Romans. On my reverse (the â€Å"tails† side produced by the upper, punch die), you can still read the exalted caption â€Å"King Eucratides the Great. † No Greek had ever put such words on his coinage before, but modesty was nev er my king's style. The armed horsemen who gallop within the inscription are Castor and Pollux. In Greek mythology, they were the sons of Zeus who would suddenly appear in a crisis to save the day, much like Eucratides himself, who wrestled the Bactrian throne from a faltering dynasty.These twins carry palms, brandish spears, and wear felt caps topped with stars. Behind the rear legs of the trailing horse, you can discern a Greek monogram, W. This mark identifies either the mint or the magistrate responsible for my creation. Nearly every gold and silver coin minted in Bactria carries such a birthmark, but the exact meaning of the many symbols has long been lost. For example, some scholars think that my monogram indicates the city of Balkh or Aornus; others see only the initials of some unknown Greek official who served a few months as midwife in the delivery of my king's new money.If you look past the scars of my long life, I am as beautifully Greek as the Parthenon itself, though I was born 5000 kilometers (3000 mi) east of Athens. I am the mind of the West imprinted on the precious metal of the East. The implications haunt me. Am I propaganda etched on plunder, or the product of a peaceful integration? Do I personify apartheid or a partnership? The design and distribution of currency are deliberate, official acts, so money can never be neutral in the struggles of any society.Look at a nation's coins and you will see the scatter-shot of its cultural canon: even a melting-pot like America has a partisan coinage, its message overwhelmingly white, male, European, and Christian. In ancient Bactria, I was no less biased. My milieu is entirely Mediterranean, and my intrinsic value kept me beyond reach of the marginalized poor of the non-Greek population. Gold circulated over the heads of these farmers and servants, who relied upon small denominations of bronze of silver for their meager purchases.My king minted for them some square, bilingual issues struck on an In dian weight standard, but I belonged to colonial Greek aristocrats, the ruling elite of Bactria. Unlike small bronze and silver coins which travel swiftly but never far, my gold brothers and I ranged into territories quite distant from our monarch's own marketplaces. Throughout the Middle East, Hellenistic states were quick to accept gold coins struck on a common Greek standard with recognizable types. I, for example, would be recognized in any market from the Balkans to Bactria.I had no restrictive local features, as did my square bilingual cousins, and my denomination conformed to the Attic Greek system used nearly everywhere in Alexander's old empire. The range of my travels can be easily documented: In Mesopotamia, for example, another Greek king so admired my design that he shamelessly stole every detail for his own coinage. But globe-trotting gold cannot be too careful, for everywhere, insatiable melting pots stand ready. My parent dies produced as many as 20,000 siblings iden tical to me; now, of them all, only I have survived the gauntlet that gold runs.The most critical moment in any money's life is the day it ceases to be currency. Once a coin can no longer circulate in a given place or time, human hands are quick to convert it into some more useful form. Most of my brothers became bullion again, their identities soon lost in the issues of other, less ancient kings. Some may exist still as a statue's thumb or a goblet's lip, but I would not recognize them. I carry the last known imprint of our shared dies because an unusual circumstance spared my life. Painful and defacing though it was, that occasion added 2000 years to my story and gave me an unexpected career.A sturdy loop of my metal was fused to my reverse side, right across my galloping horsemen. The attachment was sized to fit a finger, and I became a sinet ring. This ancient operation changed the whole pattern of my life. My surfaces no longer wore evenly; instead my obverse suffered horribly as it rode that band exposed to daily bumps and bruises, while my reverse design was now shielded from the whold. I lived a strange new life on the wrong side of the humand hand, banished from the palm where coins enjoy the camaraderie of active currency. Who had done this to me?The Greeks, as far as I could determine, were gone. Shortly after my king's reign, Bactria fell to successive waves of nomadic invaders. Some of them later settled in the region and created the Kushan empire, astride the famous Silk Roads that linked the empires of Rome and China. One Kushan ruler so exceeded my own king's ambitions that he proclaimed himself not only â€Å"the Great†, but also â€Å"King of Kings, Son of Heaven, Caesar† — a title that is simultaneously Iranian, Indian, Chinese, and Roman. Although I finally found myself outside the closed world of my Greek makers, I felt welcome among these eclectic Kushans.They borrowed freely from my past. One of their graves containe d a magnificent cameo imitating my design, and signet rings of Greek style were common elements in their elaborate gold-spangled costumes. Eventually lost or interred — I cannot recall which — I reluctantly returned beneath the soil of Central Asia. For twenty centuries I slept; you cannot imagine the burden of time. My gold kept its luster while all around me the corrosive poisons of earth ate away the baser metals. Above me, kings gave way to caliphs and khans as new realms dawned and died.Other gold shone for the civilizations of Muslims, Mongols, and Mughals while I lay undiscovered, underground, my fame forgotten. Neither man or marmot rescued me — until modern times. Then, I suddenly awoke and saw myself reflected in the wide dark eyes of a jubilant discoverer. My new guardian considered the expedient of the melting pot, but my unusual appearance gave him pause. Not just another antique coin, I was a warrior's signet, well-suited to his own station. He was an Afghan officer, and I found a new home on his hand. There I was schooled in the long history I had missed.I learned that Bactria had become Afghanistan, where the weapons were new but the wars unchanged. Great powers still converged upon this rugged and remote bastion in order to control the gateways between Europe, Asia and India. Now, however, this struggle was called â€Å"the Great Game. † Intrepid spies from czarist Russia and imperial Britain crept along the snow-filled passes of Central Asia, and tired armies clashed in places called Kabul, Kandahar and the Khyber Pass. Rudyard Kipling and others romanticized the struggle, but brave men did not bleed the less for all this talk of games. I saw the fight firsthand

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