Ghana, once called Gold Coast, has a problem with gold. It has too much. And you know historically what that means: People want the gold, and they will do just about anything to get it, including murder. They will also pollute without compunction streams and rivers with toxic elements like arsenic and mercury. So, it’s not surprising that a citizen of that country should write about the practice of galamsey and its degradation of the country’s environment and threat to its potable water supplies.
As Elizabeth Ohene writes in an article published by BBC online, galamsey is the illegal, widespread mining of gold in small mining operations.* Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources banned the practice. You can guess: Galamsey continues. The mining is altering the quality of water in the White, Red, and Black Volta rivers, and the Volta and its giant lake are in jeopardy. Streams are turning different colors as muds and chemicals from galamsey wash into them.
Mozambique has a different kind of gold problem, but it, too, involves small mines—very small mines. Apparently, there’s a powerful myth that bald men have gold in their heads. Yep! You guessed it. Men have been killed by those seeking gold in their hairless decapitated skulls. Head galamsey.
And now comes word that our species is older than its formerly estimated 200,000-year history. Very human-like skulls have been found in a Moroccan cave and dated to 300,000 years ago.** The discovery is an archaeological “gold mine.” No, not one of the skulls in the cave had gold inside, but those skulls are valuable. They demonstrate that our species or a very closely related species populated Africa much earlier than we had thought and had a longer evolutionary run toward becoming Homo sapiens.
One more: You can buy gold painted and actual gold skull jewelry and gold skull knickknacks online or in stores. You can even wear your gold skull jewelry as you show friends your collection of gold skulls spread around the house. "Look, here's my gold skull paperweight."
Three hundred thousand years. Let’s sum up. We’re interested in ancient skulls because they tell us something about our long evolution toward wisdom (sapiens). Because some skulls supposedly contain gold, we’re willing to kill their owners, robbing them of their individual chance for wisdom. Some of us would rather have gold than potable water, the dominant (three quarters) substance of brains. Sapiens?
Any glittering thoughts in your skull? Any nuggets of wisdom? Any vein of truth about what it means to be truly wise?
* http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40092641
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40185359
** http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40194150
As Elizabeth Ohene writes in an article published by BBC online, galamsey is the illegal, widespread mining of gold in small mining operations.* Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources banned the practice. You can guess: Galamsey continues. The mining is altering the quality of water in the White, Red, and Black Volta rivers, and the Volta and its giant lake are in jeopardy. Streams are turning different colors as muds and chemicals from galamsey wash into them.
Mozambique has a different kind of gold problem, but it, too, involves small mines—very small mines. Apparently, there’s a powerful myth that bald men have gold in their heads. Yep! You guessed it. Men have been killed by those seeking gold in their hairless decapitated skulls. Head galamsey.
And now comes word that our species is older than its formerly estimated 200,000-year history. Very human-like skulls have been found in a Moroccan cave and dated to 300,000 years ago.** The discovery is an archaeological “gold mine.” No, not one of the skulls in the cave had gold inside, but those skulls are valuable. They demonstrate that our species or a very closely related species populated Africa much earlier than we had thought and had a longer evolutionary run toward becoming Homo sapiens.
One more: You can buy gold painted and actual gold skull jewelry and gold skull knickknacks online or in stores. You can even wear your gold skull jewelry as you show friends your collection of gold skulls spread around the house. "Look, here's my gold skull paperweight."
Three hundred thousand years. Let’s sum up. We’re interested in ancient skulls because they tell us something about our long evolution toward wisdom (sapiens). Because some skulls supposedly contain gold, we’re willing to kill their owners, robbing them of their individual chance for wisdom. Some of us would rather have gold than potable water, the dominant (three quarters) substance of brains. Sapiens?
Any glittering thoughts in your skull? Any nuggets of wisdom? Any vein of truth about what it means to be truly wise?
* http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40092641
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40185359
** http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40194150
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