One of my fascinations in life is minerals and mineralogy. I can’t say I have an expert’s knowledge of crystalline structures or forms but I do have a good feel for the massive impact our use of minerals has on our lives, and has done in the past. I have had cause to think about minerals recently, mainly owing to the sad fact that currently my mineral collection is packed away as I am currently living in a much smaller place than when my collection started and grew. I have also been thinking harder about minerals and access to them since the odd story has come into the news about, for example, the battle for new lithium resources (crucial to the promised ‘battery revolution’ and electric cars)–the world’s leading producer is currently Bolivia. More recently, there has been an announcement that lithium reserves have been found in Afghanistan–could this be the cash cow that saves this wonderful country from almost certain death? Or will it be mercilessly exploited by a few prospectors?
The politics of mineral wealth and the redistribution of that wealth to the people whose country it belongs is a huge and thorny issue that has occupied historians, social scientists and economists for years. It did get me thinking, however. My own work on material culture has not been that focused on exactly where minerals and non-organic raw materials came from–so much was recycled–but it is certainly a subject that requires more historical interest across periods and something I intend to follow up in the future. I have a much better picture of organic raw materials such as wood, linen and silk.
All this just reminded me more of the minerals I miss looking at, handling and studying, shining under UV light, etc. So I thought I’d revisit a set of photos I took a few years back and use them to think about minerals in earnest again.
| www.flickr.com |
See my whole Minerals set on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/courgettelawn/sets/1794338/
History repeats itself. Governments / politicians / we never learn from history. We ignore history at our peril. Some of the things commonly said about the consequences of not engaging with history when decisions like going to war are made. Countless people pointed this out in relation to the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq and continue to do so. However, the planning and justifications for this particular invasion have never been countenanced by history. How could they? Who, in the Bush and Blair regimes have ever engaged with history truthfully, recent or distant, to make it influence their decision making? The only use of historical legitimacy that I noted was in