G is for Gold

How does gold grab you? Is it glamor that glitters? Or is gold given to goons with guns (think: government) ghastly?

Today we look at the letter G at Alphabe-Thursday.

I will first share with you a few scenes of the grand and glitzy Gold Souk in Dubai, where gold gewgaws from tiny to gigantic go for below the global price when you haggle. 

Then you may find interesting the thoughts on gold from luminaries past that seem still so germane in today's turbulent world... and which give heed to the great idiom, "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

Dubai, 2005

By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are abused; the law itself is influenced by gold, and soon there will be an end of every modest restraint. 

~ Sextus Propertius elegiac poet of the Augustan age (~50 BC-15 BC)

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

~ Samuel Johnson (1709 –1784) English author

Democracy is never a thing done. Democracy is always something that a nation must be doing. What is necessary now is one thing and one thing only that democracy become again democracy in action, not democracy accomplished and piled up in goods and gold.

~ Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American poet

Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all. 

~ John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) American Quaker poet

I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American author/philosopher

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

~ Plato (424 BC–348 BC), Classical Greek philosopher

A Great and Glorious New Year to my fellow blog hoppers!

Desert Shadows

You may be inclined to classify this image as a photo cliché... and I wouldn't argue strenuously... To make matters worse, by today's standard, it's a relatively old low resolution image. 

Yet still, I thought those of us in search of scenes for Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday might enjoy seeing the shadows of folks admiring the desert outside the city of Dubai.

Dubai, 2005

D is for Driving the Dunes

Should you ever go to Dubai, definitely do go for a drive in the dunes of the desert... if you dare. 

Dubai, 2005

It wasn't allowed, of course, but me being me and a bit of speed freak, I sweet-talked one of the tour drivers into letting me take his car for a spin. After the rest of the group was dropped off at a touristy camp for a tacky culture show and dinner, he and I snuck back out into the empty desert and I took over the wheel for about 45 minutes.

It wouldn't take much to overturn a vehicle on these sharp-edged dunes, I can tell you. Don't imagine me creeping along in first gear, either. And get this, the sun had long ago set so it was pitch dark. Woohoo! What an adrenaline rush of a ride! What a dream!

Would you dare?

These exciting Ds are linked with ABC Wednesday. Go check out the many  dramatic, dazzling, delicious or just plain fun D posts.

F is for Al Fahidi Fort

Dubai does not rank among my favorite cities I have visited. Flashy superlatives (the first, the biggest, the tallest...) and frivolous are words that immediately come to mind.

Yet I did enjoy our stop at the oldest building in the city: Al Fahidi Fort.  Built in the last years of the 1700s (the history I read does not agree on one date),  about the time the settlement was established, it was originally used for sea defense. In later years it served as a jail, an ammunition store, an emir residence and the seat of government. 

Since 1970 the building has been a museum displaying an interesting range of cultural artifacts. I was most interested in the fort itself.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2005

my Chinese "brother" Tom - then business partner

This beautiful carved door is impressive, and I can only wonder where the wood came from in those days.

The many dioramas were effective in giving me a peek into the locals' past desert life - before oil was discovered. Sorry about the flash glare, but I did think this image showed something uncommon. Lots to look at here, like the gorgeous fabric of the woman's dress. This couple must have had a high social position.

This brief glimpse into the Al Fahidi Fort Museum is posted for ABC Wednesday where the letter F is the prompt. Follow the link for many more links to takes on this letter.