Essay on Barack Obama Essay Example

Essay on Barack Obama Paper Barack Obama Examined Through an Adlerian Framework Superiority Striving Alfred Adler believed that childhood events are pivotal for the adult. Adler’s pivotal childhood events were the development of rickets. Adler’s development of rickets kept him from walking until the age of four and contracting a near-fatal case of pneumonia at age five. These events served to inculcate a lifelong ambition centered around becoming a physician in order to focus on the curing of deadly diseases. Adler said that â€Å"all people have moments when they feel inferior. For many, such moments will lead them to strive to compensate for that weakness. When this happens, it leads to what he calls â€Å"superiority striving,† in which the person is motivated by his or her feelings of inferiority to overcome and strive for betterment, achievement, and perfection. Adler believed that superiority striving is different from simply striving for power. Adler considered this an unhealthy desire because the sole goal is power. The way that someone strives to meet his or her goals from an Adlerian point of view is Adler called a style of life. I will compare President Barack Obama’s superiority striving to Adlerian Theory Obama did not have a relationship with his father as a child. As an infant, Barack father Obama Sr. relocated to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University, to receive a Ph. D. Baracks parents separated several months later and divorced in March 1964. In 1965 at the age of 2, President Barack Obama Jr. , father returned to Kenya. In 1965, Obama’s mother Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, an East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Baracks half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay on Barack Obama specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Essay on Barack Obama specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Essay on Barack Obama specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her sons safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them. Obama’s grandparents enrolled him in Punahou Academy. Barack was one of only three black students at the school. Obama faced racism for the first time at the school and found out what it meant to be African-American. Obama described how much he had conflict with adapting to his own social perceptions, multiracial heritage, and sense of self: I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog nd that Santa was a white man, he said. I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me (2012). Obama also had conflict with the absence of his father that he saw only one more time after his parents divorced , when Obama Sr. visited Hawaii for a short time in 1971. In 1981, Obama Sr. was involved in a serious car accident, in which he lost both of his legs. Confined to a wheelchair, he also lost his job. November 24, 1982, Obama Sr. as involved in a fatal car accident while traveling in Nairobi, Barack was 21 years old. Obama moved to Chicago in 1985 where he worked on the South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities. Barack visited relatives in Kenya, which included a very emotional visit to the graves of his father and grandfather. Obama said. â€Å"I saw that my life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope Id witnessed in Chicago all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away. Obama came back from Kenya with a new respect and outlook on life. Obama’s new outlook and respect pushed him, to enter Harvard Law School in 1988. â€Å"I enter Harvard Law School to make things better for the African American race and to help all minorities to better things† (Barack Obama- Biography). February 1990, Obama was el ected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. Barack graduated from Harvard, top of his class, in 1991. After finishing law school, Obama went back to Chicago where he practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill Galland. Barack taught part time at the University of Chicago Law School (1992-2004) as a lecturer and then as a professor. In 1992 Obama helped organize voter registration drives during presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. President Obama concentrated on setting the foundation for an economy that is built to last creating jobs for American workers, cutting taxes for middle class families and small businesses, investing in education, manufacturing and American-made energy, and making sure everyone follows the same rules, ethics and code of conduct. President Obamas years of public service are centered on his belief in the ability to unite people around their politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he passed groundbreaking lobbying reform, locked up the most dangerous weapons in the world, and brought clearness to government by putting federal spending on the line.

Children of a Lesser God essays

Children of a Lesser God essays The movie Children of a Lesser God can be best described as a love story that deals with barriers in basic communication. It is a story based on a play about a talented teacher for the deaf named James, who forms an interest in a deaf employee named Sarah, who works for the same school. His job is to help deaf children learn how to speak, so he feels he can help Sarah to do the same. Initially, James runs into problems with her because she doesnt have an interest in learning how to speak and she admits to him that she doesnt know how to read lips. James takes this as a challenge and begins to lure Sarah to him by coincidentally bumping into her from time to time. Once he draws Sarah in by taking her to dinner and communicating with her quite often, they realize that theyve fallen in love. The conflict in the movie is that James unwittingly tries time and time again to get Sarah to speak and learn to read lips and she basically wants him to step into her world of silence. Near the end of the movie we see as James explodes and finally tells her that hes tired of trying to reach out to her all of the time and doesnt understand whats holding her back. Her response is equally explosive as she explains her sentiments about the issue. After some time they experience separated, James and Sarah reunite in the end to resume the love that they share for each other. In the communication context, there are a few characteristics of communication that are dealt with in this movie. The obvious barrier of communication between the deaf and the hearing, relationship conflict, and the use of nonverbal communication, are all aspects in communication that are touched upon in this movie. First, the main subject of the movie obviously is how James a hearing instructor tries to communicate not only with his hearing-impaired students, but the woman that he eventually falls in love with, Sarah. This may...

Healthcare Factors that Differentiate the Status of Health in a Essay

Healthcare Factors that Differentiate the Status of Health in a Population - Essay Example Social factors include the resources that improve the living standard of a human being. However, it can be concluded that availability of health sources are dependent on the social factors that enable a person to avail all the resources necessary for having a healthy lifestyle. Such resources include proper healthy food, medicines, prompt healthcare facilities and other necessary basic amenities of life. In case of Texas, majority of people are left unprivileged due to inadequate health resources and low health insurance coverage due to poor socio-economic structure of most people in Texas. As a result, it has been observed that every year 2500 Texans die due to inadequate health facilities, lack of proper food and unavailability of medicines (Code Red Texas, 2012). To ensure good health status in the state of Texas, it is highly important for the state and social welfare organizations to ensure economic stability and awareness regarding health in the area. The state government shoul d take imperative steps to determine all the social factors that are contributing in poor health outcomes. As a result, the government should formulate a plan to enhance and improve the life standard of the people in Texas. This can only be achieved by funding and investing in economic activities, offering better employment opportunities to the people and instilling sense of social responsibility in the minds of people. References US Department of Health and Human Services (2012) Healthy People 2020 retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/QoLWBabout.aspx Lomas, J. (1998). Social capital and health: implications for public health and epidemiology. Social Science & Medicine, 47(9), 1181-1188. Code Red Texas (2012) Code Red; the critical condition of health in Texas 2012. Retrieved from http://www.coderedtexas.org/files/Code-Red-2012.pdf #Health Literacy Health literacy provides an important platform for handling health related issues for people with low income and low l iteracy rate (Marmot et al, 2006). Health decisions according to Marmot, (2007) are established basing on appropriate standards as required in accordance with existing health policies. Healthcare decisions are therefore valid and valuably relevant especially when considering proper use of newer technologies (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2012). The core substance defined according to societal needs is based on unique health actions. I have analyzed HRSA to study the health communication and the use of technology in health and how it benefits different people. The website (HRSA) provides coherent and in-depth information on each and every disease and other health related issues. It targets the audience within the US and also provides assistance to people living outside of the US through emails and online support. For people unfamiliar with English, it provides all the details in Spanish as a second language. Visuals have been applied and have offered a better level of a ttaining the required information. The use of pictures provides better understanding even to the non healthcare readers to acquire the first hand knowledge and the concept. It could have been more understandable for them if the pictures contain further information regarding a specific disease. The readability ratio on the

The Role of Women in Politics and Power Creation Assignment

The Role of Women in Politics and Power Creation - Assignment Example Merely naming the pejorative stereotypes attributed to Black women (e.g. mammy, the matriarch, Sapphire, whore, bull dagger), let alone cataloging the cruel, often murderous, treatment we receive, Indicates how little value has been placed upon our lives during four centuries of bondage in the Western hemisphere. We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters, and our community, which allows us to continue our struggle and work. This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression. In the case of Black women, this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movemen ts that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough... ( Williams, Mary, & Emerson 2008)

Reward and punishment in Transactional Leadership

Reward and punishment in Transactional Leadership Transactional leadership is the reward and punishment thought social organizations. It is also the fundamental motivators of human behavior . It focuses on more of the personal side of the organizational the interactions, as well as vision, teamwork, values, development this things are the foundation of leadership. That help make up other styles of leadership. Transactional leadership was first described by Max Weber in 1947 and also by Bernard Bass in 1981. Transactional leadership theory developed by Weber and Bass later became part of a three style model . Bass believed each leader exhibited a style along a continuum and he later developed the Multifactor Leadership. The transactional leadership style developed by Bass is based on the hypothesis that followers are motivated through a system of rewards and punishment. The theory behind transformational leaders on the other hand is based on the hypothesis that leaders can exploit a need of the follower. These particular needs are no t based on quid pro quo transactions, but higher order needs. These needs are those of the total person and are closely aligned with the internal motivational factors of the follower. So at one end of the spectrum we have transactional leaders that are making many deals with those being led. On the other end of the spectrum weve got transformational leader that are looking to satisfy a greater need of an individual. The types of transactional leaders described by theorists include categories such as Opinion Leaders, Group Leaders, Governmental / Party Leaders, Legislative Leaders and Executive Leaders. If you think about these categories, you should have a greater appreciation for what makes the transactional leadership style tick. These are leaders we read about in the press all the time. They are constantly meeting new people, making deals (completing transactions) and moving on. In practice, there is sufficient truth in Behaviorism to sustain Transactional approaches. This is reinforced by the supply-and-demand situation of much employment, coupled with the effects of deeper needs, as in Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. When the demand for a skill outstrips the supply, then Transactional Leadership often is insufficient, and other approaches are more effective. When rewarding a subordinate, a transactional leader must create a clear structure of what is required of said worker when following orders. Alongside rewards, there should be a well understood formal system of discipline in place, although not always talked about. Often the transactional leader will work under the expectation that if something isnt broke, dont fix it. In other words, if a principle is operating to expectations, it doesnt warrant notice. Along with this is the expectation that anything above expectations merits praise and rewarding, and anything below expectations needs corrective action.. The type of leadership that is mostly found in the hospitality industry is transactional leadership, where as the manager is try to motivate the employees to be productive. When rewarding a subordinate (employee), a transactional leader must create a clear structure of what is required of said worker when following orders. Alongside rewards, there should be a well understood formal system of discipline in place, although not always talked about. The early stage of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby the subordinate (employee) is given a wage and other benefits by company. Burns studied Weber and reasoned that transactional leadership were like bureaucrats leadership. It is a since of power and control direct orders. Transactional leadership makes clear that what is required and expected from their subordinates. It also mentions that subordinates will get award if they follow the orders seriously. Sometimes punishments are not mentioned but they are understood. In the early stages of transactional leadership, subordinate is in the process of negotiating the contract. The contract specifies fixed salary and the benefits that will be given to the subordinate. Rewards are given to subordinates for applied effort. Some organization use incentives to encourage their subordinates for greater productivity. Transactional leadership is a way of increasing the performance of its subordinates by giving them r ewards. Transactional leadership is also called as true leadership style as it focuses on short term goals instead of long term goals. Transactional leadership has more of a telling style. Transactional leadership is based on the fact that reward or punishment is dependent on the performance. Even though researchers have highlighted its limitations, transactional leadership is still used by many employers. More and more companies are adopting transactional leadership to increase the performance of its employees. This approach is prevalent in real workplace. In Transactional leadership, when the leader assigns work to its subordinates, then it is the responsibility of the subordinate to see that the assigned task is finished on time. If the assigned task is not completed on time or if something then punishment is given for their failure. But if they accomplish the task in time then the subordinates are given reward for successfully completing the task. Subordinates are also given awa rd and praised for exceeding expectations. A subordinate whose performance is below expectation is punished and some action is taken to increase his or her performance. The main limitation of this leadership is that it assumes that people are largely motivated by simple rewards. Under transactional leadership, employees cant do much to improve job satisfaction. Transaction leadership has been ineffective in providing skilled employees to their organization. This style of leadership is least interested in changing the work environment. This leadership also assumes that when people agree to do a particular assignment, a part of that agreement is that they give up all authority to their boss. The leader holds control and power over the subordinates. The main goal of the employee is to obey the orders of their managers. The idea is that when a subordinate takes up a job, he or she agrees to obey their manager totally. The transaction is the money or any other award that the company pays to its subordinates for their compliance and effort. The relationship between the subordinate and the leader becomes transactional. In transactional leadership the leader has the right to punish his or her subordinates if their performance is not according to the predetermined standard. Leadership in organizations is important in shaping workers perceptions, responses to organizational change, and acceptance of innovations, such as evidence-based practices. Transformational leadership inspires and motivates followers, whereas transactional leadership is based more on reinforcement and exchanges. When the Transactional Leader allocates work to a subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for it, whether or not they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their failure just as they are rewarded for succeeding. As a starting point, let us review our everyday life. In general, a relationship between two people is based on the level of exchange they have. Exchange need not be money or material; it can be anything. The more exchange they have the more stronger the relation. Your manager expects more productivity from you in order to give good rewards. In this way, if something is done to anyone based on the return then that relation is called as Transactional type. In politics, leaders announces benefits in their agenda in exchange to the vote from the citizens. In business, leaders announces rewards in turn to the productivity. These relation is all about requirements, conditions and rewards (or punishment). Leaders who show these kind of relationship are called transactional leadership. Within all of these theories, frameworks, and approaches to leadership, theres an underlying message that leaders need to have a variety of factors working in their favor. Effective leadership is not simply based on a set of attributes, behaviors, or influences. You must have a wide range of abilities and approaches that you can draw upon. How leaders behave impacts on their effectiveness. Researchers have realized, though, that many of these leadership behaviors are appropriate at different times. So, the best leaders are those who can use many different behavioral styles and use the right style for each situation. With this in mind, there are many different frameworks that have shaped our current understanding of leadership, and many of these have their place, just as long as theyre used appropriately. Transactional leadership was thought of by Max Weber. Weber was born in 1864 and died 1920. Weber was a bureaucracy and usually described as having believed that bureaucracy is the most efficient form of an organization . So, whether you manage a team at work, captain a sports team, or lead a major corporation, which approach is best? Consciously, or subconsciously, youll probably use some of the leadership styles in this article at some point. Understanding these styles and their impact can help you develop your own, personal leadership style and help you become a more effective leader The Leader subject to strict and systematic discipline and control in the conduct of the office. Claims to obedient based on rational values and rules and established agreement. The office holder restricted to impersonal official obligations and commands. Exercise authority. Each office holder office defined by Sphere of competence! Person does not owe Obedience to the individual, but to the Impersonal order! Rules regulate the conduct of an office! Complete separation of property belonging to the personal and to the organization! The leader subject to strict and systematic discipline and controlling the conduct office.

Army Ants :: essays research papers

A quote made by Lewis Thomas, "Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungus, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, and exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television." I am going to focus this report on the part of the quote, "..launch armies into war..," which sets a metaphor of ants and our armies in today's society. Ants have many tactics, so to speak, that are similar to the way our armies have when going to war. Ants have many different roles in their society. One of the main roles that army ants or soldier ants have is that they forage in masses for food. These masses of ants travel together and are able to overcome and capture other social insects and large anthropoids, they may occasionally kill larger animals but they do not eat them. As the need for food for the larvae increases, food gathering raids become more intense. The hunting raids made by ants are carried out by "armies" of thousands of ants and set out from the bivouac in various directions. They form two or three parties going out simultaneously in different directions for 100 yards or more. In the U.S. army we attack countries in different areas to weaken the force we are attacking. We send out thousands of troops in various directions and try to surround the source of the location being attacked. For instance, if there are several locations that needed to be attacked to weaken the enemy, like their weapon storage or air force base, we send several sets of troops to attack each individual location. This is very similar to the way army ants set out on a hunting raid. They will send out thousands of ants at once in two or three different directions. When ants go out on their raids, a subgroup called Dorgline ants, walk along margins of the trails as though protecting the smaller individuals in the center. Dorglines are large soldiers that broaden the trail where it follows a narrow ledge of bark and twigs or smooth the path where it crosses a rough plate and they do this with their own body. They do this because footing for the large ants is better along the margins than in the midst of dense mass of scurrying ants. When the army wants to invade or occupy a county, they usually will set up aircraft carriers in the surrounding oceans and set up air forces in neighboring countries. They do this to protect the inside forces of troops and Army Ants :: essays research papers A quote made by Lewis Thomas, "Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungus, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, and exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television." I am going to focus this report on the part of the quote, "..launch armies into war..," which sets a metaphor of ants and our armies in today's society. Ants have many tactics, so to speak, that are similar to the way our armies have when going to war. Ants have many different roles in their society. One of the main roles that army ants or soldier ants have is that they forage in masses for food. These masses of ants travel together and are able to overcome and capture other social insects and large anthropoids, they may occasionally kill larger animals but they do not eat them. As the need for food for the larvae increases, food gathering raids become more intense. The hunting raids made by ants are carried out by "armies" of thousands of ants and set out from the bivouac in various directions. They form two or three parties going out simultaneously in different directions for 100 yards or more. In the U.S. army we attack countries in different areas to weaken the force we are attacking. We send out thousands of troops in various directions and try to surround the source of the location being attacked. For instance, if there are several locations that needed to be attacked to weaken the enemy, like their weapon storage or air force base, we send several sets of troops to attack each individual location. This is very similar to the way army ants set out on a hunting raid. They will send out thousands of ants at once in two or three different directions. When ants go out on their raids, a subgroup called Dorgline ants, walk along margins of the trails as though protecting the smaller individuals in the center. Dorglines are large soldiers that broaden the trail where it follows a narrow ledge of bark and twigs or smooth the path where it crosses a rough plate and they do this with their own body. They do this because footing for the large ants is better along the margins than in the midst of dense mass of scurrying ants. When the army wants to invade or occupy a county, they usually will set up aircraft carriers in the surrounding oceans and set up air forces in neighboring countries. They do this to protect the inside forces of troops and

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