Bloodshot Mountain

It was a red-tinted volcanic dome atop one of the planet's harshest and least accessible perches - the High Andes - but in its time was the object of universal envy. The silver within it symbolized the vast wealth unlocked by the Conquest of the New World and swept 16th century Europeans into a state of frenzied excitement and tragically abetted their ruthless religiously motivated war mongering. The mountain's redness went beyond geology and came to tragically stand for the blood of the untold numbers of Indians coerced into labouring within its shafts and handling great quantities of the treacherously noxious mercury so essential to wresting the coveted silver from its bowels. The great paradox is that Potosi's silver exposed men and women emerging from the Middle Ages to the mind-expanding possibilities of trade and adventure conducted on a hitherto unimaginable scale: Potosi-minted pieces of eight ended up in the pockets of Chinese silk merchants! It's a story that continues to have relevance to our contemporary word as we wrestle with the unintended consequences of globalization, technology, inequality and disregard of our environment.