The latest book by Eduardo Galeano is as insightful as we’ve come to expect. Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone contains more history and analysis than a year of ‘history of civilization’ classes, with much more beauty and grace. In the battle of memory against forgetting, Galeano offers an arsenal. A tidbit below the fold, on the origin of the World Trade Organization.
Origin of the world trade organization
They needed a god of trade. From his throne on Olympus, Zeus surveyed his family. He did not have to ponder long. Hermes was the god for the job.
Zeus gave him sandals with little gold wings and put him in charge of promoting the exchange of goods, the signing of treaties, and the safeguarding of free trade.
Hermes, who would become Mercury in Rome, was chosen because he was the best liar.
From Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, Portobello, London 2009, p 39.