Gold, Good or bad ?

My mom sent me a gold ring today, with all her blessings and her prayers. First time in my life I am wearing gold. Ironically I happened to read the latest issue of National Geographic Magazine and was fascinated to read the facts about Gold. There was an interview in NPR with the guys who had written this article..

is Gold good or bad ?

Some Facts about gold which I didn't know
1 ) Entire gold which was mined till now in the world , can be fitted into two Olympic sized swimming pools. (50 m by 30 m) (164 ft by 98 ft ) and 6.6 feet deep or only 161,000 tons .
2 ) Gold prices have gone up 350 % from 2001 to now.
3 ) There are only few mines in the world and the gold now is is a scarce resource and all the mines are running out of gold.
4 ) For gold which is required for a wedding band , around 250 tonnes of materials(rock and ore) have to be cleared.
5 ) India is a biggest consumer of gold and they don't care where the gold came from.
6 ) Except for the gold which is lost under sea, all other gold is completely accountable.
7 ) Most of them who work in the mines are very poor , some of them are "consultants", they work without pay for 30 days or 45 days day in and day out and they find one small ounce of gold.
8 ) Mercury contamination is so high that the people who work there age quickly and die quickly.
9 ) A vast amount of mercury—at least 30 percent of the world total—is used by small-scale miners to process gold.
10 ) When going to visit the gold mines , its completely controlled my warlords(with AK47) and child soldiers. So if we have to visit this place, make sure that we take a lot of jack daniels.
11 ) In India there is an industry where they scrap gold from the dustbin. According to the story , if someone gives a bar of gold say 103 grams , while making jewelery of 100 grams and rest is lost in washing and having contact with other metals. So for that 3 grams there is a huge industry for scraping through the trash.
12 ) The World's biggest Gold company(he didn't name that company ) is much more secure than the federal reserve and the raw sewage is checked if any gold passes through their system.
13 ) Through out history gold has been a very safe stone and a good investment.
14 ) In 2007, India consumed 773.6 tons of gold, about 20 percent of the world gold market and more than double that purchased by either of its closest followers, China (363.3 tons) and the U.S. (278.1 tons).
15 ) India produces very little gold of its own, but its citizens have hoarded up to 18,000 tons of the yellow metal—more than 40 times the amount held in the country's central bank.
16 ) Epicenter of Gold Purchase in India --- >Kerala !!
Check out some of the pictures

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/gold/randy-olson-photography