The Inkstained Mind: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

10 Jul 2011

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

The Green Revolution around the world involved increased usage of modern agricultural tools and techniques, building of irrigation infrastructure - but most crucially the revolution centred around the use of genetics to develop and then distribute hybrid seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and chemical pesticides to farmers, especially in the then Third World. Much of the 'scientific' co-ordination was done by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) created by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Rockefeller Family had huge interests in petroleum and international financing - both essential components of the Green Revolution.

In early 1963, the Rockefeller Foundation sent Norman Borlaug to India. A former employee of DuPont, and then Director of the International Wheat Improvement Program (funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation) in Mexico, Borlaug earns the sobriquet, "Father of the Green Revolution". And he goes on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour. He is sometimes credited with saving 1 billion people from starvation.

Environmental activist, Vandana Shiva, doesn't agree.

She points out that the new agribusiness model promotes excessive chemical use, causes large-scale loss of biodiversity, and condemns farming community to a viscious cycle of financial indebtedness.

But there's a kicker...

Apparently, "alarmed by the loss of crop diversity and the vulnerability of the world’s seed collections", the Rockefeller Foundation, and the increasingly everywhere Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are funding the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

A doomsday bunker built deep inside a snow covered mountain on a remote island halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, the vault will store "millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world."

The storage facility is, it would seem, "built to stand the test of time – and of natural or manmade disasters."

Manmade disaster? You mean, like the one you financed in the 70s?

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WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

It's often called the world's second oldest profession.

But while the scope of the oldest one has changed little over time, the evolution in the way we communicate has had profound impact on Advertising.

In the ancient and medieval world, Advertising meant word-of-mouth. In the 1500s with the development of printing it became a 'paid public notice', disseminating the message to many. And it had Copy & Art.

Then came radio, TV, computer, cable TV, Internet, mobile phones, Internet on mobile, and it's still not done... Even what we perceive as 'change' is changing. Continuously.

So what is Advertising today?

Honestly, I don't know.

But I do know from a dozen years evolving with the business, that Advertising is most valued when it can make a tangible difference for the advertiser.

That has not changed. And probably won't.

UPDATE: Nothing's changed. But in a way, everything has.

As you see, my focus has shifted - evolved in a way - to a larger canvas. The shift or evolution was gradual, and may be have been discernable to the more observant reader.

While I was delving into the influence of media in society to better understand how perceptions are created, evolved and disseminated, I chanced upon a thread of knowledge that I frankly never knew existed.

My conclusion is that a deep pool of awareness and consciouness exists beyond the shallow narcissistic boundaries created by the convention view of social media and the Internet.

My aim is to send my readers down any path that can lead to this quenching pool.