Today at my school during morning assembly one of the principals made an excellent point about how the global showbiz culture values celebrity over achievement ….He brought up the endless media hype about the death of Michael Jackson (someone relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things) and compared them to lesser stories about people who also passed away recently but were much more important to our daily lives. I’ve blogged about this before….
http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/661320045/what-is-achievement-princess-diana-vs-dr-jonas-salk-and-dr-salk-wins/
Case in point was Norman Bourlag the scientists credited with the Green Revolution….Bourlag in his life was probably responsible for saving a billion people from starvation….More about Bourlag’s accomplishments here
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/sci-tech/09-borlaug-father-of-green-revolution-dead--szh-04
To me this is the definition of greatness not entertainment but something that actually benefits the world.
But debate season is coming up so let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment….Overpopulation is going to destroy the world one day through global warming and other manmade catastrophes linked to too many human beings and not being able source for food is part of how evolution thins animal populations….Did Bourlag and co. prevent natural selection and therefore doom the earth?....Are more people living in overcrowded abysmal poverty really a good thing? Or this the talk of anti-humanist luddite primitives who don’t understand the value of human life
Interesting question….I actually saw people debate this topic years ago when I was in high school and the anti_Borlaug people actually had the better argument that day and won the debate.
I don’t agree….Any advancement like this that doesn’t artificially prolong life but simply gives poor people a way to fight against their environment is a duty to humanity.
RIP Norman Bourlag….A great man
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