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The Story of a Scent : TED 2009 ends The Journey to Madagascar begins...

Thursday Night, 5th Feb – Pine Avenue TED Block Party 8: 38pm

Sitting at the table for dinner at the Block Party, Adriankoto could hardly eat, he was really nervous, change is comming in his home country Madagascar, a big presentation to partners at Megaseeds  his Japanese TEDsters friends.

Sheila’s thinking about the book at bedtime, a gift from Adriankoto “A Guide to The Health Benefits of the Essential  Oils of Madagascar: The Healing Trail: Essential oils of  Madagascar” by Georges Halpern, MD, Ph.D, a Professor of University of California at Davis.

So many omens.......science, Japanese (she speaks Japanese) and Africa...what is the Universe saying?....

Some Facts

•    Madagascar  is one of the world’s poorest countries economically and one of its richest in biodiversity.
•    Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island, covering an area of 592,000 km2.
•    It contains at least 13,000 plant species, of which more than 80 percent are endemic and 3,500 are reported to have medicinal properties.

•    With a per capita GDP of  U.S. $809, Madagascar ranks 146 of 177 countries on the Human Development Index.
•    Seventy-four percent of its population lives in rural areas, and 78 percent of the rural population lives in poverty.

•   Agriculture accounts for the largest share of GDP  (35 percent); economic growth has accelerated over past four years (5.2 percent in 2004), as the government shifted from socialist to private sector- led growth policies.
•    Political strife associated with this transition set back the country, as key road infrastructure was destroyed.
•    Madagascar’s rural economy is based upon subsistence-oriented agriculture. Much of this agriculture is slash-and-burn (tavy), which has been a principal cause of forest cover and biodiversity loss.
•    The challenges of improving standards of living among the rural poor and conserving biodiversity are interlinked in Madagascar, and a key issue is how to increase rural incomes and reduce the need for tavy.
•    This proposed enterprise will highlight the interlinked challenges of biodiversity conservation and rural poverty reduction by promoting alternatives to tavy along two of the country’s forest corridors: Zahamena-Mantadia and Ranamofana-Andringitra- Ivohibe.

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The Story of a Scent : MEGASEEDS and the Creation of Parfum TED

Thursday, Feb 5th – Long Beach

2:15pm. Overheard at TED. The Renaissance Hotel

....So Adriankoto says to Sheila......”How was your table?”  They were talking about the wierd kind of match-making at the TED Fellows Debut lunch.

Sheila: “Umm.....I sat next to a cool software guy and we talked about social networking sites etc, etc.....” her voice trailed off.

Adriankoto: “No one spoke to me actually.......in fact, our table was........mostly us.....”

Both: “Umm...”

Sheila: You know I want to come to Madagascar and help you with your project. I miss working as a plant scientist...I miss the concentration.......doing really hard heady stuff....”

Adriankoto: You should come then....we could do some great work....

Sheila: Yes....I love plants.....Ylang, Ylang.....

Adriankoto: Yeah...You know that’s what they use for Chanel No.5 ? There’s an island in Madagascar which smell Chanel No.5

Sheila: For real?.......... We should create our own perfume you know.....Essence of Madagascar......something like.....being a TEDster.....wierd?

Adrian: Ummm.....Parfum TED.....WOW! Let’s do it.  Someone like Forrest Whittaker....he’s the essence of a TEDster....

Sheila: Absolutely! Cool, kind, clever.......just a little sexy too.

Adrian: Did you see the film Perfume?

Sheila: Yeah....but that story was just gross....we’re living on the light side my Malagasy Brother

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TED Favorite Moments: Conversations with Barry Schwartz and doing what is right.

I want to really thank Barry Schwartz for his brilliant talk on Saturday. Barry implored the audience to use their wisdom to do what is right. This is one of my favorite talks. I've watched his talk twice since and I love it more every time.



Among my many favorite memories is talking to Barry before his talk, following up with him after his talk, and then finding out the story behind his talk. Allow me to share this.

I ran into Barry randomly on the first day of TED. I was standing in line behind him waiting to get into the main hall. He is of a slight stature and very unassuming (in terms of sense, I'm much smaller...so really, i'm the smaller person of us two). I had spent the greater part of the morning feeling very out-of-place. People had looked my badge and me up-and-down and walked off several times. Call me sensitive and insecure, but I kept feeling "small." It was in this annoyed state that I encountered Barry.

Barry and i got to talking. I kept putting my foot in my mouth, and Barry was always nice about it. At some point, Barry tells me that he is a professor. I LOVE professors. They are my heroes...particularly good profs at Universities here. They are somehow some of the best humankind I've come across. Anyways, Barry tells me that he became a prof by default...he just didn't know any better; liked it and stayed. I'm glad he did. I get his autograph. The doors open and I don't see him for the rest of TED.

On the last day of TED, I see him up on stage. And as Barry talks, I'm wowed. Barry talks about ethics and being better role-models and taking responsibility and using your head to do the right thing. Its like he's plucked things I've been itching for the "adults" of my time to say. I'm so grateful that someone of his generation has finally got up and acknowledged that we need to and can do better. I stood and I cheered LOUD.

At the closing lunch that day, immediately after his talk, I accost him. I want to hug him, but I don't. I've talked to atleast five people in the past ten minutes who have said that Barry's talk was one of their TED highlights. He tells me that he is flabbergasted...by the standing ovation, by the fact that the talk resonated with people. I like him even more for saying that. As he is swallowed up by his new fan club, I talk to his wife, Myrna (who I later learn was actually unwell, but still amazingly accommodating of my annoying questions). She tells me that he was actually very nervous, and he's never a nervous man. The talk, she says, grew out of conversations the two had during their regular evening walks. Barry has always been a troublemaker...he has always challenged the system and wanted it to be better. He was always getting into trouble with the "establishment." But recently, his frustrations have increased significantly. Something fundamental about the way we are doing things, needs to change. Over evening walks, Barry tells Myrna these things. Myrna pushes and prods him to channel this into a book, and then into his talk. This stuff wasn't based on "research" per se. It was based on life and how to live it. Maybe that's why it resonated.

The heroes in my life are people who have done what is "right," irrespective of what the rules said - Gandhi treating lower castes as equals because it was right; Mandela forgiving his perpetrators because it was "right"; Lincoln emancipating slaves because it was "right"; Mother Teresa taking in the discarded because it was "right." And everyday people doing things not because the establishment says so, but because its the right thing to do. Like the Indian muslims denying local terrorists a "martyr's" burial because to them, it was the right thing to do. People doing the right thing are rarely celebrated, and therefore few do it. It is hard to do right. I'm reminded of David Mamet's brilliant film "The Winslow Boy," where the main character says, "easy to do justice...HARD to do Right." Its easy to go by the rules and do justice; its hard to do what is right.

Thank you Barry, for appealing to our higher sensibilities to do what is "right."

(I've done a followup post on this topic on my blog, if you are interested)

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