DHAR DHAR

Well… as the title says, I don’t think I am crazy… I might come out as one with all my animated talk, facial contortions and absurd comments but deep down, I believe I am as normal as you are.

I am not very bright or brilliant, and I certainly don’t get many jokes and I say a lot of inappropriate things at the most inappropriate times, but even within all these mess, I try my best not to hurt people. Sometimes, I even go to the extreme of making a big fool of myself just to make people feel comfortable. But, in return, I think I often don’t get the best deals. As they say, my return on investments is always negative. Why is that?

Am I really crazy?

Should scientists care about the consequesces of their studies or should they pursue the truth relentlessly without evaluating the impact that it might have on the society?

Logically thinking, truth alone should triumph. Everything else is an illusion. The scientist should impartially seek the truth and strive to achieve  it at all cost. She should not care a dime about what the society thinks of it or whether a dim-wit takes her findings and creates an nuclear weapon out of it.

However, unlike scientists from the basic sciences, social scientists work in the society, amongst the people and as such they need to live by the rules and regulations of the society.  They should be wary about the potential risks of controversial research. They should be mindful of the killer lurking in the dark alleys of the society. Before unearthing the evils, they should seek out the angels for protection.

The sentiments expressed in the above paragraph are true and most social scientists are plagued by them constantly. This creates the problem of ‘decked-up lie’ or ‘covered-up truth’ where the scientist holds back from presenting all the findings of the research and thus create additional road blocks for already stifled science of social studies.

We have all heard about this famous DeBeers tagline. A diamond is forever. Many brave men have found their pockets empty in persuit of the forever dream. The elegantly designed advertisements with their messages of  “love forever” do not help either.

I have always wondered what makes a diamond so attractive to women. Though I don’t want to believe it, but the saying that women are attracted by everything that glitters gets a massive proof of concept from the diamond example.

Except the industrial grade diamonds which you can get for as low as $30, the shamelessly priced gemstone diamonds serve no purpose at all. As Nicky Oppenheimer, the chairman of DeBeers once said:

A gemstone is the ultimate luxury product. It has no material use. Men and Women desire to have diamonds not for what they [diamonds] can do but for what they [men and women] desire.

Coming to the tagline “A diamond is forever“, DeBeers has been using it as a tagline for many many decades now. Though to the general unsuspecting public it is nothing more than a catchy tagline, for DeBeers, it has a much deeper psychological and economic connection.

During most of the 20th century DeBeers acted as the custodian of diamond pricing and supply. They created the Central Selling Organisation (CSO) (the parent of the present DTC, Diamond Trading Company), which was given the sole right to trade in diamonds. De Beers was able to control the cartel to such an extent that it became the sole monopoly in the diamond industry and exerted total control over the supply and pricing of the precious gems.

So, why is a diamond forever? The reason is purely economics.  De Beers was able to control the supply of diamond at an artificially low level throughout, which created scarcity of the gems and thus made them costly. If the consumers start treating diamonds as a short term investment product, then they will start hoarding the diamonds and start building the stocks. As long as they keep the stocks, no problem, everybody is happy and the cartel functions effectively. But, if in anticipation of a price fall, everybody starts selling their stocks in the market then the supply of diamond in the market will suddenly increase leading to a decline in prices. This will reduce the profit for the entire industry and will thus hurt DeBeers a lot.

DeBeers wanted to create these advertisements which played with the psyche of people, particularly those in love. By saying that diamonds are forever, they were in effect creating a mindset that cherishes these precious gems for their sentimental value rather than their monetary worth.

That’s the reason why “a diamond is forever“

Tonight is one of those crazy Red Bull nights. I have loads of work to do in very little time. At crisis points such as these, Red Bull becomes your only faithful companion.

Hail Red Bull and Dietrich Mateschitz everyone.

Signing off

Sid

Image Courtesy: http://frogsmoke.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/red%20bull.jpg