Saviour

One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.
(quote attributed to Stalin, although he probably never actually said it)

The other day, I heard an obituary of Norman Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009) on the radio. Not a household name and not a name that rang many bells with me. Borlaug was an agronomist from Iowa, whose work resulted in the widespread use of improved, disease-resistant varieties of wheat. So far, so dull and worthy. But one line in the obituary made me sit up and listen.

The impact of his improved crop varieties in hungry countries was such, said the presenter, that Boralug has been credited with saving more lives than any other human being in history. Do you remember what you were doing when you heard that Princess Diana had died? Elvis? Michael Jackson? If you're old enough, JFK? How many people will remember what they were doing when Norman Borlaug died? How many even knew who he was? Yet if he saved even a small fraction of the lives he's been credited with saving, every schoolchild on earth should have heard of him. It's astonishing the things that escape our attention. Here's more on Borlaug's remarkable career, at Wikipedia.