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105
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler; long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Remember, primates: If we don’t make a difference today, we won’t make a difference tomorrow. Remember, Big
Brother Global Warming is watching!
One of the first research for development (R4D) institutions to travel the road not taken that I know of is the International
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It had to. When William Dar became Director General in
2000, at ICRISAT, it was the worst of times, it was the best of times. It was the worst because the Institute must have
been at the lowest rung in the ladder of success; it was the best because when you’re down, there’s no way to go but
up – assuming you know exactly what you have to do next.
Primates, if our mind is open, we learn from our experience, or from the experience of others. In July of 2006, as the
Plenary Speaker during the 1 st Outstanding Young Scientists Inc Annual Convention at the Manila Hotel, Dar said:
In 2000, I took over the reins of ICRISAT. It was a time when donor funding was at all-time low; reduced core
funding had plummeted from $20.8 million (1997) to $15.8 million (2000); downsizing had reduced staff
morale and operating and infrastructure costs had ballooned. ICRISAT faced an uncertain future and a declining
image. Adopting a programmatic structure, investments in biotechnology and others steps had scant impact
on the state of affairs.
Primate Change? Or Climate Change?