Change the saying goes, is the only constant in life.
In January 1964, Bob Dylan released his third studio album, The Times They Are a-Changin’, with the eponymous title song. As he later said about it, Dylan’s motivation back then was primarily political: "This was definitely a song with a purpose. I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close and allied together at that time.”
But with all due respect to the genius lyricist who remains a serious contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature (and do check out the song – it’s a classic), with hindsight, Dylan totally underestimated what he was talking about. If anything, the words ring truer today than ever, far beyond the relatively close historical confines of the American Civil Rights movement.
But then that’s probably a hallmark of true art as opposed to mere fads – that it continues speaking to people far beyond the period and circumstances of its creation.
My paternal grandmother was born in 1900, always as old as the 20th Century until she died in both their ‘Nineties. In her lifetime, just about everything changed dramatically.
Leaving aside the two World Wars her generation had to endure, I would say Mobility was perhaps the biggest new development they needed to adjust to – encapsulated in Globalisation, the free flow of capital and goods, and the interdependence of economies; in the dual phenomena of the automobile and mass tourism made possible by high-speed modern means of transport; and in the tragic floods of migrants and refugees, displaced from their home countries as a consequence of military strife, societal upheaval, and sheer poverty.
For better or for worse, the world is on the move.
And today as much as in 1964, when Dylan came out with his song, law makers are clueless, overwhelmed, and out of touch:
“Come Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall…”
To be fair, President Lyndon B. Johnson eventually did do something about Civil Rights.
On the positive side, this world we live and work in offers huge opportunities for those lucky enough to have been born to the right parents, in the right place, and at the right time.
I certainly have a lot to be grateful for, even including the very stressful house move I’ve just gone through. These are truly first-world problems that the vast majority of humanity would swap us for in an instant.
And this world we live and work in offers huge opportunities for well managed commercial entities as well. Just take, by way of an example, the Company I work for.
Ever since 1996, when the Imperial Tobacco Group PLC was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 100 company, it has always been an enterprise on the move. A series of bold acquisitions between 1997 and 2008 to the tune of around £ 17 billion made it the global industry player it is today, and the latest one, valued at $ 7.1 billion, very recently catapulted it to a strong Number Three contender position with 10% share in the most profitable market in the world outside of China, the United States.
And, given Imperial's exclusive Premium Cigars joint-venture business with the Cuban Government, there’s much more to come once the American embargo on Cuban products has been lifted as a result of the policy of rapprochement conducted by the Obama administration.
This process, unfolding as we speak, shows that Cuba itself, one of the last remaining Socialist countries, is on the move, at least since Raúl Castro succeeded his older brother, revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, as President in February 2008.
The U.S. couldn’t do this unilaterally. After all, it takes two to tango. I know, wrong dance, wrong geography.
Back in the land of the Castro brothers, of course, big-time Change will also be on the order once relationships with the U.S. have been fully restored.
Romantics familiar with the island and its people, and I don’t qualify on either count, are already mourning the demise of the “true” Cuba and predicting its fall from innocence once Capitalism knocks at the door. And they abhor the image of the admittedly quite off-putting big American cruise ships with thousands of day-trip invaders on board converging on Havana.
But then, what do ordinary Cubans themselves think about it? I don’t know, but maybe they won’t mind all that much if the money that will flow into their country and economy translates into better living conditions for all.
In addition to exporting premium cigars, it could be said Cuba has historically had to rely on two commodities to keep its economy afloat in a manner – sugar cane and doctors.
In the days of the Cold War, the former was bought up at way-above-world-market prices by the Soviet Union to support their Caribbean outpost only some 90 miles off the coast of Florida, but ever since the state sponsor of World Revolution self-imploded, that model has collapsed with it.
Until more recently, Cuba got oil and gas on the cheap from Venezuela in return for propping up public health in that country by sending their best and brightest, well-trained young doctors (and yes, the education and healthcare systems in Cuba are exemplary given the general state of the economy), but with things going from bad to worse in Caracas, that program isn’t really working anymore either.
And speaking of the Cold War, there used to be a third “product” that put Cuba on the map so to speak, developed at ridiculous expense to enhance its reputation and demonstrate the superiority of Communism over Capitalism in the global rivalry of political and economic ideologies – athletes.
The comrades in East Berlin had perfected the system of state-financed “Ambassadors in Track Suits” who wanted for nothing and in return had to deliver at international sports events, first and foremost Olympic Games and World Championships. It was in those days that the concept of “medal tables” was born, numeric proof of said superiority. Sadly, the principle has survived the end of the Cold War and still today tempts all too many people to cross the line separating patriotism from jingoism. But maybe that’s just me being overly sensitive.
Cuba did traditionally well in boxing I remember. But their greatest athlete, and indeed one of the greatest of all times and nations, was Alberto Juantorena, called El Caballo (The Horse) for his irresistible prowess on the running track. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he won both the 400m and 800m titles, the first ever and to this day only athlete to achieve this remarkable double. He repeated his triumph a year later at the Athletics World Cup in Düsseldorf.
Why is this such a unique feat? You see, 400m is one long sprint, separating the men from the boys as it were – you don’t think, you just run until your heart bursts; whereas 800m is the shortest of the middle distances that require a different physique and tactical acumen. To have both in one body and mind is almost superhuman.
Anyhow, while travelling the world like roving diplomats, the athletes from Communist countries were closely monitored lest, despite all the considerable privileges they enjoyed, they succumbed to the temptations of what was then called The Free World and defected. Frequently on the move, they were under control 24/7, but every now and then, someone would still manage to abscond from the team hotel and make it to the nearest police station or Western embassy to ask for political asylum – which in turn then provided a propaganda feast for the other side while back home the Security apparatchiks had a case to answer for.
But I digress.
So coming back to entities, commercial, natural, or national, that are changing, may I point to Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) and his paradigm-changing book, On the Origin of Species (1859). In a nutshell (and I hope I can be forgiven for simplifying to such a degree the lifetime work of this titan, one of the most influential thinkers in human history): it's not the strongest that survive, but the most adaptable. I guess the dinosaurs must just have been too stuck in their ways.
As American athletic coaches would put it: “They lost their moves.”
For now, I’m going to make a move. Maybe I’ll go to the movies tonight. And next time I’ll move on to something else.
But with all due respect to the genius lyricist who remains a serious contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature (and do check out the song – it’s a classic), with hindsight, Dylan totally underestimated what he was talking about. If anything, the words ring truer today than ever, far beyond the relatively close historical confines of the American Civil Rights movement.
But then that’s probably a hallmark of true art as opposed to mere fads – that it continues speaking to people far beyond the period and circumstances of its creation.
My paternal grandmother was born in 1900, always as old as the 20th Century until she died in both their ‘Nineties. In her lifetime, just about everything changed dramatically.
Leaving aside the two World Wars her generation had to endure, I would say Mobility was perhaps the biggest new development they needed to adjust to – encapsulated in Globalisation, the free flow of capital and goods, and the interdependence of economies; in the dual phenomena of the automobile and mass tourism made possible by high-speed modern means of transport; and in the tragic floods of migrants and refugees, displaced from their home countries as a consequence of military strife, societal upheaval, and sheer poverty.
For better or for worse, the world is on the move.
And today as much as in 1964, when Dylan came out with his song, law makers are clueless, overwhelmed, and out of touch:
“Come Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall…”
To be fair, President Lyndon B. Johnson eventually did do something about Civil Rights.
On the positive side, this world we live and work in offers huge opportunities for those lucky enough to have been born to the right parents, in the right place, and at the right time.
I certainly have a lot to be grateful for, even including the very stressful house move I’ve just gone through. These are truly first-world problems that the vast majority of humanity would swap us for in an instant.
And this world we live and work in offers huge opportunities for well managed commercial entities as well. Just take, by way of an example, the Company I work for.
Ever since 1996, when the Imperial Tobacco Group PLC was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 100 company, it has always been an enterprise on the move. A series of bold acquisitions between 1997 and 2008 to the tune of around £ 17 billion made it the global industry player it is today, and the latest one, valued at $ 7.1 billion, very recently catapulted it to a strong Number Three contender position with 10% share in the most profitable market in the world outside of China, the United States.
And, given Imperial's exclusive Premium Cigars joint-venture business with the Cuban Government, there’s much more to come once the American embargo on Cuban products has been lifted as a result of the policy of rapprochement conducted by the Obama administration.
This process, unfolding as we speak, shows that Cuba itself, one of the last remaining Socialist countries, is on the move, at least since Raúl Castro succeeded his older brother, revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, as President in February 2008.
The U.S. couldn’t do this unilaterally. After all, it takes two to tango. I know, wrong dance, wrong geography.
Back in the land of the Castro brothers, of course, big-time Change will also be on the order once relationships with the U.S. have been fully restored.
Romantics familiar with the island and its people, and I don’t qualify on either count, are already mourning the demise of the “true” Cuba and predicting its fall from innocence once Capitalism knocks at the door. And they abhor the image of the admittedly quite off-putting big American cruise ships with thousands of day-trip invaders on board converging on Havana.
But then, what do ordinary Cubans themselves think about it? I don’t know, but maybe they won’t mind all that much if the money that will flow into their country and economy translates into better living conditions for all.
In addition to exporting premium cigars, it could be said Cuba has historically had to rely on two commodities to keep its economy afloat in a manner – sugar cane and doctors.
In the days of the Cold War, the former was bought up at way-above-world-market prices by the Soviet Union to support their Caribbean outpost only some 90 miles off the coast of Florida, but ever since the state sponsor of World Revolution self-imploded, that model has collapsed with it.
Until more recently, Cuba got oil and gas on the cheap from Venezuela in return for propping up public health in that country by sending their best and brightest, well-trained young doctors (and yes, the education and healthcare systems in Cuba are exemplary given the general state of the economy), but with things going from bad to worse in Caracas, that program isn’t really working anymore either.
And speaking of the Cold War, there used to be a third “product” that put Cuba on the map so to speak, developed at ridiculous expense to enhance its reputation and demonstrate the superiority of Communism over Capitalism in the global rivalry of political and economic ideologies – athletes.
The comrades in East Berlin had perfected the system of state-financed “Ambassadors in Track Suits” who wanted for nothing and in return had to deliver at international sports events, first and foremost Olympic Games and World Championships. It was in those days that the concept of “medal tables” was born, numeric proof of said superiority. Sadly, the principle has survived the end of the Cold War and still today tempts all too many people to cross the line separating patriotism from jingoism. But maybe that’s just me being overly sensitive.
Cuba did traditionally well in boxing I remember. But their greatest athlete, and indeed one of the greatest of all times and nations, was Alberto Juantorena, called El Caballo (The Horse) for his irresistible prowess on the running track. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he won both the 400m and 800m titles, the first ever and to this day only athlete to achieve this remarkable double. He repeated his triumph a year later at the Athletics World Cup in Düsseldorf.
Why is this such a unique feat? You see, 400m is one long sprint, separating the men from the boys as it were – you don’t think, you just run until your heart bursts; whereas 800m is the shortest of the middle distances that require a different physique and tactical acumen. To have both in one body and mind is almost superhuman.
Anyhow, while travelling the world like roving diplomats, the athletes from Communist countries were closely monitored lest, despite all the considerable privileges they enjoyed, they succumbed to the temptations of what was then called The Free World and defected. Frequently on the move, they were under control 24/7, but every now and then, someone would still manage to abscond from the team hotel and make it to the nearest police station or Western embassy to ask for political asylum – which in turn then provided a propaganda feast for the other side while back home the Security apparatchiks had a case to answer for.
But I digress.
So coming back to entities, commercial, natural, or national, that are changing, may I point to Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) and his paradigm-changing book, On the Origin of Species (1859). In a nutshell (and I hope I can be forgiven for simplifying to such a degree the lifetime work of this titan, one of the most influential thinkers in human history): it's not the strongest that survive, but the most adaptable. I guess the dinosaurs must just have been too stuck in their ways.
As American athletic coaches would put it: “They lost their moves.”
For now, I’m going to make a move. Maybe I’ll go to the movies tonight. And next time I’ll move on to something else.
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