National History Day 2009: Norman Borlaug and the Fight Against Famine

[Scrizzard]

I came in first at the regional competition and have submitted my paper to the state competition. I feel confident, and it's going pretty well.

[TGayatri]

@Scrizzard Congrats! are you doing Norman Borlaug this year or was that last year?

We are also moving on to state this year as well... we will see how that goes.

[Scrizzard]

@TGayatri I got an honorable mention at the MA states competition. My criticism was that I didn't focus enough on the Cold War and I didn't have enough of a anti-Borlaug argument. Oh well, it still looks good on a college application.

[Scrizzard]

I did a historical paper on Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution also for NHD. You did a good job. Some friendly criticism:

Borlaug didn't arrive with an "army of scientists", the Rockefeller Foundatiob only sent a handful.

India and Pakistan didn't open their arms to Borlaug in 1965. He gradually received permission to plant more and more test land.

Borlaug also had nothing directly to do with GMOs.

You also skip over Africa and the SAA. He didn't eliminate hunger there by any means.

[TGayatri]

I can see where in some instances you might be slightly confused. However I think that most of the discrepancies occured mainly because storytelling is a incorrect form of relating pure historical facts rather than an attempt to mislead the viewer.

ex. army of scientists - to make it sound more exciting

But the one part i thought we made clear was that Pakistan and India certaily didn't welcome Dr. Borlaug with open arms.

Well i guess that's just my individual interpretation. :) Thanks!

[reddyinc]

Great Video! I am impressed by your passion for green revolutions.

Best of luck!

[robertmike57]

Great video. Learned more about Dr Borlaug and how he achieved his results here than any place else on youtube.

[AidaAixa1981]

God bless this humanity hero. RIP Norman Borlaug.

[tehinfidel]

RIP Dr. Borlaug, the epitome of a humanitarian.  You will be missed, but the hundreds of millions of lives you saved from starvation will be your legacy.

[SuperflyThree]

this is really good! My friends and I are doing a documentary and we were wondering, how many sources did you have?

[TGayatri]

well over 100 sources. whether we cited them or not is another story. i confess that at 3:00 in the morning we weren't so much concerned with accuracy as with finishing.

[gbriker]

nice job. i did a junior group documentary and won second in NY state. its on my channel

[jlathe3]

Where thinking of competing next year we havent put ours up yet

[NHDgirls]

You guys did awesome...you totally should have gone to nationals!!! How did you do the animations??? So cool....and where'd you get the vids?

[TGayatri]

Thanks. idk, we did most of the interviews ourselves. and some animations were created on Adobe Systems.

[WilesFilm]

your voice is fantastic. i'm going to nationals this weekend for getting first in connecticut. your documentary is very good.

[TGayatri]

congratulations!

thanks. You should be very proud of your accomplishment.

[jlathe3]

Thats a smart idea. Are you going to do NHD next year?

[TGayatri]

Our group is debating it. What about You- have you posted your documentary anywhere? I would like to see it.

[jaaackiie126]

This is a really good documentary. The narration is clear, and there is a lot of information for the viewer. I was in the same situation as you because I came in 3rd for a documentary, but for the junior division. Overall, great job!

[jlathe3]

ok neat are any of those on the internet

[TGayatri]

no- they don't want do give away anything before the competition.

[jlathe3]

We did a local topic and as another plus we actually interviewed the subject of our documentary. Good job on getting 3rd place thats a good accomplishment. I hope you do well next year. What are some of the projects from your state that are going?

[TGayatri]

One is an amazing documentary on the polio vaccination + Jonas Salk, the other is on Scoop Jackson (its pretty good, but not as good as the Jonas Salk one)

[jlathe3]

Im in national history day too senior group documentary im going to nationals me annd my group got number one in the state of Mississippi

[TGayatri]

unfortunatly, we aren't able to go to Nationals because we got 3rd place. However, we were kicked out of the 2nd place spot by a local topic that the judges had a preference for even though the content and visual aspect wasn't as appealing as our documentary. It is important to remember in state that local topics are prevalent. However, Good Luck at Nationals!

[HiKaryn]

Wow!