War & Peace & Profitability

The interview wasn’t easy. The toughest questions, for me, were:
Explain how you would design a campaign in support of our Christmas aid appeal?
Explain how you would measure whether or not each component of the campaign was successful?
I am not a marketer and the job description did not ask for a marketer. Whatevs. I did my best.
After the interview I drove to the massive retail complex that I usually avoid in Belfast--Boucher Road. There’s a tile store there where I bought the foyer floor tile. That project involved four visits to this flipping store. Visit #5 entailed buying black bullnose tile to finish the top of the foyer wall, which is to be tiled on Monday. I went to the chain hardware store yesterday to buy two rows of black pencil tile but it didn’t have bullnose tile. It amazes me how much time these little projects involve.
Tonight I went to a lecture at Queen’s given by the head of an organisation that developed a global peace index--scoring 180 or more countries on factors such as military spending, corruption, violent conflict, etc. It came up with the stunning conclusion that more peaceful countries have higher GDP, lower inflation, and lower interest rates. So this means the guys running the Congo will lay down their arms tomorrow once they realise the fiscal benefits of peace? I thought the whole exercise was ass backwards. I’d be interested in the role of business in perpetuating violence, not the role of violence in inhibiting business.
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