Today while I was reading about 'iron rice bowl' in China during Communist regime of Mao, it clicked on me why dinner plates are so heavy. You may not agree with me. But, the problem with me, if I have figured out correctly that is, is that I think there is a conspiracy in everything except nature. If I see a television set then I think governments encouraged scientists to make television so that we would sit down in front of it with a packet of pop-corn or potato chips (I am stereotyping it) whole day and stop thinking about what's going on or what should be done. By doing so, government would ensure that it would not face oppposition if it were doing something wrong.
I have reasons to believe in such conspiracy ideas. Few years ago, Indian consumers and households started receiving loans to buy personal computers from the banks. Usually Indian banks do not issue loans for those kind of personal goods unless the bank knows the amount is for personal investment and can be assured it will get back. Indian consumers and households were really happy with this move of Indian Banks and they thought they were just becoming poors' friends, messengers of God. If you want to know the truth, what happened was Intel was looking forward to expand its business in India and since it has a huge population, about 1/6th of the world population, Intel would make large sales if it could make Indians buy computers that used Intel's microprocessors. So, Intel lobbied Indian Banks and the government to lend loans to Indian households who wanted to buy personal computers and it succeeded. Their motive could have been goodwill but the real motive was to earn large profits, which was veiled. This could be another case for Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' but for me, this is conspiracy.
Similarly, ten years ago Chinese did not marry the American way. They had their own way of marrying and it did not involve giving diamond rings to the bride. DeBeers, a diamond advertising agency used all the available tools such as magazines, newspapers, radio, television to spread the notion that marriage is incomplete without a diamond ring. It even promoted some marriage ceremonies with its sponsporship, giving away free diamond rings to the brides to spread this message. Today, 80% of marriages in Shanghai involve a diamond ring for brides. If you are really concerned about citations, then let me tell you that I got the above data from the book "The elephant and the dragon". I don't know that page numbers and don't care to use the proper citation styles. What would I care? This is my blog and I am not writing some paper for my course, oh well, the content may have hinted so though.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, conspiracy against the dinner plates.
If you don't seem to get what I am saying, hold an empty ceramic dinner plate in your hand during dinner and you'll know how heavy it is. Correct me if there are some other reasonable answers but I think dinner plates are insanely heavy to make us feel that we are eating alot. They want us to eat less because even if we have less food, it'll feel really heavy and we'll have the notion that we are eating more than what we should be.
Oh and yeah, CIA or FBI might be deciding to come after me for corrupting young minds with my junk of conspiracy ideas but what do I care?Hah
