The buzzword is compassionate commerce
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Nerun Yakub
There seems to be some genuine soul-searching going on among spiritually enlightened business people all across the world since the collapse of the global financial system, although that depth is totally missing in the powers that be. Consider the nearly 24 trillion dollar federal bailout of Wall Street and the outrageously immoral multi-million dollar bonuses that the fat cats of the failed banks allowed themselves. Nonetheless, some hair-splitting analyses have come out of it ---- as to what had gone wrong. And most soul-searchers agree that at the bottom of the crisis lay 'a huge deficit in the moral and human spirit'.
According to Ken Costa, Chairman of Lazard International and Gresham Professor of Commerce, the same mistakes are bound to be repeated if economic behaviour and sound ethics do not coincide. Ken Costa lectured on this very theme at London's Gresham College a few months ago, filled with moral nuggets that seem to be straight out of an evangelist's repertoire. The real purpose of the market is to create wealth and fulfill a duty towards the wider community; humanity is a shared experience and people ought not to act with total indifference towards one another; the task at hand now is to rediscover the moral spirit of capitalism so that it best serves humanity in all its complexity and spiritual dimensions; forging links with all the other social partners who make business possible; increasing charitable giving; and tackling environmental degradation and poverty; and thus re-attaching capitalism to its moral moorings.
These lofty sentiments are the stuff of 'compassionate commerce' the new buzz word trying to hide the 'red in tooth and claw' reality of global business. Corporate prosperity certainly has often come not without costs to the natural habitat, and its people and resources, over the last few hundred years of ruthless plunder. Be that as it may, countries like Bangladesh that are struggling to raise their standard of life, had better learn from the mistakes and positive experiences all around them in order to avoid similar moral deficiencies(ecological ignorance) and to keep their own 'spiritual dimensions' intact. It is vital that we adopt a new growth model that is inclusive, in other words, one that yields equitable returns, for this nation teeming with people who are socio-economically challenged. Optimists believe Bangladesh will soon emerge as a middle income country provided entrepreneurship continues to grow at the current rate. If the latent talents of our youthful human resource could be tapped to advantage, the sky would be the limit ! Some 45 per cent of the population are below 15, according to one UN estimate. If the government and the growing number of up and coming entrepreneurs start investing in this potential, consistently and adequately, there is no reason why a 'world class' human resource could not be created. This is essential if we are to stay afloat, and swim as well, in the high-tech, corporatised, intensely knowledge-based global economic scenario.
Bangladeshis are considered not only to be generally resilient but also receptive to business opportunites, though they do still suffer from several drawbacks, such as entrepreneurs being not upto date. The largely 'informal nature' of the private sector is said to be another weakness which prevents these companies from doing businesses under a legal framework. They are, thus, unaware of the benefits therin, perhaps because the incentives to register are not attractive enough. Indeed, most would-be entrepreneurs fault the 'process' of setting up businesses in Bangladesh to be fraught with dis-incentives rather than the other way round.
Although much is heard about the need to develop the available human resource to fit the market, requisite skill development facilities are yet to be at par with the demand for properly trained labour at home or abroad. Much is heard about the huge remittances our migrants send home but the fact is that most of these hard-working hands could have been placed in better workplaces to earn more, had their full potential been honed in advance to ensure higher working and living standards abroad. The plight of our poor, unskilled or semi-skilled, migrant labour has been documented well enough over the years. Life abroad is far from rosy for these economic refugees, a fact brought tragically home when body bags arrive silently, with hardly any satisfactory explanation why or how they had to give their lives.
One researcher pointed out that most deaths in the Middle East happen due to poor food intake, dehydration and heat stroke, all of which could be easily avoided if the workers were given the basics of self-care knowledge prior to taking up their jobs. The recruiting agencies should be made to include such vital information in compulsory pre-flight training. Also it should be considered the responsibility of the manpower exporters to make sure that employers provide reasonably humane standards at the designated workplaces. Critics rightly point out that the attitude of our policy makers towards the migrant labour force is rather callous. Nobody seems to bother about their health and well-being in foreign lands. The government is only mindful of the dollars received from these 'faceless' numbers. There is nothing at all to boost the confidence of these innocents who leave their home and hearth for jobs abroad. Surely, the government and the relevant ministries, departments and agencies owe a wee bit of gratitude to them and could be gracious enough to say 'thank you'! There are certainly many decent ways to boost the self-esteem of these deserving folk, and the sooner we make amends the better for Bangladesh.
There seems to be some genuine soul-searching going on among spiritually enlightened business people all across the world since the collapse of the global financial system, although that depth is totally missing in the powers that be. Consider the nearly 24 trillion dollar federal bailout of Wall Street and the outrageously immoral multi-million dollar bonuses that the fat cats of the failed banks allowed themselves. Nonetheless, some hair-splitting analyses have come out of it ---- as to what had gone wrong. And most soul-searchers agree that at the bottom of the crisis lay 'a huge deficit in the moral and human spirit'.
According to Ken Costa, Chairman of Lazard International and Gresham Professor of Commerce, the same mistakes are bound to be repeated if economic behaviour and sound ethics do not coincide. Ken Costa lectured on this very theme at London's Gresham College a few months ago, filled with moral nuggets that seem to be straight out of an evangelist's repertoire. The real purpose of the market is to create wealth and fulfill a duty towards the wider community; humanity is a shared experience and people ought not to act with total indifference towards one another; the task at hand now is to rediscover the moral spirit of capitalism so that it best serves humanity in all its complexity and spiritual dimensions; forging links with all the other social partners who make business possible; increasing charitable giving; and tackling environmental degradation and poverty; and thus re-attaching capitalism to its moral moorings.
These lofty sentiments are the stuff of 'compassionate commerce' the new buzz word trying to hide the 'red in tooth and claw' reality of global business. Corporate prosperity certainly has often come not without costs to the natural habitat, and its people and resources, over the last few hundred years of ruthless plunder. Be that as it may, countries like Bangladesh that are struggling to raise their standard of life, had better learn from the mistakes and positive experiences all around them in order to avoid similar moral deficiencies(ecological ignorance) and to keep their own 'spiritual dimensions' intact. It is vital that we adopt a new growth model that is inclusive, in other words, one that yields equitable returns, for this nation teeming with people who are socio-economically challenged. Optimists believe Bangladesh will soon emerge as a middle income country provided entrepreneurship continues to grow at the current rate. If the latent talents of our youthful human resource could be tapped to advantage, the sky would be the limit ! Some 45 per cent of the population are below 15, according to one UN estimate. If the government and the growing number of up and coming entrepreneurs start investing in this potential, consistently and adequately, there is no reason why a 'world class' human resource could not be created. This is essential if we are to stay afloat, and swim as well, in the high-tech, corporatised, intensely knowledge-based global economic scenario.
Bangladeshis are considered not only to be generally resilient but also receptive to business opportunites, though they do still suffer from several drawbacks, such as entrepreneurs being not upto date. The largely 'informal nature' of the private sector is said to be another weakness which prevents these companies from doing businesses under a legal framework. They are, thus, unaware of the benefits therin, perhaps because the incentives to register are not attractive enough. Indeed, most would-be entrepreneurs fault the 'process' of setting up businesses in Bangladesh to be fraught with dis-incentives rather than the other way round.
Although much is heard about the need to develop the available human resource to fit the market, requisite skill development facilities are yet to be at par with the demand for properly trained labour at home or abroad. Much is heard about the huge remittances our migrants send home but the fact is that most of these hard-working hands could have been placed in better workplaces to earn more, had their full potential been honed in advance to ensure higher working and living standards abroad. The plight of our poor, unskilled or semi-skilled, migrant labour has been documented well enough over the years. Life abroad is far from rosy for these economic refugees, a fact brought tragically home when body bags arrive silently, with hardly any satisfactory explanation why or how they had to give their lives.
One researcher pointed out that most deaths in the Middle East happen due to poor food intake, dehydration and heat stroke, all of which could be easily avoided if the workers were given the basics of self-care knowledge prior to taking up their jobs. The recruiting agencies should be made to include such vital information in compulsory pre-flight training. Also it should be considered the responsibility of the manpower exporters to make sure that employers provide reasonably humane standards at the designated workplaces. Critics rightly point out that the attitude of our policy makers towards the migrant labour force is rather callous. Nobody seems to bother about their health and well-being in foreign lands. The government is only mindful of the dollars received from these 'faceless' numbers. There is nothing at all to boost the confidence of these innocents who leave their home and hearth for jobs abroad. Surely, the government and the relevant ministries, departments and agencies owe a wee bit of gratitude to them and could be gracious enough to say 'thank you'! There are certainly many decent ways to boost the self-esteem of these deserving folk, and the sooner we make amends the better for Bangladesh.