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By Andrew Newton on 16 Mar, 2010 - 16:42 UTC

A little update on what I have been up to and what happens now...

 

You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet on APEsphere these last couple of months. I am now able to explain why.

 

It has long been my view that the global financial crisis is the single biggest responsible business issue of the decade. Yes, even bigger than climate change, because thanks to the global financial crisis efforts to address climate change have been badly set back.

 

While regulatory reform - specifically a reversal of the deregulatory fervor fo the last thirty years - is clearly needed, what strikes me is the way we talk about the crisis in such abstract terms. It is so standard to talk about what the markets did, or even "the banks", and to talk in aggregate terms about unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy.

 

Of course, those statistics are always worth repeating:

Not to mention the fact that the crisis is associated with a sharp uptick in mental health problems and suicide rates, children being pulled out of schools and put to work, increases in human trafficking, social unrest and violent conflict.

 

But all this talk of aggregates repeats part of the problem that got us into this mess in the first place. Aggregates create emotional distance. They enable us to forget that the crisis both impacts and was brought about by individuals.

 

So Kelsey Timmerman and I are about to set out on a journey to tell some of the personal stories behind the numbers - our very own Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Our blog, NOTHING P€R$ONAL, will be the main means by which we keep readers updated on our travels, though I will also post some of those stories here on APEsphere.

 

Kelsey has penned the first post here, explaining why this project is so personal. You can also join the conversation through our twitter stream @0_personal.

 

If coverage of the financial crisis seems to you to be missing something important, we hope this blog will fill the void. Enjoy.

A great profile from the Womens Feature Service about Kalpona Akter, the head of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS).

Its an unusual story to find in the WSJ, but a good one. The well-paid Goldman Sachs trader who found his way back to Vermont and a CSR role.

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Conscientious mailman saves a life
By A P Newton on 12 Apr, 2009 - 06:48 UTC

Courtney Spaude, a letter carrier in Madison Wisconsin, saved the life of an elderly woman on his route last week, after noticing signs that things were not as usual at her house and alerting the police.  While he "didn't want to be the nosy mailman," he did feel responsible enough for another's well-being to take action.  The police found the woman, lying where she had fallen four days earlier, severely dehydrated but alive.  She is now recovering nicely from her fall. 

In a draft document circulated to African bishops, Pope Benedict XVI denounces multinationals for invading Africa and "defiling God's creation".

 

He accuses corporations of coming to the continent in search of mineral wealth, colluding with corrupt officials, and traficking arms without respect for human rights or democracy.

 

According to The Times report, the document, which is to be debated in Rome in October:

 

"adds that "in complicity with African leaders, they oppress local companies, buy thousands of hectares of land and expropriate populations from their land." It also attacks producers of genetically modified foods. The document does not however name the multinationals or specific African countries or leaders."

 

 

For our readers everywhere who haven't been inundated with this story: I must insist you watch Jon Stewart's Daily Show evisceration, er, interview of CNBC's Jim Cramer. The Stewart v. Cramer fisticuffs have been flying for a couple of weeks now, as Stewart has repeatedly accused Cramer and the entire CNBC financial news network of not just bad journalism, but of corrupt, cronyist journalism that pretended to financial omniscience and counseled viewers to hang onto, say, Bear Stearns stock just days before it went down the market toilet.

Stewart has been hailed as the "Edward R. Murrow" of our generation [http://tinyurl.com/btcv3s] by James Fallows in the Atlantic, and I'm pretty sure he's right. Stewart is doing the job of a Real Journalist: defending the truth, exposing hypocrisy. The funny thing is, he's "just" a comedian.

Click through to the Nation story for the video links.
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The Australian Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, was also once the frontman for the band Midnight Oil, whose activist, anti-corporate, pro-indigenous songs were a big part of the '90's soundtrack. He gave up rocking in 2002 to go into politics. Now he's back with the band, for a benefit gig, at least, as he takes the stage Thursday to support a bushfires benefit.

Reuters: "Since joining parliament, Garrett, a committed Christian, has only reunited with Midnight Oil for two benefit concerts -- in 2005 to raise funds for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami and this week for victims of Australia's bushfires and floods.

"I have seen how devastating the Victorian bushfires have been for so many people and I am very pleased to be able to join the incredible effort of the Australian music industry that I worked in for so long," Garrett said in a statement."
Leila Deen is a 29-year-old environmental activist with Plane Stupid, a group devoted to stopping endless runway expansion at London's airports. Last week she threw a green custard in the face of Peter Mandelson, the UK's Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, to protest his support for a third runway at Heathrow. According to Deen, "the only thing green about Peter Mandelson is the green slime running through his veins."

In her piece for the Guardian, Deen explains her apparently childish action: "Yes, custard is a simplistic response to endemic corruption. But at least it highlights the inescapable fact that has somehow eluded these commentators: this government is impervious to mature debate. Remember the debate about Iraq? We marched, we debated, we won the argument. They invaded Iraq anyway."
Meet Ma Jun, China's foremost environmental crusader. Operating in an extremely tricky political and cultural climate, Ma is slowly, carefully, but successfully launching China's environmental movement.

From AFP: "In China, where dissent is often brutally suppressed, publicly shaming powerful corporations for destroying the environment is fraught with risk. Ma Jun treads carefully.

The author of "China's Water Crisis," a savage catalogue of the country's environmental collapse, Ma now takes the fight to polluters, shaming factories on a website run by his non-governmental organisation the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE).

And working out how far a small campaign group can push businesses -- and the officials who back them -- has become his specialty.

"There is a space there, but there is a line as well. The key is to understand both," said the soft-spoken 40-year-old.

"This is the Chinese condition. This is a country that has been ruled in a top-down way for thousands of years. Now you want to do things in a different way? We have to have some patience.""

Ma's IPE and other environmental groups are finding Chinese policy to be increasingly open to change: new, tougher anti-pollution legislation has been enacted, and environmental NGOs and media coverage are beginning to be cautiously accepted. But enforcement of regulations remains nearly nonexistent, and that's where the IPE steps in:

""Public participation is the key to dealing with our environmental problems," said Ma, who studied at Yale University in 2004.

"The pre-condition for any meaningful participation should be to allow those who are affected to have access to the information."

Using government statistics the IPE has created a map highlighting 30,000 violators of air and water regulations. Firms can only be removed after a third-party audit."

Such watchdog actions make many Chinese businesses angry, while others resort to attempted bribery. But Ma, a gentle, careful, and scrupulous actor, threads his way delicately through the legal and cultural landscape.

Ma began his career as a journalist for the South China Morning Post, publishing his groundbreaking book in 1999:

"It was an astonishing book. China's equivalent of 'Silent Spring' (the 1962 book by Rachel Carson credited with helping launch the environmental movement in the United States)," said Mark O'Neill, a colleague during the 1990s, who added Ma's calm approach was crucial to the NGO's success.

"He has made the maximum use of the space, but without getting himself arrested or getting locked up. This takes great intelligence and savvy."

Most of the companies the website pinpoints are Chinese, but multinationals with operations in China have also been named.

Ma hopes the website will challenge the argument, repeated by big firms, that the complexity of modern supply chains prevents proper monitoring.

"From now on you cannot say 'I do not know'," said Ma, who runs IPE out of a small Beijing apartment.

The IPE is working with such multinational giants as GE and Wal-Mart to commit to only doing business with those Chinese companies who adhere to a stringent set of environmental standards. GE is already using IPE's website to run checks on potential suppliers, and Wal-Mart appears set to cooperate as well:

"Former Wal-Mart chief executive officer Lee Scott said in Beijing last year the firm would require suppliers to ensure the factories they buy from receive the highest ratings in audits of environmental and social practices by 2012.

"That is the game-changer," said Ma.

"If you are below legal discharge standards you are out of the game. Only by adopting it can you compete," Ma said."
“People are really afraid to spend money. Anything that smacks of too much fun or self-indulgence is being frowned upon.” - He said it.
One of the myriad stumbling blocks people in developing countries face in their quest for self-sufficiency is a simple lack of eyeglasses. As millions of four-eyes (including your humble correspondent) can attest, a pair of prescription lenses can make life a whole lot easier than it would otherwise be, making tasks like, say, learning to read possible.

For millions of others, though, prescription glasses are impossibly expensive. So it seemed logical to Joshua Silver, a retired Oxford physicist, to develop a pair of glasses that can be adjusted to each user's needs without a prescription, and can be manufactured cheaply enough to be made widely available throughout the developing world. It's taken Silver 20 years to come up with a prototype that can be cheaply reproduced.

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