Social Enterprise: The New Center?

Charles "Hipbone" Cameron
Senior Analyst, The Arlington Institute

new center In 1919, just after the First World War ended, a little less than a century ago, the Irish poet WB Yeats wrote his celebrated poem The Second Coming, in which he predicted:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand…

The European Economic network seems to be fragmenting –some Euro economies are strong, but "the center cannot hold" (in Yeats’s phrase) indefinitely, while the weaker brethren need more and more bailouts. Maybe the global economy is falling apart along with it, and in this event we may want to discuss whether social enterprise may be the new "centre" (I will use Yeats’s own Anglophile spelling on this one) that somehow managed to hold together a system that is in serious disarray, precisely because it is the place where our positive "convictions" find enough "passionate intensity" to make a difference.

Capitalism, some have argued, is the problem – or is it? Or is the problem that we now have a mutated version of capitalism (call it crony capitalism for short, we can get into details later), a version that is corrupting and distorting the virtues of free markets? Is capitalism still the solution, but a socially-conscious capitalism the direction we should be going in?

Others point out that the alternatives we have tried so far haven’t done any better that capitalism, and in some cases may well have done far worse. The Russian experiment failed, the Chinese experiment is mutating towards an indigenous form of capitalism – and liberal-social Europe isn’t the poster-child for success many were hoping…

Neither of the two main rival systems of the late twentieth century seems to have the right "fuel" for the continuing growth and flourishing of the human race – and I suspect social entrepreneurship may be what’s emerging to bridge the gap.

If capitalism is the "competitive" version of economics, then, and socialism/communism the "cooperative" version (and I know that’s a pretty simplistic formulation, but it would take a book to expand on it properly), maybe what we need is an economics at the intersection of competitive and cooperative, a new way of doing business that’s individually, socially and environmentally responsible, competes for development, collaborates for success.

And isn’t that the niche that social entrepreneurs inhabit? In the US, in Europe – and in China, too?

I’d like to take this discussion a couple of steps further.

Does economics itself need to change?
How would we get the "crony" out of "crony capitalism" and leave the capitalism intact?
How do we make the shift global?
How do we keep it globally sustainable –with no humans – no ecosystem – left behind?
How do we keep the shift local?
How do we keep it locally sustainable –with no humans – no ecosystem – left behind?
Are there feedback loops that may bring the whole system down?
What potential tipping points do we need to address?
How do we proceed slowly enough to keep all participants on board?
How do we proceed fast enough to keep all contingencies at bay?

I realize this is a huge set of questions, but I think we are facing a huge, a monumental shift in thinking:

economically, as we factor the whole human rather than the "rational actor" into our models
entrepreneurially, as we move increasingly to a triple bottom line
socially, as we weave social networks that are mediated by and transcend the internet
creatively, as we move into the territories of sustainability and a new paradigm, and
collectively, as travel and net connections gradually make global citizens of us all, with global concerns and reach…

What are your thoughts on all this?
What do you fear, and what do you hope for in all this?
What are you doing about all this?
What is your organization doing?

Please join Charles (hipbone) Cameron in the conversation as we explore these pressing questions of the day.

Joseph Appalsamy

A New Centre Or Circumference Or Possibly Both

This is a loaded post Charles, but timely none-the-less! So thank you for the bravery in addressing what is often the 800 pound gorilla in the room and the ultimate conundrum – how to maintain competitive advantage while providing mutal value in an ecosystem that survives on collaboration? Solve this and the capital markets will beat a path to your door – social enterprise or not!

As a thought experiment, we could look at social enterprises as the ‘circumference’ that surround our common challenges as a way to solve them. To appreciate this perspective, we recognize the shift from crony capitalism to sustainable capitalism – the long term, sustained view of returns versus the dynamic yet short term returns characteristic of crony fund managers rewarded for quarterly results and not multi-year results. For pension funds that manage people’s savings this is critical.

In such a perspective, social enterprises initially work in sydicate, not in silos to leverage each others contribution removing the barriers of entry that each would have otherwise faced alone (think open-source) and then specialize (think Pharma industry collaboration initiatives that make it a little easier for each to identify compounds worth focusing on going). One of the big reasons the pharma industry collaborates is to find out quickly ‘what doesn’t work or not worth persuing’ – saving each a lot of money, time, materials and energy.

Social enterprises then form a circle around common problems and then can figure out what eventually works and scale it fractally (like infinite triangles in sacred geometry)large triangles for global problems and smaller and smaller triangles for local problems. Thus cronyism is transformed into merit based on surrounding the common problems, finding out what works (collectively as a circumference) and solving them locally (specialization as a centre). This may be the real value of social enterprise. But this is just a thought experiment. So let’s poke holes in it – in a spirit of collaboration of course.
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  Re: [Joseph] A New Centre Or Circumference Or Possibly Both
  
  Hi Joseph:
  
  In such a perspective, social enterprises initially work in syndicate, not in silos to leverage each others contribution removing the barriers of entry that each would have otherwise faced alone (think open-source) and then specialize (think Pharma industry collaboration initiatives that make it a little easier for each to identify compounds worth focusing on going).
  
  … this is just a thought experiment. So let’s poke holes in it – in a spirit of collaboration of course.
  
  I think that’s a very interesting perspective, and would welcome further discussion.
  
  I guess my immediate sense is that the two stages you describe would in practice both be running synchronously – ie some people are already in the field and have been there for twenty years, some people won’t get their big idea until three years from now – so I could see the possibility of larger organizations agreeing to co-plan and then divvy up the "territory" (conceptual, geographical, technical, whatever) – but how do smaller orgs get their start when they’re cropping up all the time, at different sizes and speeds and levels of sophistication.
  
  But look, that’s the critique stage, and your idea hasn’t had time to breathe yet – so why don’t we keep that thought of mine in the background, and see what else people have to contribute…
Laurinda

The End of an Era and no Solution in Sight?

Charles I totally agree with your post today, but do I have answers?

Not really.

For the past 3 years I have come to the realisation that the current status quo is aggravating the economic doom that the world faces and that we are now not at the tip of the cliff but are in fact starting to fall. In fact we could say that we are in free-fall!

This led me back to the root cause … rather than focusing on patching something that has gone rotten. "The basis of our economy is anchored in a economic system that is totally controlled by an independent, autonomous and self regulating central banking system that can be alleged to be managed by people that appear to be rotten to the core"

And what needs to be done is deal with the rot, but unfortunately there are too many interests at play trying to prevent the real solutions being implemented and for them to succeed …
- Laurinda
  
  The End of an Era and no Solution in Sight?
  
  To address the root cause we would need to start by reforming:
  
  1. The controlling banking system
  
  2. The legal framework that protects it (Justice, police and army)
  
  3. The governors and governments that are "controlled" by it
  
  Its a mine field …
  
  Can we as SEs do anything and still operate in this environment?
  
  Not really, all we can do is try to contain some of the most immediate and blatant damage (danger) done to people and planet.
  - Laurinda
    
    The End of an Era and no Solution in Sight?
    
    Here’s a video worthy seeing!
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watc…sEGLKo&feature=youtu.be
    
    and answers many of your questions!
    - Jeff Mowatt
      
      The End of an Era and no Solution in Sight?
      
      Ah yes, Laurina.
      
      I used to have a copy of that on my hyperlocal website. It got wiped out a week ago. I think you’ll find a fellow traveller, one of his spiritual brothers, in this man:
      
      http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=142413
    - Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
      
      The End of an Era and no Solution in Sight?
      
      I don’t think I’ve ever seen The Great Dictator, although I’ve seen other clips from the movie. Wonderful! Thanks!
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  The End of an Era and no Solution in Sight?
  
  Hi again, Laurinda:
  
  For the past 3 years I have come to the realisation … that we are now not at the tip of the cliff but are in fact starting to fall. In fact we could say that we are in free-fall!
  
  I find it fascinating that some people think the system is doing reasonably well but that perhaps it needs a little tweaking, some think it has some problems but nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a new administration or a second term, some think it is heading for a cliff, some that it’s on the cliff’s edge, some that it’s over the cliff and in free fall, some that it’s so badly broken that the only thing to be done is to put it out of its misery – and some just don’t give much thought to these things at all.
  
  And these hunches, opinions, feelings, perspectives, are all present at the same time – and they don’t map neatly to our usual political categories, either.
  
  So in setting up this event, my hope is that we’ll hear from people in social enterprises where the tweaking is being done, and social enterprises where a new system is being devised and tried out, and all sorts of social enterprises in between…
  
  Because I suspect there are things that can only be done by people at each of these stages, and social enterprises whose vision corresponds to each of these perspectives.
  
  If you look at Hokusai’s famous "Wave off Kanagawa", you’ll see that each drop of water that composes it is at a different stage at any moment, while the wave itself moves through all the phases, from body through swell to crest to foam…
  
  In a paradigm shift it’s like that, and we need to figure out how to make an organic change, not a violent disruption. My concern at the moment is that the "early adopters" are so eager for change they may leave the rest of humanity behind – causing the sort of rupture that made "avant garde art" completely lose touch with "we the people" for much of the twentieth century.
  
  But I’m getting into a rant here, so I’ll leave it at that. We need to pace ourselves in such a way that the creatives can do their exploring but the early adopters manage to bring the rest of the world along with them…
  
  That’s my sense — what do you think?
Jeff Mowatt

Economics for humans

Hi Charles,

In UK history, it’s the seizure of common land which perhaps marks the dawn of modern capitalism. Gerard Winstanley, a 17th century agrarian communist wrote in ‘his Declaration of the Poor Oppressed People of England’.

"The power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, yet you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land."

The industrial capitalism of the 19th century spawned the cooperative movement among the impoverished weavers of Lancashire and in the 20th Century, a shop owner called John Lewis spelt out the problem as he saw it:

"The present state of affairs is really a perversion of the proper working of capitalism. It is all wrong to have millionaires before you have ceased to have slums. Capitalism has done enormous good and suits human nature far too well to be given up as long as human nature remains the same. But the perversion has given us too unstable a society. Differences of

reward must be large enough to induce people to do their best but the present differences are far too great."

http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/…/bbc-broadcast.html

What we are doing about it begins with Terry Hallman and his call on Clinton in 1996 with a call for an alternative paradigm. The core argument is that capitalism of the late 20th century has become a matter of debt imagined into existence as numbers at a consequent cost to humanity. It warned of the risk of uprisings by those disenfranchised. The information age presented an opportunity to share in a way never before possible, on a global basis. We needed to re-calibrate for humans rather than numbers:

"Economics, and indeed human civilization, can only be measured and calibrated in terms of human beings. Everything in economics has to be adjusted for people, first, and abandoning the illusory numerical analyses that inevitably put numbers ahead of people, capitalism ahead of democracy, and degradation ahead of compassion."

So in 1997 he began with the concept of a business with a primary social objective, took it to Russia to source an experimental localised economic development initiative. I joined him in 2003, to support his fast for economic rights and it ended up with P-CED launching in the UK the following year where we set about developing a business plan to replicate this ‘profit for purpose approach bottom up across the UK and re-invest profit to CDFIs to seed further social enterprise. A total failure, so we re-focussed efforts on Ukraine.

The primary focus became corruption and the consequent effects of poverty on children who, trapped in a vicous cycle of poverty from orphanages to the streets, a life of crime and prostitution leading to more children being born into poverty and an HIV epidemic which according to the UN, now threatens all Europe.

A call was made in the form of a strategy plan for reforms in childcare, affordable broadband, micro-finance and a Center for Social Enterprise, propelled by a social investment fund. It was designed such that profitable components would underwrite those of less than full cost recovery, for nil overall cost. It said this:

"An inherent assumption about capitalism is that profit is defined only in terms of monetary gain. This assumption is virtually unquestioned in most of the world. However, it is not a valid assumption. Business enterprise, capitalism, must be measured in terms of monetary profit. That rule is not arguable. A business enterprise must make monetary profit, or it will merely cease to exist. That is an absolute requirement. But it does not follow that this must necessarily be the final bottom line and the sole aim of the enterprise. How this profit is used is another question. It is commonly assumed that profit will enrich enterprise owners and investors, which in turn gives them incentive to participate financially in the enterprise to start with.

That, however, is not the only possible outcome for use of profits. Profits can be directly applied to help resolve a broad range of social problems: poverty relief, improving childcare, seeding scientific research for nationwide economic advancement, improving communications infrastructure and accessibility, for examples – the target objectives of this particular project plan. The same financial discipline required of any conventional for-profit business can be applied to projects with the primary aim of improving socioeconomic conditions. Profitability provides money needed to be self-sustaining for the purpose of achieving social and economic objectives such as benefit of a nation’s poorest, neediest people. In which case, the enterprise is a social enterprise."

http://en.for-ua.com/analytics/2007/08/09/110003.html

This was a limited success in that although childcare recommendations were implemented and saw a 40% increase in domestic adoptions, we had a social objective which scared the pants off our international development agencies and would undermine political aspirations to open European markets to Eastern Europe – capitalism triumphed again.

In 2009 and 2010, our contribution to education delivered presentations on Economics in Transition exploring the background to the 2008 crisis and the urgent need for a new sustainable economic paradigm.

We shifted tack again, back to the UK and development of people-centered local economies. A summary leading to details on most of this may be found in this blog.

http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=169485

Jeff
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  Re: [Jeff] Economics for humans
  
  Ah, Jeff!
  
  Economics for humans. Yes. The "rational actor" has lost much of its charm, I think, and attempts like Bhutan’s to measure "national happiness" as a serious factor for consideration in planning show that some of the ideas you espouse are "on their way in" with the tide…
  
  I wrote a book on job satisfaction back in the mid-eighties in which I said we needed a to think about a "Subtle National Product" of good-will and cooperation to set beside the "Gross National Product"…
  
  *
  
  That passage you often quote from Tolstoy, and while Terry quoted in the piece you linked to for Laurinda, bears repeating:
  
  Tolstoy writes somewhere about a peasant belief that a green stick had been buried in the earth and would one day be found, and then all our troubles would come to an end. I think he half believed it himself, and was always on the look out for the green stick, until at last he grew tired of looking. Never mind. The fact that a man like Tolstoy could exist amounts in itself to a green stick. It is true that today his hopes seem more remote even than when he entertained them. Yet underlying the disappointed hopes was his faith in a single infallible guide, a ‘Universal Spirit that lives in men as a whole, and in each one of us . . . that commands the tree to grow towards the sun, the flower to throw off its seed in autumn, and us to reach out towards God and by so doing become united to each other.’ Such was his last word, delivered to us, his brothers, who come after him"
  - Jeff Mowatt
    
    Learn to Love and Respect each other first
    
    Charles, Something else perhaps worth quoting are the last two paragraphs from a February 2008 message addressing the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, aptly entitled ‘Genesis’. You now have two of its members in the White House.
    
    "There is increasing congruence and synchronicity in play now, to the point of attunement. What Ms. Fore is describing has been central to P-CED’s main message, advocacy and activity for a decade. That, and helping establish an alternative form of capitalism, where profits and/or aid money are put to use in investment vehicles with the singular purpose of helping the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. The paper on which that is based is in Clinton’s library, dated September 16, 1996, author yours’ truly. That is reflected in P-CED’s home page and history section. In fact, you might notice a number of ideas and writings there that have now made their way into the mainstream of economics and aid thinking, how to make business and aid work smarter and more effectively in relieving poverty and the misery and risks that result. Bill Gates – as hard-edged a capitalist as has ever existed – reiterated the same things in Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago (ref below.) It sounds as though Ms. Fore’s remarks very much reflect this sort of thinking. Now it’s time to move forward and get it done.
    
    Thank you for your time and attention to this. I and others will look forward to hearing from you. I hope we continue to realize ever more fully that outside the box and inside the box have only a box in the way. We outside the box know quite a bit of what’s going on, many times in exquisite detail, perhaps in ways that those inside the box can’t quite as easily access if at all. We are grossly underfunded in favor of missiles, bombs, and ordnance, which is about 100% backwards. Now, with even the US Pentagon stating that they’ve learned their lesson in Iraq and realize (so says top US general in Iraq ten days or so ago) that winning hearts and minds is the best option, I and others shall continue to think positive and look for aid budgets and funding spigots to be opened much more for people and NGOs in silos, foxholes and trenches, insisting on better than ordnance, and who understand things and how to fix them. We can do that. We can even do it cost-effectively and with far better efficiency than the ordnance route. Welcome to our brave new world. Except it’s not so new: learn to love and respect each other first, especially the weakest, most defenseless, most voiceless among us, then figure out the rest. There aren’t other more important things to do first. This message has been around for at least two thousand years. How difficult is it for us to understand?"
    
    http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=171835
Adjoa Acquaah-Harrison

Simple Woman with Mad Appreciation for Mr. Cameron

Don’t know much about history

Don’t know much biology

Don’t know much about a science book

Don’t know much about the french I took

But I do know that I love you

And I know that if you love me too

What a wonderful world this would be

Borrowing from Sam Cooke’s lyrics, above, I share my simple comments to Charles’ question about whether Social Enterprise is the new center? I wrote the following prologue that quoted WB Yeats’ Second Coming, and I’m glad to see how Mr. Cameron has expertly woven the message of yesteryear into what is happening today. Here is the piece I wrote for myself, you don’t have to agree at all:

Prologue

"The Centre Cannot Hold… Things Fall Apart"

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand…. William Butler Yeats

In his poem, The Second Coming, Yeats writes about the crumbling center. “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the earth;” his lines speaking of Ireland, or mythology, but timeless, and even more real today. . …”but the optimist has hope.” Yet, the optimist must act for Hope.

Let’s Repair the World – It is an imperative!

A groundswell of global consciousness is taking hold in spite of the chaos that threatens to tilt the balance of the earth’s energy. More and more, individuals from rich countries are making personal decisions to volunteer personal time and talent, and commit financial resources to improve the lives of vulnerable people in faraway countries they may even never see, simply because it is the right thing to do. To the committed, the definition of “world” extends farther than town and country, continent, or person. Their ideology bellows for them to be their brothers’ keepers, and the definition of brother or sister includes shades of skin color of people in village with unpronounceable names. There has never been a time when a critical mass of ordinary people declared themselves as agents of change! They heed the clarion call of heart and humanity, acting by personal edicts of their evolving consciousness. What else is there to do when we see the center that is buckling down? The poor does not go to Hell in a hand-basket alone, with nary a whimper or complaint? We all do. So, might as well rewrite new rules and sally forth to replenish and to heal the human race. “Surely, some revelation is at hand…” A pulsing energy of goodness is proving that value creation transcends materiality. Gone is my “personal Idaho.” Gone is your “personal Idaho.” We are all Idahoans, if we cannot be Irish. The revolution of love consciousness defies geography, anyway. “Surely the Second Coming is at hand.” Let’s repair the world…..

Adjoa Acquaah-Harrison
- Jeff Mowatt
  
  Simple Woman with Mad Appreciation for Mr. Cameron
  
  So very true, Adjoa.
  
  To support what you say, here’s a message from back in 2008 to USAID and the US Senate making a similar point in asking for their support with an alternative to capitalism. It ends:
  
  "Thank you for your time and attention to this. I and others will look forward to hearing from you. I hope we continue to realize ever more fully that outside the box and inside the box have only a box in the way. We outside the box know quite a bit of what’s going on, many times in exquisite detail, perhaps in ways that those inside the box can’t quite as easily access if at all. We are grossly underfunded in favor of missiles, bombs, and ordnance, which is about 100% backwards. Now, with even the US Pentagon stating that they’ve learned their lesson in Iraq and realize (so says top US general in Iraq ten days or so ago) that winning hearts and minds is the best option, I and others shall continue to think positive and look for aid budgets and funding spigots to be opened much more for people and NGOs in silos, foxholes and trenches, insisting on better than ordnance, and who understand things and how to fix them. We can do that. We can even do it cost-effectively and with far better efficiency than the ordnance route. Welcome to our brave new world. Except it’s not so new: learn to love and respect each other first, especially the weakest, most defenseless, most voiceless among us, then figure out the rest. There aren’t other more important things to do first. This message has been around for at least two thousand years. How difficult is it for us to understand?"
  
  http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=171835
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  Re: [{Adjoa] Simple Woman with Mad Appreciation for Mr. Cameron
  
  What a lovely post! "Let’s repair the world" — yes indeed! And it’s great to run across another lover of Yeats!
  - Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
    
    Re: [{Adjoa] Simple Woman with Mad Appreciation for Mr. Cameron
    
    And one other thing, Adjoa:
    
    I imagine you already know the phrase "tikkun olam" since you use the words "repair the world" — but just in case you don’t, or someone else reading here doesn’t, "tikkun olam" means just that, "repair the world", in Hebrew, and it’s a major concept in Judaism:
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam
    
    Tikkun Olam! Let’s do it!
Adjoa Acquaah-Harrison

An Ordinary African Woman with Mad Appreciation for Mr. Cameron

Don’t know much about history

Don’t know much biology

Don’t know much about a science book

Don’t know much about the french I took

But I do know that I love you

And I know that if you love me too

What a wonderful world this would be

Borrowing from Sam Cooke’s lyrics, above, I share my simple comments to Charles’ question about whether Social Enterprise is the new center? I wrote the following prologue that quoted WB Yeats’ Second Coming, and I’m glad to see how Mr. Cameron has expertly woven the message of yesteryear into what is happening today. Here is the piece I wrote for myself, you don’t have to agree at all:

Prologue

"The Centre Cannot Hold… Things Fall Apart"

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand…. William Butler Yeats

In his poem, The Second Coming, Yeats writes about the crumbling center. “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the earth;” his lines speaking of Ireland, or mythology, but timeless, and even more real today. . …”but the optimist has hope.” Yet, the optimist must act for Hope.

Let’s Repair the World – It is an imperative!

A groundswell of global consciousness is taking hold in spite of the chaos that threatens to tilt the balance of the earth’s energy. More and more, individuals from rich countries are making personal decisions to volunteer personal time and talent, and commit financial resources to improve the lives of vulnerable people in faraway countries they may even never see, simply because it is the right thing to do. To the committed, the definition of “world” extends farther than town and country, continent, or person. Their ideology bellows for them to be their brothers’ keepers, and the definition of brother or sister includes shades of skin color of people in village with unpronounceable names. There has never been a time when a critical mass of ordinary people declared themselves as agents of change! They heed the clarion call of heart and humanity, acting by personal edicts of their evolving consciousness. What else is there to do when we see the center that is buckling down? The poor does not go to Hell in a hand-basket alone, with nary a whimper or complaint? We all do. So, might as well rewrite new rules and sally forth to replenish and to heal the human race. “Surely, some revelation is at hand…” A pulsing energy of goodness is proving that value creation transcends materiality. Gone is my “personal Idaho.” Gone is your “personal Idaho.” We are all Idahoans, if we cannot be Irish. The revolution of love consciousness defies geography, anyway. “Surely the Second Coming is at hand.” Let’s repair the world…..

Adjoa Acquaah-Harrison
prakashVinjamuri_surya

Need to understand

I will begin with last four Questions that you placed >

Q:What are your thoughts on all this?

A:I dont know, I am learning and I will try to answer the rest so that I might be indirectly answering the first.

Q:What do you fear, and what do you hope for in all this?

A:Frankly I fear nothing as I learned to live with uncertainties and I hope as human beings if we realize about the beauty of impermanence then we gain the energy to face anything and everything.

Q: What are you doing about all this?

A: Started reading a lot both my professional books and the rest and I see they are going to help me gain more peace and happiness.

Q: What is your organization doing?

A: Three essential steps we are on >

1)Continuing with what we believe, SHARE FOOD.

We believe one needs to hang on what they value most and it will strengthen the entire work and life.

2)Trying to find answers for the damage the medical fraternity had done to Women’s life by working on, to prevent further damage and correct the mistake, by trying to find answers.

Here what I like to say is that,we need to hang on with the profession we are in and check the deviance’s and show the right path and participate in the repair work.

3)Motivating communities to be participate in anyway they can by sparing 5 minutes a day or one hour in a week or One day in a month and thus this time is used in for various local community building initiatives.

Sir,

What we realized is that we have answers for every situation and we will be able to face any situation and limit uncertainties, only if we strengthen our roots and be sincere,hardworking and learn to live with the resources that we are able to generate.

And learn not to raise loans and do wrong, no matter how important for us to exist.

All the above words have come from my heart and by living/sticking to what all I stated.

And it is possible for everybody to do the same.

And I ensure each one of us will be blessed with TONS OF HAPPINESS FOREVER AND EVER AFTER.
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  Re: [ Dr Vinjamuri ] Need to understand
  
  Hello once again, Sir!
  
  Here what I like to say is that,we need to hang on with the profession we are in and check the deviance’s and show the right path and participate in the repair work.
  
  Whether we calliat "dharma" or "vocation" or "following your bliss" – that does seem to be one of the world-wide wisdoms…
  
  Thanks again for your generous work, your continuing participation here, and the inspiration you bring us all…
Adjoa Acquaah-Harrison

‘Kumbaya’ capitalism collides with self-interest

It is fascinating to read up on the goings on at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, and pleased to share with you Chrystia Freeland’s op-ed,Analysis of January 26th, with the following teaser and link:

"It is pleasant to spend a few days in snowy Davos eating fondue, skiing and talking up creative examples of social entrepreneurship. It can even be fun to muse on one of the big questions the World Economic Forum has designated for collective cogitation: how to ‘‘redesign’’ capitalism.

But the hard part is embracing higher taxes or a lower salary. ‘‘I personally believe that when it comes to policy, you shouldn’t be pursuing self-interest but the public interest,’’ Soros said. But Davos Man prefers to believe in a world of ‘‘kumbaya’’ capitalism, where self-interest and the public interest would coincide. Openly insisting that this is not always the case is how Soros really has betrayed his class." –

http://blogs.reuters.com/…/

Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Head of Communications of the World Economic Forum also offers an interesting observation about the growing inequality, under an article, titled, "To Serve Society Better, Capitalism Needs a Redesign" – http://www.weforum.org/news…r-capitalism-needs-redesign

I like the sound of ‘Kumbaya’ capitalism which suggests, perhaps, that the New Center is at hand, and we can all participate in the process of tikkun olam, which, I did not know as an existing term for "repair the world." Thank you for the insight, Mr. Cameron.

Last, but not least, this discussion is reminscent of one that was hosted in July 2009, addressing the intersections of money, power, and generosity, through the Pope’s Third Encyclical. This continues to be a reference tool for me and a source that seems relevant to the current discussion. Here is the link: http://www.socialedge.org/…/all-people-of-good-will

Tikkum olam!

Adjoa Acquaah-Harrison
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  ‘Kumbaya’ capitalism collides with self-interest
  
  Hello again!
  
  I’m afraid that "kumbaya" now has two almost opposite meanings — as Wikipedia puts it:
  
  QUOET:
  
  The song was originally associated with human and spiritual unity, closeness and compassion, and it still is, but more recently it is also cited or alluded to in satirical or cynical ways which suggest false moralizing, hypocrisy, or naively optimistic views of the world and human nature.
  
  I’m thinking that the Reuters blogger was using it in the disparaging sense.
  
  That would be a sad note to end on, though, so I’d like to add that the new event that started on the Edge yesterday, strikes me as closely related to this one. It’s titled "3-D Investing: The Answer to Dysfunctional Capital Markets?" and suggests:
  
  Markets have generally been dominated by two dimensions, financial return and risk, but Rod Schwartz predicts that social impact will soon become the third dimension of all investment decisions.
  
  http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/funding/3-d-investing
  
  And finally — yes, I too think that the Papal encyclical *Caritas in Veritate* on charity and social justice was an important "marker" in the development of na new global sense of the appropriate uses of funds and resources, and I’m delighted to see you still find value in our discussion:
  
  http://www.socialedge.org/…/all-people-of-good-will
  
  Thanks again!
  - jo davidson
    
    symbol of the labyrinth
    
    Hi Charles, I like the photo, I agree social enterprise could be the center of a new system, (running synchronicity with fluid motion to fuel the economics of wealth creation, job creation and poverty alleviation.)
    
    To avoid rupture at the intersections, a change in the way profits and costs are assessed could challenge what’s possible. For maximum buy-in and corporate cooperation, it could be about cultivating the soil – in the parched field of believing. Like the way Galileo overthrew the Copernican view and all of a sudden everyone’s view changed – (if it were avant garde art, it would be strawberry fields forever. That’s to level the playing field as a force field.
    
    To harness the forces of harmony for organic change, it’s like Steve Jobs had said ‘be a yardstick for quality, some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected’ or for a universal spirit, it’s what mother Teresa had said ‘ if we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.’
    - Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
      
      symbol of the labyrinth
      
      Hi Jo:
      
      > To avoid rupture at the intersections
      
      If I’m understanding you right, that’s one of my biggest concerns right now: how to have large-scale change with minimal human disruption — and feel free to correct me (I’ve no doubt you would and do) if I’m misunderstanding you!
      
      Always good, always a pleasure to talk with you.
Jem Bendell

The monetary system

The current monetary system is the root cause of economic crises, as well as a key factor in many social and environmental problems. Some social entrepreneurs arent relying on big business or government to fix it, and creating their own monetary systems, as I explain in my TEDx talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5uGLbV5zVo
- Charles “Hipbone” Cameron
  
  The monetary system
  
  Hello, Jern:
  
  I was brought up on the phrase "to give and not to count the cost" — and my mentor was a monk, so his possessions, clothes, etc., such as they were, were his "ad usum" — for his use, not for his "mineness".
  
  I don’t suppose that arrangement will recommend itself to everyone, but it works pretty well for a few of us, and has a curiously liberating effect if one takes it seriously.
James Crawford

Getting Creative with Capitalism

It is easy to get caught up in today’s present economic situation and get frustrated at the great imbalances that exist on the global scale, but that can significantly distort one’s perception on our economic history. As you alluded to, the West has been built on the back of capitalism as well as the success of China bringing hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty. Capitalism simply has no rival (so far).

A key feature of capitalism is its role in innovation. Not just in products, but also in ideas. There is so much room to work within the confines of capitalism to better society.

In terms of social entrepreneurship, I believe we are heading in the right direction but going about it the wrong way. The idea of a double or triple bottom line is insightful but leads people to the wrong conclusions. This notion give people the impression of some profits, but not too much. It is fundamentally flawed in the push and pull between trade-offs in pursuing multiple objectives.

Though I believe in the concept, social businesses need to fuse profits and social benefits into one goal where the success in one in contingent on the success of the other. The products of social businesses will be more than just the physical product. It will also embody the social benefit that the business provides.

In the same way we are trying to make a market for negative externalities (pollution), we should be striving to construct a market which takes into account positive externalities. Social businesses must be creative to convey to consumers their social missions which are tied to the products that they produce and let consumers determine their price through good ole supply and demand. The vast network of global production chains offers direct access to the people we wish to help and capitalism provides the system upon which to do it.
Ekaterina Besshaposhnikova

SE – the universal instrument?

Social entrepreneurship is still too young and hasn’t a real political force to become an attraction center for the global economy over the next 20-30 years and to influence decisions taken by the government.

At the current stage of morality and of human consciousness development it is difficult to imagine a global shift of the for-profit business to the principles of social business, when neither the smallest part of the profits can be distributed among the owners of the company.

But social entrepreneurship can play a role of an instrument, softening the severity of the world’s problems – a kind of lubricant, which will allow the current global economic mechanism to serve until we’ll find an adequate replacement for it.
Prodip K. Roy

Solidarity Economy for Social Change

Open competition for rich and poor under capitalist economy makes more people more poor and only a section of wealthy people mobilized more money than theirs needs and expectation. It could create an unhealthy atmosphere around the globe. But one things is important, each people wants his individual identity within the society and state. So, people irrespective of rich and poor justify the competition while poor are the loser always about all the times.

So, we need to make an economic solution where people could act collectively, but they will enjoys their identity as per their capacity and skills. We need a solidarity among the people in this regards and solidarity economy could bring the people in this mechanisms.

Yes, it is too difficult to adopt the national government to change their economic ideology within a night. It should not be expected to change all the things overnight.

So, we need to set an example. Example would create more evidence and people as well as representative of people like government, policy makers, political parties and policy influences will be influenced by evidence. It is a long time struggle as usual which we should perform everyday as a change maker for changing the economic shape of the nation state. You can read one of my blog post in this regard: http://prodip.wordpress.com/…/

Recently, I have written a blog post captioned alternative of micro-credit (http://prodip.wordpress.com/…/) where I have also focused in the collective efforts of the people for social change.

Working with the different NGOs, I have got an experience that we need to make a bridge of competition and cooperation among people for social change. Realizing the context, I have tried to put this idea to my employers, but they are not interested! I failed again and again to make it clear to my employers that it would change the fate of poor people which are expected by the all social workers.

At last, I resigned from jobs and formed a new organization. I have recruited volunteers to make a cooperative and planned to initiate cooperative business! There have a lot of difficulties, mostly about finance! But we are walking in the road which I have drawn as above. We are going to start a small cooperative enterprise where the poor people will engage and their collective efforts will be facilitated for their individual change!
Barun P Mondal

Disscusion

I am not interested about social Enterprise. Because I think in here has not any new method. It is a new capitalism on new name. Just this.