Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): a dream to ever come true?

I am happy to the introduction of CSR, but as I am always being pessimistic I think that convincing private companies to voluntarily take responsible for any act they committed towards environmental issues is a very hard task to ever achieve at all. I wonder if CSR is only a dream of human being to ever come true?

Corporate Social Responsibility indicates its purpose to accomplish the “common goal of sustainable development” in three dimensions of “economic, environment, and social.” Moreover, CSR suggests “companies should set objectives, measure their performance, and have that performance independently audited, in relation to all three. They should aim to meet the triple bottom line, rather than focusing narrowly on profitability and shareholder value” (Henderson, 2001). How nice it is! Is it a dream world that everybody wishes to live in?! I see every sentence of CSR shares the word “should” that, to me, sounds powerless for state, power is on the hand of private businesses or investors, to enforce the private business to join hand with the state to attain the so-called “sustainable development,” at the same time to create the mutual benefit atmosphere within the society. I see the percentage of persuading those companies to willingly take responsible is very little to achieve. However, some may argue that at least there are some changes although it is little. Responding to this, I would debate that, if we compare what they gain from their business and the exploitation they cause to the environment with the portion they would share is proved very little and may far beyond the “real expense” that the state would need to address the future problems significantly environmental problems.

Unsurprisingly, the success of business is by taking part in CSR for “profits depend on reputation, which in turn depends increasingly on being seen to act in a socially responsible way” (Henderson, 2001). Again, it comes to mind the word “willingness or intention.” Whether or not those private companies “really want” to act in a way of socially responsible or have CSR set in their business plan ready at the beginning? Or maybe because of more benefit generation purpose they “intend” to be polite and invest some money to gain “good” reputation or to show-off to the society that they are “good” companies that do care environmental issues. In fact, they are wearing mask of generosity.

Anyway, CSR itself is a good idea, yet, to me, the state’s intervention is another factor to ensure the CSR works. In this context the state should actively involve and make sure that private company strictly follows the regulation of what is known as “social responsibility.” In the same token, the state should act as a monitoring body to oversee private business whether or not they act properly and responsibly. Furthermore, the state should take any action towards those companies whose activities may harm the society or environment, so as to reach “sustainable development” as a whole.

extracts from my favorite novel

Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi

it often happens that a person doesn't realise they are in love until they are suddenly separated from the object of their affection. only then do they realise how deep their feelings run.

she lingered a long time, but she didn't have the courage to enter the long building to ask after him, so they hurried back.

famous works are famous for a reason, and don't become rubbish just because of some temporary changes.

this was impossible; since when was i so important as to arouse such feelings in Old Third?

for days Old Third didn't come. Jinqiu felt dispirited and tried to work out what she had done wrong. she couldn't write, couldn't eat, but could only think over and over, why isn't Old Third coming?

she'd never asked him if he was married, and he had never mentioned it.

the thought of it pained her, made her feel cheated.

maybe he was one of those flirts you read about in books who has his tricks for making girls fall into his arms.

this is the moment of truth, you've got to stand by your words.

he stared at her and she grew more nervous.

each month their expenditure exceeded their income.

every year during the summer holidays she would look for temporary work, mostly doing odd jobs on construction sites: moving bricks, mixing mortar and shovelling it into wooden buckets for the bricklayer. it was arduous and dangerous work, but she could earn one or two yuan per day so she went back every year.

the truth was she didn't want to leave Old Third. two days at home mean two days of not seeing him, and she knew she didn't have much time left in West Village before she had to return to Yichang for good.

she left without ever returning.

the episode had made Lin a laughing stock of the whole village, and even the young children taunted him.

i was not, it is true, utterly happy.

i may not be able to wait thirteen months for you, nor until you are twenty-five, but i can wait for you a lifetime.

Mother

Today is Mother's Day. I would like to wish all mothers around the world healthy and happy.

I am happy that my mother is still alive and able to call her "mom" everyday; yet, I have never been a good son to her. I am afraid one day when I could make her proud of me she were not there to see that day to come.

My mother has struggled for most of her life to raise my family. We have 5 people in this family. My mother is the only female in the house. She should be the queen of this house; yet, she is not. Instead, she is the most hardworking person in the family. She earns a living and does all houseworks. She is the first person to get up and the last person to go to bed. Within a small period of time, her silky smooth black hair has turned into grey, reflecting her sacrifice for the sake of this tiny family. I feel pity for her, but I could not help her much. I'm just useless.

Mother is always a mother. She knows her child love eating fruits, she would spend less on herself in order to buy more fruits for her child. She knows her child love meat, she would eat only vegetable and leave the meat for her child.

When I have learnt some secrets about my mother it makes me feel guiltier than I used to be towards my mother. She had twice miscarriages and once abortion. She has never told her children about these incidents. She has never uttered any words of tiredness. We have a comfortable life over her hardship.

Sometimes, I ask myself why I were not the miscarriage? Why did I have to be born? I believe if my mother were to hear my thought she would be heartbreaking. She gave birth to me, but I don't want it. I hate myself.

Anyway, I'm proud of my mother. Her sacrifices are priceless. I wish her wholeheartedly a happy and healthy life. I would be a better person for her and pay back what I have owed her.

existence

Sitting on the sofa drinking whiskey, blown on softly by the air conditioner like a dandelion seed wafted along on a pleasant, breeze, I stared at the electric wall clock. As long as I stared at the clock, at least the world remained in motion. Not a very consequential world, but in motion nonetheless. And as long as I knew the world was still in motion, I knew I existed. Not a very consequential existence, but an existence nonetheless. It struck me as wanting that someone should confirm his own existence only by the hands of an electric wall clock. There had to be a more cognitive means of confirmation. But try as I might, nothing less facile came to mind.

-- extracted from A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, page 61

Environmental Conflict

Going through Robbins’s first chapter of his book of “Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction,” I could have a picture of what the political ecology is of which explains that political ecology is a study of the relationship between the political, economic and social sectors with in environmental issue and changes (2004).

Robbins also shared that in political ecology people mostly discuss about four main theses namely “degradation and marginalization, environmental conflict, conservation and control, and environmental identity and social movement” (2004, p. 14).

In environmental conflict thesis, people struggle for the possibility to access to natural resources, while some are trying to take control over the resources. Since the natural resources become scarcity from day to day, and the demand of the resources utility increases its number, the conflict among the users within society is now a problem of which needs to deal with. There has been foreseeably the conflict between the government, or private sector with the local community over the accessibility to natural resources. In Cambodia, we would frequently hear about the land confiscation of local community owned land by the Royal Government of Cambodia to a specific private company to invest over that piece of land for plantation or other economic activities. These happen because of the greed of benefit and interest the government official gains from those companies, or in some cases some company owners are political elites themselves. On the other hand, there are also because of the need of land for cultivation, some farmers start planting their crop on the state owned forest land, and as a result create the conflict between the local people with the government over the need of the resource. Moreover, there are cases of some farmers stealing over other farmers pieces of land. These disputes not only bring the problems to the society of which leads to social conflict, but also cause other environmental problems, for instance, land degradation, deforestation and other form of environmental issues.

Because of our own interest, people start fighting each other over the control of resource ownership. In this situation, a good set of environmental policy the government should set to avoid all these problems, meanwhile to secure the sustainability of natural resources, and to help reduce environmental problems in the future. Again, any environmental policy the government plans to make, should also involve the participation of local community as so to avoid dispute or misunderstanding with the local people.

The Poor or The Rich: Who should worry about income inequality?

After the boom of globalization phenomenon exploded, the mobility of people movement has since remarkably and rapidly spread out over the world. People have then moved from here to there, at the same time back and forth, seeking for fortune elsewhere particularly from poorer, less developed country to richer and more developed country. The world seems to be borderless.

In this case, we may see the arrival of thousands of migrant workers notably from Burma constantly crossing border, from day to day, to Thailand by legal or illegal way to reach their destination as evidence to this movement. They temporarily, in fact most of them stay pretty long, some are reported years, settle in Thailand looking for a job, a job of which they have thought before their arrival, would be better than what they once had in their own country. Unfortunately, most of those migrant workers, owing to their education and skill, only find a job, usually in physical sectors: construction, agriculture, food industries, and end up with unequal payment and exploitation.

According to MAP Foundation (Migrant Movements, 1996-2010) those migrant workers are paid lower than minimum wage set by Thai government. Yet, there are limited actions done by the government towards the employers who own factories, companies, or restaurants. At the same time, those business owners reportedly intend to recruit workers who come to Thailand illegally for those workers would not mind working in hard condition with the exchange of completely low payment. Should they mind complaining about income inequality? Should they have rights to complaint even they are illegal migrant workers? Or should they just keep silent and receive whatever their employers provide them?

Even they are “illegal” migrant workers; their hard work helps generate a lot of profit for business owner. Without them, I may say, those business owners would barely gain more income! Those capitalists see them small and vulnerable. If they dare to complaint about income inequality, they would be threatened by reporting to the police of their illegal status. In this situation, they have to shut their mouth, otherwise they would be deported back home, and accept the small amount of payment – maybe “little” is better than “nothing,” though their earning hardly secures three meals on the table. They live day by day, hour by hour.

The rich 16% capture 80% of the world resources, while the poor 84% remain only the rest 20% of the world resources (World Bank). Would the rich mind about the income inequality? Should the poor be shared a suitable proportion of their labor to live in a suitable condition as a human being?! Who should care for them? Themselves? The state? Or the rich?!