my favourite sentences...


You can hide memory, but you can't erase the history that produced them.

It was sad to see what used to be so fundamental to our lives fade away and disappear in front of our own eyes.

Words don't come out when you're deeply hurt. That's why people keep silent and give no explanation. Yet, Murakami once wrote in his novel, 1Q84, "If you can't understand without an explanation, you can't understand with an explanation." Sometimes, people tend to not wanting to understand things instead of wanting to understand things. In short, they tend to ignore the possibility of trying to understand things.

do you know what makes life interesting?
--> it's interesting because we don't know what the future holds for us. don't blame the fate. we decide our fate, it's our choice. we can't choose where to be born, but we can certainly choose the way we live our life...

the life is yours, why bother asking other people to paint it for you?...

when we're small our word has never been counted; when we're big every word has always been counted...

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 -- Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi

waiting, though one minute, it's still unbearable...

death doesn't mean that we are no longer existing. death just means a move to another world...

why can parents wholeheartedly sacrifice everything for the happiness of their children, even their life? but why can't their children, whom they give birth to, do the same thing to them? what power is it that encourages them to do so?....

the thing i'm most afraid of is ME. of not knowing what i'm going to do. of not knowing what i'm doing right now.

people always meet new friends. but they should not forget their old friends. because without your old friends we don't have a chance to meet new friends. the memories with our friends will be there forever in our brain. we can't omit it though time passes.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

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.