Thomas Friedman declared that we live in a flat world that has got even flatter. That technology ? especially the Internet ? has the most significant part to play in it. Those who have grown with the Internet and are inextricably glued to their cellphones will testify to this.

But with 6.8 billion humans on the planet, how flat can the world get?Does this flatness mean you must connect with everyone? Does that not pulverize the individual or the group? Have all boundaries truly eroded ? and if so, how are we ‘safe’? Where do we belong? In the face of overwhelming flows of information and noise, where is the individual’s voice? How does this affect our relationships?

The fact is that information is eroding the boundaries of the individual and the group. Secondly, it fundamentally alters the landscape of relationships by apparently making everyone ‘equal’ and therefore making priorities hard to determine ? leading several people to make confused choices that may overtax their system and resources.

The keyword is: apparently

Here is the good news: there is, indeed, a design, a sense, a scheme to this ‘flat’ world. That it is equal, but not so equal that an individual or a group cannot determine their priorities. There is a way that an individual in the contemporary world can render sense, all over again, to their self, their relationships, and their business of life.

The story of this sense, and alignment of an individual, their purpose (passion), and their global context begins with an individual’s attention and intention…

Attention & Intention: The Building Blocks of Life Attention: Seeing The World

The most powerful tool a human has is their attention. It is by way of investment of attention that anything is created and grown, and it is by divestment of attention that things deplete and fall in disarray. (Decay and death, however, is part of the natural cycle of life. It is not to do with lack of attention, but the end of one life-cycle.)

When the attention is focused on contribution, an interesting thing happens: a natural scope is determined. Why? Because an individual is restricted by their organism (the body) and the environmental context and is subject to natural limitations of speed, time, distance, aging, incoming energy. Contributing takes away from the individual, and therefore, one can only give as much. This gives a limitation to one’s extent of invol-vement in the world’s affairs.

When the attention is focused on taking from the world, the natural limitation on attention erodes. Theoretically, one can take on the entire world. One can take on three jobs, unnecessarily, at one time. One can sign up for as many classes as they want, and have as many friends as they like if they are not going to pay any attention to what they have.

There is an interim state, too: recruiting someone else, by power (or money) or sheer force, to manage what one has acquired. Manipulation is the tool of the taker to sustain their acquisition. Entire nations construct laws that permit them to overtake other territories in order to fulfill their own needs. This may be in the form of war or even trade.

Intention: Giving or Taking?

There are fundamentally two kinds of outlooks on the world with respect to the self: either one sees that the self is here to take from the world, or here to contribute to the world. These two outlooks determine one’s character. The first kind of character is concerned with more, and grows through acquiring. The second kind of character is concerned with less, and grows through contribution and service (which can be for pay, of course).

These two characters have moral and ethical implications ? interestingly, they also create a different ecological footprint and organizational design. Conglomerates and inefficient mergers that attempt to take on the world with size and encroaching urban landscapes are two instances, intangible and tangible, of the taking mindset.

Life, Growth and Relationships: The Connection

Growth is an outcome of being alive and it takes place through interconnections which we can call ‘relationships’. An organism that is not connected to any other organism cannot find incoming nourishment and thus will not sustain. In reality, a wholly disconnected organism does not even exist.

Hence life is a system thriving on relationships, and it grows by its very design. But what is growth?

Growth Is Not Just One Thing

Growth has long been defined in material terms: more money, more space, more territory, more things. It is seen in terms of more of the exterior.

The emerging understanding of growth is shifting towards an inner meaning. Nalini Nadkarni, an ecological scientist who studies tree canopies, observed: if one sees the tree’s growth and movement in terms of its dynamic twigs and not its static trunk, they will notice that trees, too, move.A single vine maple tree in her study made a movement equivalent to circling the Earth 7 times, in a single year!

That observation gave Nalini an insight: one can move and grow even when standing in one place. Armed with this insight, she started programs for Washington prison inmates that engaged them to become productive members of the society within confinement. Her inmates voluntarily attended science workshops and began a conservation program planting nurseries for local forest restoration. This also healed them as condemned individuals. Thus by redefining growth, Nalini opened the doors of growth and connection for those who are physically restrained.

I am advancing the idea that growth is not just one thing: it means different things to different people ? and that subjective definition is not just acceptable, it is the only way to have an interesting, rewarding experience of the world. The world is richer for the variety of aspirations and thus contributions of individuals. The narrative that has long defined growth in only one way has destroyed relationships, created exploitative businesses and structures prone to collapse because they cannot be sustained by definition.

Destruction as Opportunity

Relationships are the structure upon which life thrives. Life by definition is a forward movement, a bristling, an evolution, a growth. Even the apparently static thing is in movement, the disconnected is connected. Yet if the attention is veering off, and the intent is based on taking, both the structure and growth suffer. We are observing the malevolent structures premised upon taking & more are collapsing. We are also observing a world with depleting restrictions where access is becoming fluid and open.

This is actually a time for great opportunity. What we are witnessing is not a deluge of information out to get us, but a release from traditional constructs. We are no longer bound by restrictions ? yet with their erosion, we are also experiencing a lack of comfort that came within these walls, a massive dissolution of familiar structures. By focusing our attention on what is, and with good will, we can begin to render a new, fluid, open, dynamic structure suitable for these times.

Inside-Out Relationships:A Structure for Growth

I propose that this new structure is built outside-in: from the inidividual to the family to the community to the larger world. Further, that it is based on a benevolent intent (contribution). The inside-out structure supports sustenance of attention, which is not dispersed all over the place. The proximity in this structure ensure a history of transactions which in turn becomes a basis of incremental trust. Care is the fiber this system is weaved of.

To take an example: if you are to grow a food farm, would you rather do it in your city, or the neighboring town? If you wish to do business in the next town, why are you in this town? I am arguing that we bring businesses and their infrastructure home ? or migrate to where our heart is, thus bringing ourselves home one way or the other. This will reduce the footprint that is caused by being distant from wherever your purpose is taking place.

Online communities, too, are arranged on similar principles. We are increasingly observing that the netizens are congregating around local issues. This is more visible in geographies that were previously politically closed or economically disadvantaged. Nations which were already organized are ahead on the curve: communities-of-purpose are arising and these nations are on the forefront of discharging benevolent ideas within the global population. Think TED.com.

Individual: The Epicenter of Growth & Relationships

All growth starts from one person, and that ‘one person’ is not a hero figure or a privileged person, but one’s own self. Hence when I think of growth, I tackle the question for me; when you think of growth, you tackle the question for you.

Attention and intent of the individual are the starting points of growth: that which is paid attention to, grows. Intention determines how the relationships around the individual get rendered. An intent of giving allows one to connect with the exterior, even if the exterior is an alien, say, a foreign country. In other words, paying attention with an intent to give allows an individual to create a relationship by becoming useful.

Families: The Natural Partners In Growth

The blind poet John Milton consoled himself thus about his condition: ?those also serve who stand and wait.? This has long struck me as very insightful, for at any given point in time, most members of the population are physically rooted in one place and inextricably linked to their relations.

When I was a young child and had natural aspirations for growth, I could not reconcile how those who stay put ? and I was thinking of most of my family members ? ever grow by the external standards of the world. If growth was the acquisition of more, certainly most members of most families failed the criteria. That includes mothers and grandparents as the epitome of those who are ‘losing’ by way of caring for the other.

If we see these relations by the externalist measure, these are the most sorrowful individuals on the planet. And yet, many find their roles joyful (though they may be made to believe otherwise by the cultural narrative) and they are making real economic impact and contribution. Attempt replacing families and their care with institutions, and we will end up with an unmanageable task and an emotionally dysfunctional population prone to crime. This massive opportunity cost is a clear indicator of the real, valuable contribution families and communities are making even if they are not snatching territory. Indeed, their greatest contribution ? whenever they make it ? is not 9 snatching territory while providing nourishment and opportunity to the world’s population.

Communities: Infrastructure for Growth

Communities provide a context and infrastructure for growth. There are two factors at work: the hard element ? that is the physical landscape, architecture and design of the community; and the soft element ? that is the culture of the community.

The individual has two choices: to align with their given community (and transform it slowly from within through their contribution), or to migrate ? and in some cases, initiate ? a new community. The choice is determined by the individual’s assessment of which situation grows them best.

The right local community (includig online communities) nurtures its individuals and may grow them by occasionally challenging them. However, if the balance is tipped out of favor of nurturing and tilts towards taxing (burdening), the society ? that is to say, individuals ? perishes as a collective.

A Global Alignment

It is increasingly possible in this world today to be emotionally and physically in a place that is aligned with the individual?s inner purpose, while being an involved part of the larger world. This balance of the micro within the macro is an unprecedented occurrence in human history. The only thing needed to make this change is the individual’s courage to embrace it.

Like the cyclical nature of all things happening on this planet, what comes to us must go to others. Imagine the consequences if honeybees refuse to carry pollen grains on to their legs after they?ve had their fill from a flower, or the bee community refuses to produce more honey than it needs. The bee community knows instinctively that its own survival depends on what it does for the ecosystem it is in.

The banyan tree does not discriminate which creatures it will provide its shade to, and the wheat grain does not announce its rights of being consumed by a certain class of creatures. What nature provides, it provides unconditionally.

The least that we as human beings can do living on an interdependent and a naturally unconditional planet is to understand that our own survival as a species depends on how we let the good that comes to us flow onto others in whatever shape we can best transform it into.

Businesses & Abundance Creation

Businesses are evolved forms of individuals working together to create some sort of abundance that is beyond their immediate need. Companies that operate with the realization that their abundance must be utilized completely by the eco system they exist in, have cracked the code. But what businesses need to realize even faster is that the more this abundance is shared and the more people served this way, the more a company flourishes. In simplest terms, the more pollen grains a bee carries, the more chances there are for more flowers and fruits to be produced. This is beyond the ?job description? of the honey bee and yet it continues to do so after it has had its own fill.

Corporate Social Responsibility is achieved best when businesses get together with other businesses and especially social concerns (NGOs as we call them) and formulate relationships that are based on letting the abundance that they have formed with the help of others, flow onwards into society. A collaborative effort to engage into CSR is always better than an individual effort by a single company. A petroleum company that decides to serve the edu-cational needs of the community it employs and sells its products too, can effectively understand the needs of this community if it engages with an NGO working on education projects.

For the sake of serving and not for the sake of mee-ting corporate responsibility goals, organizations need to trust each other and the NGOs to fulfill the needs of the planet which in turn sustains them.

Interested in examples of Pakistani companies that have realized the power of sharing abundance with their eco systems? Here are some, out of I?m sure many examples, that I?ve personally come across:

Telenor is becoming increasingly well known for its Karo Mumkin campaign that seeks to explore and broadcast the work of Pakistanis who have dared to solve the problems around them using their own expertise and funds. The idea is to sponsor the feeling of hope and to enable Pakistanis towards achieving positive results in a catastrophic environment. There are numerous other CSR initiatives the company is engaged in which are not well publicized. For instance, when the terrible landslides devoured entire villages in Hunza, Telenor provided technological expertise, to young amateur digital cartographers in collaboration with other NGOs, for the areas to be mapped on google for quick access to information regarding relief activities and ground realities.

Mobilink; the cellular giant in Pakistan, is also engaged in multiple activities to share abundance. One of their CSR initiatives that I have personally benefited from has been the Flower Market of Lahore Cantt. What was once a motley crowd of highly talented and dispersed flower hawkers are now a group of sought after artists in a little arcade of customized shops. The shop fronts of the market have been built very aesthetically with traditional, carved wood finishings and the little corner is a treat for its colours, fragrance and reasonably priced, great looking flower arrangements selling successfully. These markets have also been established in Islamabad and Karachi. The idea behind making the market was to enable the vendors to sell at a centralized location without having to pay exorbitant shop rents.

The Hashoo Foundation is teaching women from Hunza and Gilgit the craft of beekeeping and hence enabling them to generate income as well as produce pure honey that the group plans to start selling in the market soon.

Concerted efforts like these manifest a company?s understanding that benefiting the eco system is for its own benefit. What we need is more of such examples to fill out huge need gaps in the society. Even little efforts go a long way in restoring the natural balance of our interconnected lives.

Corporations who meet the following standards of performance are good Corporate Citizens:

a) They abide by the laws designed to govern their relationships: with employees, the community, consumers, and with other important stakeholders.

b) They care for the preservation of the natural environment, and the Earth in general – beyond making legal compliance a part of their corporate strategies. And they do this from the beginning, and not when the disaster strikes.

c) Are ‘able’ and ‘willing’ to pull its own weight ? generating enough income so that they can:

• Pay a handsome return to investors
• Pay back loans
• Stakeholders and consumers are assured of:
• The continuity, ?sustainability? of the business
• Flow of products and services
• Fairly compensated jobs
• They pay taxes and bills

Thus profit making is not ‘selfish’ or unethical; in fact it is a good corporate citizen’s economic responsibility to make profits.

d) Consider themselves responsible for ethical behavior and practice it.
In so doing, while considering profits as ?sine qua non?, Corporate Citizens accept their responsibility to go ?beyond the bottom line?. They do not consider it a matter of choice, because they think that the ?sources? which were responsible for earning profits must be sustained, taken care of and their condition improved.

It is not amazing to see that corporations which had the vision and the initiative to adopt these policies have established themselves as giants in their fields. See what they had to say:

• Siemens ? Dialogue with society and responsible Corporate Citizenship are more vital than ever before.
• Ford ? Corporate Citizenship has become an integral part of every decision and action we take.
• Glaxo Smith & Kline ? Makes substantial investments in its corporate citizenship programs

“Corporate Citizenship involves corporations becoming more informed and enlightened members of society and understanding that they are both public and private entities. ? they are created by society and derive their legitimacy from the societies in which they operate. They need to be able to articulate:

• their role
• scope, and
• purpose

as well as understand their full social and environmental impacts and responsibilities.”

The reason for their success is visible ? it is not only the corporation that is striving for success, but its benefitting partners, stakeholders, are solidly behind it and supporting it in generating enough profits.

Why would they let the profits fall?

It?s a win-win situation.

Examine the fall of the ?big corporation? in the recent past. You?ll find that reasons for corporate downfall are rooted in reasons similar to the fall of individuals ? and of course the rise and fall of nations too. Consider:

• Greed ? TIME magazine cover image soon after the great financial meltdown in USA and elsewhere: a Bull with a tear dropping from its eye, with the message, ?Price of greed?.?Get the picture: this is a self-defeating,?self-cannibalizing trait?.
• Unethical Behavior ? Abiding by the law is the minimum level of acceptable conduct. Where the law does not cover a social or environmental issue, a good corporate citizen takes decision based on solid business ethics and rationale. In business, ethical managers are like moral managers. Joseph L. Badaracco, Business Ethics Professor at Harvard Business School emphasizes in his book ‘Defining Moments’ (1997), “managers are ethics teachers of their organizations. He went on to say that this is true whether they themselves are saints or sinners or whether they intend to teach or not. It simply comes with the territory. Actions send signals, and omissions send signals. In other words conscientious managers are concerned about how their decisions and actions
• reveal,
• test,
• and shape the character of their?companies.

The CEO of a major corporation is in the role of a leader and a virtuous citizen, whether individual or corporate, and must be virtuous in his decisions and actions. His conduct is determined by ?values? and ?values? make us what we are.

References
1. “Can Corporations be Citizens?”. 2nd edition. Jerry Moon, Andrew Crane, & Dirk Matten

2. M. McIntosh, R. Thomas, D. Leipziger and G. Coleman, Living Corporate Citizenship: Strategic routes to socially responsible business, FT Prentice Hall, London, 2003, p. 16.

3. Carroll, Archie, B. in journal ‘Business and Society Review’

The essence is to reconfigure the individual?s bearing from being a ‘taker’ to a ‘giver’. Giving or service restores the balance of life. One serves the soul, the body, and the social other by abstaining from extremes and following a regimen of discipline rigorously. The soul is served further if one introspects on the meaning of how the whole month ends up being a great transformative tool.

Monetizing the Ramadan Spirit

But, as soon as Ramadan heralds in Pakistan, one sees a noisy celebration by business companies especially in the FMCG sector. Entire advertising campaigns are built around the month of material minimalism, consumers are offered a string of discounts and told how the company is doing so much for the disadvantaged. There are corporate sponsorships for free food distributions, zakat disbursement campaigns for the NGO sector; particularly hard-hitting health and education, and so on. And as soon as the month ends, the brains behind the ?do good? campaigns seem to heave a collective sigh of relief and hurriedly move on to other ?seasons? eliciting greater consumption. Only the colourful billboards of attractively packaged discounts and the corporate-NGO partnerships remain for a while to remind the consumers of who did what for the holy month!

The phenomenon raises many questions.

If the ‘doing good’ campaigns last as long as Ramadan, are they really coming from an embedded strategy to serve the interests of the stakeholders or are they pitched from an angle of promoting the company?s image – to encourage more consumption and extravagance?

The Point

If an individual fasts to be slimmer, prays to secure Divine rewards, and gives charity to show off; then s/he probably achieves all this – yet misses the point: The point of being transformed into a better human being by serving the self and the other genuinely. The point of contributing to the balance of Life.

Likewise, companies that pitch to get more attention and sales from Ramadan end up achieving their targets, and yet do not really use the opportunity to introspect on how they can genuinely serve their stakeholders and achieve enduring excellence. They do not use the opportunity to reconfigure their bearing from the view of an organization out to take, to that which is out to serve? genuinely. They do not transit themselves onto a level that makes them a socially responsible and a highly profitable business through thick and thin. Rather, they remain submerged in a state that concerns itself with seasons that bring in sales!

I do not wish to disregard the seasonal ?doing good? campaigns of businesses during Ramadan. They at least show a tendency to do good, even if on the surface. Even if they give a glimpse into the company?s real intent, they do succeed in reaching out to fill service gaps within the society? at least temporarily.

Intent, Introspection and System Cleansing

So how does a business achieve an enduring transformation that yields excellence?

By introspecting on the Intent with which the company is engaging the stakeholders. A company can begin by earnestly investigating if its intent to serve goes beyond the temporary price reductions which are usually the means to secure more profits and outdo competitors.

Ramadan can be used as a time to devise a master plan for filtering all business processes within the company that are involved in anything that is against the spirit of serving stakeholders and to cleanse the system of any flaws. These could be related to the quality issues, customer complaint handling procedure, manipulation through advertisements or simply introducing an inclusive, egalitarian culture within the company.

The stakeholder again is the best person to ask how the company is doing. Does the company have any measures to see if the new customers acquired in Ramadan have been drawn to the product’s quality or its pricing; and do they stick around for the next couple of months? Does the company measure the amount of money it spends on advertising during Ramadan and how it can instead deliver its marke-ting and charity partnerships information in the least expensive way, siphoning non-wasted funds into more welfare? Can this money instead be spent on improving the quality of products and services, thereby securing more customers in a nobler way?

Service

Ramadan is also a time when most people are receptive to the idea of service. Forums can be arranged within companies to train employees towards better service standards, and to share with employees how their role in the business is doing good to the society and how they are making a difference by their seemingly mundane job. This can be done by identifying the (hopefully) ?benevolent intent? that goes behind a company’s working.

The ideas given above are actually the beginning of a whole new way of thinking and doing for a company. They lead to systemic cleansing of procedures that lead to higher profitability through well secured stakeholder loyalty.

A piece about creating linkages may seem like stating the obvious, but linkages are often tricky and do not occur as much as they should. Developing linkages, whether they are internal connections or involve bringing in a new partner, requires dropping egos and a willingness to cooperate and share credit. International development is a competitive field where we’re all fighting for funding and clients. Yet, in strained economic times, organizations have to realize that it’s neither possible nor practical to try and provide all required resources to their target popu-lations themselves. Instead by linking to other on-going initiatives whether corporate, government, or NGO we can provide for the overall betterment of our communities with little extra cost.

Linkages in Action – Real Medicine Foundation

Take the example of the Real Medicine Foundation?s Childhood Malnutrition Eradication Program in India. We?re working across 500 villages in Southwestern Madhya Pradesh where childhood malnutrition soars at 60 percent for children below 5 years of age. These staggering rates, while linked to extreme poverty, are not caused by famine or a lack of nutritious food.

Malnutrition in Asia is a problem of allocation, access to resources and awareness of how best to use the resources available. The goal of our initiative is simple: to use education, awareness building, and referrals to connect the resources available to the families who need them. We use local networks that already exist to provide education about proper infant and young child feeding to mobilize rural families to the services already offered by other organizations and local resources that can be better utilized. When the government is giving out discounted grains and free mid-day meals, why spend our funds on these services which every citizen is entitled to? While malaria affects our populations, why provide malaria treatment when we have neither the expertise nor funding? We link our villages to government schemes, NGOs small and large, and private organizations to help lift up our communities with everything from livelihood generation to schooling to free surgeries. It often takes a fair amount of work and there have been roadblocks along the way, but partners have begun to appreciate that our efforts are complementing and enhancing their work.

We started our linkage activities by making a simple chart, mapping the overall needs of the communities we work with; the capacity we have to address those needs; other organizations working in the area who offer relevant services; and gaps where partners need to be brought in or where we might need to step up. We have our staff brainstorm about where our beneficiaries can be immediately linked and keep the gaps we?ve identified in the back of our mind as we network and look for opportunities to fill those gaps.

RMF’s linkages are not just external: We try to use existing program capabilities in new ways. We also run an HIV/AIDS Care and Support program in the same region and a hospital facility for children with severe acute malnutrition. As our staff are in the field, they’re encouraged to cross-refer within our programs. All HIV staff attend all nutrition staff trainings and vice versa, so that our staff not only increase their knowledge base, but so that they can also contribute to the rest of our programs. We now treat HIV+ children who are severely malnourished and have a few HIV+ individuals earning an income by being employed as community nutrition workers.

All linkages do not necessarily affect our programmatic end-lines. It would be difficult in the medium, donor reporting period to quantitatively measure how linkages to livelihood generation programs affected family nutrition practices. Linkages do, however, have an immediate public relations affect between our organization and the communities we work with. By connecting communities with more resources, any resources, we?re fostering trust and stronger relationships. In the long-term we’ll see that every linkage helps by lifting up our target community.

Win-Win

Linkages don?t have to be parasitic relationships. Instead, both organizations should benefit from linkages. RMF opens our staff trainings to other NGO staff, so that they can replicate our work in their regions. We share our baseline data with other organizations interested in working in our communities, greatly reducing their costs and helping us ensure that the communities who need services the most are getting them. Many organizations have targets they need to achieve – by helping connect your population to one of these organizations, you?re getting your beneficiaries free services and helping said organization make their bottom line.

And the possibilities for linkages go on and on. Organizations don’t need to write proposals about linkages, start separate programs to promote them, or hire new staff specializing in linkages they should just happen when staff are encouraged to be resourceful and creative. By looking at each of your organization?s beneficiaries or clients as a whole person and by being aware of what is happening in the development space around you, your organization will be well-position to make mutually beneficial linkages.

Organizations during the course of business interact with various stakeholders. Some of these interactions evolve to become longer term partnerships whereas the others don?t. So what exactly makes one interaction last more compared to the others? Based on personal experience, quoting successful a example of rainwater harvesting (RWH) interventions by Engro Polymer & Chemicals, here are a few conclusions:

Background: Engro Polymer, under its market development and social investments activities, has been working towards conserving water by promo-ting drip irrigation and lining solutions. One of the successful partnerships developed is with Sukaar Foundation, a Mithi, Tharparkar based NGO working on promoting rainwater harvesting in Thar. Sukaar believes that improving rainwater harvesting four-folds can address the potable water needs of 1.2M inhabitants of Thar. Under the partnership, three successful models of RWH structures have been created at the cost of Rs. 850,000, benefiting about 600 individuals. One of the models is being replicated by TRDP ? an NGO, at a larger scale with 17 similar reservoirs constructed benefiting over 3000 individuals. More are in pipeline.

Shared vision: The convergence of vision, if not completely shared, should at least be significant enough to develop the relationship. In our case, Sukaar Foundation wanted to create sustainable models of rainwater harvesting while we were looking for an innovative project under the broad theme of Water Conservation that we follow in our market development activities and social investments.

June 2009: First model under construction PVC Geomembrane lining in progress

Precious water stored in reservoir being used in dry months

Empathy and understanding: Development organizations work differently from typical corporate entities. Empathy and understanding of each other’s values, culture, operational norms and accordingly, flexibility in interactions is important to progress the relationship. We stayed open and tried to adjust each other’s priorities in our plans. Of course, it’s easier said than done but we managed.

Communication: As always, clear and timely communication played a key role in developing understanding and appreciation of each other?s roles. The importance of rainwater harvesting and its potential in addressing the water woes of Thar, was the first thing Sukaar made us understand. This, then further paved the way for channeling Engro Polymer?s funds into building innovative, and now successful, models.

Beneficiaries ? families save up to 9 hours daily after having reservoir in the neighborhood

Reservoir after holding water for one year, got refilled in July 2010 rains

Delivery: A sustained partnership is dependent on successful delivery: of perceived and expected benefits to all parties involved. In our case it meant, capacity building of our partner, the availability of funds, organized execution. Partnerships can die if mutual interest begins to wither away or delivery is not to the satisfaction of partners.

Positive relationships: The most undervalued factor in successful partnerships is perhaps the positivity of interfaces. People, at the end of the day, make partnerships successful. In our case, the teams on both sides have immense respect for each other?s vision, work, and professionalism.

Just before Iftaar time in Ramadhan, we see (and sometimes experience) the most horrific road rage. But that is also the time when strangers will stand on the roadsides and throw in packets of dates and fruits for the unfortunate who have not been able to reach home in time. In Karachi, a city of stark paradoxes, volunteers help clear traffic jams during the mad rush for iftaari. In all major cities of Pakistan, one of the poorest and most corrupt nations of the world, you will witness iftaar spreads on the roadsides, outside individual homes and restaurants for the long suffering poor. Even in the recent disastrous floods, people have voluntarily provided food to the distraught victims.

Corporations too are keenly aware of the importance of philanthropy with business in Ramadhan. The media is flooded with ads focussing on this theme- sharing your iftaari with friends and family and your ice cream cake with the family driver?s son. This Ramadhan, one brand of cooking oil promises to arrange many iftaaris and encourages you to become part of this scheme through purchase.

But why are our efforts at feeding and clothing the disadvantaged frenzied around Ramadhan? If the poor cannot afford to feed themselves properly in this holy month, it stands to reason that they cannot do so the rest of the year as well. Also, it seems our philanthropy is focussed on feeding others or at best providing Eid gifts and clothes. We need to assess the impact of our charitable efforts on the lives of the disadvantaged in the long run.

Tuning your mindset to spirituality

Our focus on food and clothing may be the subliminal result of our (mistaken) sense of deprivation when we too are forced to fast. So our feel-good deeds should include actions that have a far-reaching impact on the lives of people around us and on our environment. According to Mr M. Siddiqui Sheikh, VC-CSR Standing Committee of FPCCI, individuals in general and corporations in particular can benefit from following a three-pronged approach to Ramadhan:

Purification cleansing of intent and conduct with regard to manufacturing, personal and transaction practices to ensure fairness and excellence

Often, our ‘fairness and excellence’ efforts are limited to product and service quality. What about the rampant practice of under- or over-invoicing to avoid taxes? How ethical is the practice of bribing auditors? Since Ramadhan is about purification of intent and controlling our baser instincts such as greed, we loose the spiritual essence of Ramdhan when we indulge in such practices.

Our commitments to our employees and environment are limited to fulfilling legal requirements. Since the legally acceptable minimum wage is inadequate in this age of inflation, how else can we voluntarily improve the quality of life of our workers?

Cleanliness of intent and conduct also extends to the level of hygiene and maintenance in the workplace. Ramadhan is a good time to assess the prayer facilities you are offering your workers. In addition to ensuring that the mosque is well maintained, we can donate new prayer rugs and chairs. We can also donate a UPS for the mosque and hope for heavenly reward.

Courtesy of going an extra mile to demonstrate love and respect for people and the environment

One way of demonstrating concern for fellow beings is by donating to health facilities. Corporations have sponsored construction of hospital wings and equipment. Consider donating towards such efforts that many people can benefit from over time. One brand of baby diapers promises to fund child vaccines if you contribute through purchase.

As a means of contributing to the environment, consider sponsoring fruit tree plantations or water purification facilities in the area of your operations. It would have the dual effect of cleansing the environment and ensuring better quality of life for the community with which we interact.

We may be equal opportunity employers, but consider, for example, the prayer facilities offered to female employees. It is often a neglected corner of the workplace without adequate ablution facilities and clean prayer rugs. Invest in a properly maintained female prayer area and encourage employees using this facility to maintain it.

Generosity of relaxing office-factory timings and workloads while stepping up charity including Ramadhan packs and Eid gifts/ bouses for employees, family and the needy with a resolve to continue these acts beyond Ramadhan.

A good way to demonstrate commitment to social responsibility is to adopt a community. Every Ramadhan, this commitment can be renewed by initiating a new project for the community and then completing it through the year. Given the current destruction wrought by the recent floods, such an effort would greatly help rehabilitation efforts.

BankMuscat: An inspiring example

It is easy to be generous for just one month, but we need to strive to continue to support our employees and other disadvantaged people throughout the year. It would be wiser to initiate philanthropic ventures during Ramadhan, continue them and then assess and advertise progress the following Ramadhan.

Consider the example of Bank Muscat’s CSR efforts. Under its initiative entitled “BankMuscat for Family Care’ it will fund an extensive campaign that will provide food rations for low-income families in Muscat. For Ramadhan specifically, families will receive iftaar meals. Likewise they will receive meals for both Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha.

Beyond feeding the poor, it will also provide funds for assisting electricity and water supplies, making house rental payments and even furnishing homes. In an effort to support the education sector, it helps provide training to tutors and specialists who work for the Association for Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs.

In addition, BankMuscat has two other initiatives. BankMuscat’s Hearts’ seeks to support farming communities through training and sustainable research and technology for agricultural growth and it also provides youths job opportunities. ‘Equator Principles’ is a globally recognised system of guiding principles for social and environmental risk management and assessments designed to fund and implement such projects among corporations.

Even within our own workplaces, Ramadhan is a great time to evaluate the carbon footprint of your workplace. This checklist will help you:
Recycle- ensure that all paper products, glass and plastic bottles and containers, and even old computers and machinery is picked regularly by a ‘raddi-wala’. Old computers can even be donated to schools.

Go Green- use every available empty plot of land on your premises to grow fruits, vegetables and shady trees. Ensure that all food remains including vegetable and fruit peels from the canteen areas are used to make compost so as to maintain an organic garden.

Save Energy- invest in energy savers and make sure that all appliances are unplugged after working hours. Encourage employees to set the office computer and air-conditioning on energy efficient settings.
Carpool- encourage carpools as an efficient means of transport to the workplace. It will result in fuel savings, increase longevity of cars, reduce traffic stress and above all, result

in less air and noise pollution.Assess Suppliers- consider using local suppliers and brands instead of imported ones to reduce the environmental and financial cost of transportation. Support local organizations to build a reliable and sustainable local supply network. Re-think Packaging- try and minimize your product?s packaging. Try to use recycled materials or natural fibre such as jute, paper or cotton bags to package your products. This will cost you less and relieve stress on the environment.

Start small, think big

It may not be possible for all organizations to have such comprehensive and extensive social responsibility programmes. After all, the number of medium and small-scale businesses far exceeds that of larger corporations. But we need to realize that every single effort that we make has far reaching consequences beyond the limitations of time, space and generations.

The story of a roadside ‘pan-wallah’ who kept a jar of loose change on his counter top to which he would add at the end of each day’s sales is inspiring. Over time he prospered because of the goodwill he generated by helping anyone in need using that money. Consider maintaining such a jar of goodwill that will have a sustained impact on the lives of our stakeholders beyond one month and inspire our peers to do the same.

• the shift is convenient
• it reduces economic cost and saves technological effort
• it reinforces benevolent relationships
• it creates organic, effortless growth
• it is consistent with ethical and spiritual values
• it enriches the social whole by nurturing the individual person or group?

What if this way were as simple as shifting how we ‘see’ things, especially the nature of our work?

The answer is: Yes. It is possible to achieve all the objectives outlined above, at once, by simply a first shift in perspective. This first shift in perspective then leads to shift in actions, and therefore outcomes. And this shift is as simple as changing your fundamental question about growth.

Change Your Question: From ‘Need’ to ‘Have’

Instead of asking: “I need _______ to get ________.” Ask: “Where do I want to go? What do I have, right now, to get there?”

The shift that we are seeking is one from a Scarcity Perspective to an Abundance Perspective. Note that the second key word is ‘perspective’. This shift is not about lying to the self about resources and growth, but rather seeing things as they are and then choosing to pay one’s attention in a certain direction. In sum, if you have 10 acres of land, you are not psyching yourself into believing that you have more than 10 acres. Indeed, you stay reasonable and grounded about the land’s known natural capacity, but shift your attention to what can be done with the land rather than what cannot be done with the land.

In the first way is potential for growth. In the second is anything from anxiety, to greed, to the urge to steal, to depression.

How Does This Work?

The “have” mindset in people or organizations is indeed only just a mindset: it requires soft intra-personal or intra-organizational work, but it yields hard results including structural transformation.

The “have” mindset:

makes intelligent use of given resources to get things done. Take the instance of technical innovation. In Pakistan, the word ‘jugaar’ is used for a technical/mechanical patch-up that makes things happen. In Africa, the same concept goes by the name of ‘tinkering’ ? it is now being recognized as a very smart form of innovation. India, for instance, has a grassroots innovation network.

highlights strengths-to-grow rather than weaknesses-as-excuse.

yields planet-friendly development and growth. Needs are limitless and greedy, and lead to growth by taking. ‘Have’s’ are identified and content, and lead to organic, natural, rightful growth by giving.

How To Put The Abundance Perspective Into Practice?

The shift from the Scarcity Perspective to the Abundance Perspective is a reflective exercise first and foremost. It requires less action, more silent thinking. Action comes after the perspective shift has occurred.
See it through this example: you want to choose a place for vacation. The first decision about where to go on holiday requires no action (other than research, perhaps) but thought: you figure your budget, your priorities, your style, your mood internally. Once the decision is made, you then gather and align required resources. If you choose to ski in the cold mountains, you will not invest in scuba-diving in warm waters. If, however, you do not make up your mind, you may end up with chaotic resources and decisions. Even serendipitous, unplanned travel is known to be such. You decide not to over-plan.

Apparently small decisions such as this translate into large costs or savings for individuals and the planet. Unnecessary acquisitions whether by individuals planning a holiday or organizations investing in new ventures ? lead to ineffective decisions, delayed action, lack of (worker) spirit, and wasted resources that could be leveraged elsewhere.

This Ramadan, Shift to Abundance

This shift to the Abundance Perspective requires slowing down, pausing, taking stock of one’s current life, evaluating what is, and then moving forward. It is not easy in a fast-paced daily life for organizations or persons to find time for this extensive reflection.

In this situation, Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, provides an excellent opportunity for an organizational shift that is driven by reflection. The natural rhythms of the human body and therefore the pace of work slow down during fasting. Quick-paced activity is not as possible. It is thus an ideal time to do collective reflection everyone (or everyone in the fasting whole) is slow-paced, together, for an entire month, and there is a general aspiration to do good, do right.

The context and the motivation are already present ? and so, dedicating Ramadan to asking the big questions about the organization’s mission and purpose is in itself a great practice of working with what one ‘has’.

Conversations: a Tool For Shifting to Abundance Perspective No matter how complex an organization is or how sophisticated its products and systems are ? it is made up of human beings. The start of the shift in an organization lies with human beings, and humans can begin reflective shifts using an age-old tool: conversations. This simple tool is so potent that today, ‘changing the conversation’ has become the most powerful tool in a change-makers’ toolkit.

Conversations can be held in ways suitable to each organization. The best method is to have face-to-face personal conversations in groups of no more than 8 persons. Alternatively, a larger, in-house ‘Reflection Conference’ may have some core themes for all, and topical break-out sessions for smaller teams.

A contemporary alternative is to have online conversations in secure groups or even on blogs (this blog does not have to be public ? only shared within a particular group or organization). Eventually, it will be noticed that small groups break out on their own and they should be encouraged in doing so for individuals cannot concentrate in large, many-to-many conversation.

At The Oneness Breakfast, an inner peace initiative that I have co-founded, we use food-sharing and a Native Indian-styled conversation for transformation of the person within the collective. We have actually flipped the conversation to “TLC: The Listening Circle”. Some of the themes covered: sustainability, local food, attention management, nation-building, and education-for-all. One of the outcomes of the circles has been the participants’ voluntary involvement with Manzil Organization, a free school for slum children, including voluntary teaching, media coverage, and fund-raising.

Abundance: A Living Practice

Ramadan is a time to bring ethical values that humanity holds dear into action, making them a living practice.

Illness arises when the belief and the practice are on two different tracks such as when one believes in contentment (Abundance Perspective) but lives by fear & greed (Scarcity Perspective).

Spirit is, by definition, ‘action when it’s taking place.’ The Qur’an defines spirit (‘ruh’) as: “the act of/ by act of Allah” (17:85). I understand it to mean that the very act or movement is called spirit. This is also the popular meaning of the word; hence we say sportsman’s spirit, high spirit, low spirit. Spirit is action. Practice is to live the spirit deliberately (by choice), daily, as routine.

This Ramadan, invite yourself and your organization to shift to the liberating Abundance Perspective ? and converse about how to make it a living practice.

I want to prove to the industry that there?s a viable, alternative financial model the world can benefit from. The effect of the clothing industry has more impact on climate change than if the entire world signed the Kyoto Agreement.

Katharine Hamnett , English Fashion Designer

Soon after our Nikah ceremony my husband and I started brainstorming about what our wedding would look like. We wanted the wedding to reflect our values as a couple: we wanted it to be sustainable, socially just and meaningful.

One of my biggest challenges was sustainable materials for our wedding clothes. Ideally I wanted something that was not chemically treated, was local and hand-made (I knew organic cotton would be near impossible to source in the local market so that never made the criteria.) Environmentalist friends and family -ironically- were the first to tell me to snap out of my idealism. Having searched online I found that there are no Pakistani companies dealing with natural dyes: while in Thailand and India there were hundreds. In shops I found some beautiful hand woven, unbleached cotton and silk from India but imported fabric defeated the purpose. Most of our luxury fabrics, like chiffon and silk, come from China. In most cases they are mixed with synthetic threads but sold as “pure” treated with chemicals and dyes that have little regulation when it comes to health, safety or disposal (especially when the manufacturer is Chinese and the consumer is Pakistani).

WWF’s Cleaner Production project helps local manufacturers meet Europe’s stricter environmental guidelines so they can sell in Europe. The environmental impact of the local industry in Pakistan is huge: water pollution from the textile sector accounts for 30 percent of our total BOD emissions.

The World Bank estimates that about 20 percent of industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment. There are about 72 toxic chemicals in our water from textile dyeing, 30 of which cannot be removed.

Indigenous Dyes

I contacted a carpet weaving company that used natural dyes but they were unhelpful. I had almost given up when a friend introduced me to KOEL (Noorjehan Bilgrami’s labour of love) as a response to a desperate cry for help on Facebook. Bilgrami’s work and aesthetic was a revelation.

Kurt's sherwani. Fabric LAL Earth. Stitching DARZI designs. (Photo credits: Rehan Qureshi)

In collaboration with the Government of Sindh, she cultivated an indigenous species of the natural dye indigo, (Indigoferra Tinctoria) at Miani Forest. KOEL had earlier started the use of natural dyes, including natural indigo and madder, all locally produced. Their major work, along with hand-woven materials, was traditional embroideries with master artisans – giving me an alternative to the more glitzy and gaudy bridal outfits I saw everywhere.

On a return trip from Karachi, my mother sent me photos of some KOEL fabrics. I fell in love with one of them in particular: the two shades of indigo, the vibrancy, the life of the color with the small gold “tilla” embossed in the middle of each motif. There is a texture, a beauty, a colour to these fabrics that cannot be experienced until one touches or wears them. KOEL’s embroideries were exquisite and traditional.

A few days later another friend introduced me to Salman Malik in Lahore: He was a godsend with a story to tell and an education to give. We decided to create the dresses in collaboration with KOEL.

Salman Malik had already worked with traditional weavers in various parts of Punjab, helping revive their craft and introduced a line of handwovens called Aangan. He followed this up with a Masters in Fashion Design from the US and found himself working on 7th Avenue with some of the top brands America offered, from custom couture bridals to clothing lines created by popstars: interestingly juxtaposed with his interest and education in Islamic Art.

The State of the Industry

Salman’s experiences offered many stories, with great quips:

“The socks from Pakistan have to match the t-shirt from China: that?s just how it is.”

Wedding dress, KOEL embroidery and fabric, designed by Salman. (Photo credits: Rehan Qureshi)

Original samples sent have to be identical to shipments received later, or risk rejection so much for the ebb and flow of natural dyes then!

Economic growth has also come to depend on continued marketing of new products and disposal of old ones that are thrown away simply because stylistic norms promote their obsolescence. Entire factories all over the developing world are set up and shut down overnight.

Mystics & Weavers

For Salman, the time to return to his weavers in Punjab had come. He came back to Lahore and founded LAL Earth. New York was bad for his health, both spiritual and physical.

“Weaving is mystical, the way a fabric comes together is nothing short of magic,” he told me. Salman had learnt about natural dyes from carpet weavers in Turkmenistan: that?s one industry where natural dyes are widely used. Wool absorbs them well. “Most natural dyes, like madder, grow in the wilderness,” Salman says. “And we have destroyed our wilderness in Pakistan”.

Those that have survived are the botanicals or roots used in “hikmat” or Islamic medicine. Many are imported from Afghanistan. The situation of the availability of natural dyes serves as a barometer of the environmental degradation that Pakistan is going through.

LAL Earth finds it difficult to compete in the local, or international, market.

“Natural dyes are unpredictable” he says. “Indigo, for example may give a completely different blue from season to season, crop to crop, area to area: the indigo of Sindh is not the indigo you may find in Punjab. The pigments are alive. They may change colour or come out different on another fabric”.

Imagine this in an industry where the slightest variation in colour can make a world of difference.

The Human Factor

“A weaver’s family member may die or get sick and you have stopped production for many days? he adds. The human factor alters the game altogether.

“He won?t work if he is stressed or depressed. You cannot treat a human like a machine which can produce hundreds of yards a day: It takes a weaver many days to complete a yard. Cotton weavers are very very skilled and trained and work at will, like artisans. That makes child labour or exploitation impossible. You pay the weaver a significant cost of the final product: the employee and seller are partners.” This of course makes hand-wovens more socially just.

By Rehan Qureshi for LAL Fabrics.

This is the forefront of the conflict between nature and industry; the contrast between man and machine; and the different socio-economics of industrialisation and more traditional systems.

The Root Problem: The Consumer

The root problem may be the consumer.

“The biggest problem for LAL Earth is finding a market, we struggle immensely to survive,” says Salman. “The Pakistani consumer is not interested in a traditional product or how eco-friendly it is”.

The local market is also turning to cheaper, perceivably more fashionable, synthetic materials: like nylon and polyester. The manufacture of these is an energy-intensive process requiring large amounts of fossil fuels, releasing emissions including volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, and acid gases (both into air and as waste waster), all of which can cause or aggravate respiratory and other diseases. Salman remembers the child of one of his friends: dressed from head to toe in polyester, it was obvious he was allergic to it. Nothing surprising for those suffering from skin sensitivities.

Shockingly though, the parents simply refused to do anything about it because the clothes were the “latest fashion, from the US”.

Custom-made. Recycled. Couture

Salman does custom-made couture. The LAL Earth line, founded with business partner Farid Malik of LAL Fabrics also has off-the-rack contemporary kameezes and non-stitched pieces. He also created two recycled dresses for me from my mother and grandmother’s outfits. LAL Earth and KOEL fabrics were used for my husband’s and my family’s wedding outfits. Everything was cheaper than what I would have normally spent: outrageously expensive isn?t exactly sustainable.

There was nothing more rewar-ding than having my friends and family come up to me and tell me that the dress was beautiful and unique. Brides-to-be wanted to make a sustainable dress as well. Knowing I had made a small difference made my day truly special.

This article is dedicated to Saira from KOEL, Naghma Durrani and Naumana Amjad

In hindsight, the most significant aspect of the event is not only that the general public has been affected, or its INES classification, but rather the incompetence and irresponsibility displayed by the Delhi University, the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulating Board) and the DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) of India. Their approach in this affair has been unbelievably out of norm, particularly in the context of present day standards. Even though three months have elapsed since the occurrence of the accident, neither the outcome of any in-depth formal inquiry nor the assignment of responsibility by the government of India has surfaced. IAEA was not initially informed; it came to know of the accident on its own through sketchy media reports.

Accident Background

In order to understand the seriousness of the event it is necessary that some of its details be described. The Chemistry Department of Delhi University acquired a gamma irradiator from Canada in 1970. The irradiator had in-built Cobalt-60 (Co-60) radioactive sources. There were 16 capsules each of which had 7 pellets of Co-60. The university was given authorization to acquire the large source and utilize it for the intended purpose(s) by the then Directorate of Radiation Protection of India.

Pawned Off to the Ignorant

The facility ceased to be used in 1985 and was placed in storage in the department until March 2010 when it was callously auctioned to a scrap dealer and finally disposed off.

Completely unaware of the hazardous radioactivity, the dealer was only interested in the heavy metallic structure of the irradiator. Accordingly, he removed its outer lead shield and dismantled the section containing Cobalt-60 sources at his Mayapuri workshop located in the suburbs of Delhi. The exposure to dangerous radiation and the resulting after-effects came to light on April 7, 2010 from report of a patient (who happened to be the dealer himself) with suspected radiation symptoms having been admitted to a hospital in New Delhi. In the following days six more people with symptoms of radiation exposure were admitted to hospital. The original patient died on 26 April due to multiple organ failure.

The average radiation field around radioactive sources in the Mayapuri dealer?s shop with sources buried under the rubble was found to be at a high of 500 R (Roentgen) per hour ? a dose which will result in certain death with only a few hours of exposure. A typical dose of normal background radiation for human beings is just 0.2 R per year.

In spite of a vigorous cleaning operation, even a full month later on 14 May several ?hotspots? were identified in Mayapuri where doses far exceeded the allowed annual dose limit.

The episode is not yet over as the spread of contamination is yet to be fully ascertained. The AERB, in trying to treat the accident in a hush-hush manner, has announced the affected Mayapuri area to be clean several times, only to be proved wrong later. The spread of contamination is far and wide. The lead radiation shield has yet to be recovered. It is believed to have been melted and resold. This again is a matter of considerable concern and
anxiety.

Who’s Responsible?

Delhi University should either have returned the Gamma Cell to the original supplier country (Canada) else handed it over to the DAE or AERB for its proper disposal. In clear disregard of the rule of conduct, it chose to auction it to the people who were quite evidently unaware of the danger associated with it. Besides Delhi University, AERB is also culpable because apparently it never bothered to inspect the irradiation facility, at least after it ceased to be used. It would have been a more serious violation of IAEA Code of Conduct, if, to begin with, the source was not listed in the inventory register.

Easy Prey for Nuclear Miscreants

A frightening aspect of this episode is that, had the radioactive source fallen into the hands of terrorists, it could have been used in a terror weapon by incorporating it in an explodable device, a so-called “dirty bomb”. According to present day norms and standards of nuclear security, of which the Government of India is fully aware, it is an unpardonable offense to transfer a high strength lethal radiation source to the open market. This highly irresponsible behaviour of the Delhi University, in complicity with the AERB and DAE, must not be ignored.

The Mayapuri Radiation Accident, as it has come to be known, originated in our neighboring country, India, which was in the forefront of drafting the IAEA Code of Conduct for secu-rity and safety of nuclear sources. Not only that, it has also been very active in raising doubts and apprehensions about the security of our nuclear assets. And to add further irony, the incident occurred on the eve of the Nuclear Security Summit (Washington D.C, April 12-13, 2010) convened by the American President and attended by 46 countries including India and Pakistan. It is thus even more surprising that this event was not mentioned in the Conference convened precisely to discuss ways to prevent such episodes. The Indian Prime Minister must have come out of it a very relieved man in having avoided all accountability for it on the international stage. Based on past experience, it couldn?t possibly have been treated as such an insignificant event had it taken place in a country like ours!

This is not the first time that accidents involving inappropriate handling of radioactive material have emanated from India. Almost two years back, Germany reported finding radioactive steel coming from India. The French followed with reports of radio-active buttons in elevators originating from radioactive steel, again from India. It is amazing that even after this, the government of India and its agencies took no step regarding the prevention of such incidents. The Delhi University case also shows that AERB needs to strengthen its monitoring and tracking of all radioactive sources. Sadly, the response from AERB and DAE does not show an increased awareness on this front at all.

This incident also needs to be seriously discussed and analyzed within our own relevant institutions, and appropriate lessons learnt from it. The Government of Pakistan may ask the IAEA to ensure a transparent inquiry into the accident with full participation of independent observers from IAEA Member States.

It is disappointing to note that the IAEA has not yet detailed a team of its own to visit the Mayapuri site and interview the irrespon-sible people in Delhi University, and also to examine the control mechanisms exercised by the AERB and DAE. This it must do without loss of time in the interest of all States.