A 12-hour globalization/altruism ramble.
Disclaimer: this isn't light-hearted at all. Giggles tomorrow. And while this is long, it won't take 12 hours to read.
I was writing a paper for a class, attempting to justify the case for CSR (corporate social responsibility) in light of globalization, our dwindling natural resources, and innovations in technology. Mind you, I chose the topic, primarily because even with it being a hard sell, it was the only one that held my interest for more than 2.5 seconds. Yes, I'm a victim of the cult-of-the-corporate-whore, but I'd like to think I have a conscience, and altruism feeds me.
The TV was on, more to provide white noise preventing me from dozing off, than to actually hold my attention. ER was on, and I happened to catch (between random thoughts on ways to pitch CSR to any "type-A" market capitalists) the episode featuring the tragedy in Darfur. I can't attest to its realism (having never traveled to the region) but it was compelling. From those reports linked previously, the creators strove to make it genuine, and to tell the human story instead of the political one. While it didn't hold my attention (I had a midnight deadline), it did reinforce something for me.
Ignorance willfully (not blissfully) breeds ignorance. And Americans are willfully ignorant.
Earlier, I'd spent the day doing site visits at several non-profit's headquarters. Part of our narrowing-the-selection-field process for giving away some grant money, I saw how incredibly far apart some of our views are, when it comes to philanthropy/altruism/social responsibility. As my colleagues and I lane-danced through rush-hour traffic across the Perimeter (Atlanta's Interstate 285, for non-ATLiens), trying to get all the site visits in, I had a chance to reflect between visits, where we all stand, and choose to stand. I tried to not be judgemental/analytical, but it bothered me.
Visit 1: environmental agency. Well funded, well organized, well run, and does an excellent job at fund raising. Their presentation was passionate, and yet almost slick - like a glossy magazine ad. From an investment perspective, this was the strongest presentation, because their ROI (return on investment) was not only pretty good, but evident. They showed us exactly where the grant money would be spent, and what they expected to get back from the investment.
Visit 2: inner-city youth agency. Again, well organized, well run, evident ROI. Sports program tied to academic achievement, and the results were much higher GPA's for program participants. Less slick than visit 1, but with a tugging-on-the-heartstrings component that made up for it. This was the feel-good visit.
Visit 3: childcare center for disabled children The discomfort immediately begins. While the director tried really hard to convey the center's needs, the lack was evident: ROI is a questionmark, the center isn't well organized, and while it's daily operations are run well, long term operations are risky. It has funding issues, and it's needs
are critical to it remaining open: grant opportunities, an increase in enrollment, and to lease some of its space to another non-profit, as a way of generating additional income. Evidently, this agency wasn't slick, but it was the most needy.
the discomfort... wasn't just in the way this agency was run. It was also in the clients it served. These children aren't just typical kids, not even typically disabled kids. There is no typical here. So, when Theresa (who is autistic, but terribly friendly) tried to say hi to one of my colleagues, by tugging at her blouse, and my colleague subtly, yet visibly flinched - I knew that they'd never make the cut. And when another colleague glanced slightly disgusted at the peeling baseboards, chipping paint and cracked windowpanes, asking when they'd last had a renovation...well I had to send a prayer up, asking God "just let her see past the obvious". See, even though the walls are lined with pictures the kids worked on, samples from nature walks, and thank you letters from overwrought parents with no alternatives, it's hard to see past the tragedy, and the poverty - to the human-ness. The recoil I perceived was involuntary. However, the response - the fact that while the need here is obvious, the package it's wrapped in isn't pretty, doesn't present a compelling case, and whose value-proposition (by the standards that we're charged to apply) just doesn't measure up - is voluntary. It's all in how we choose, or don't choose, to look at it.
rant: That's what bugs me so friggin much about being American sometimes - this individuality, this entrepeneurial spirit. This anti-collectivism. We live and dwell in a vacuum, patting our own backs at what we've achieved, and willfully turning a blind eye on the tragedies that occur under our noses, changing the channel on tragedies that occur 2000 miles away. We lack a collective social conscious, and while part of me screams that's the price of freedom in a "democracy", the varying values and ideals, the other part knows that the price we pay for that lack of collective spirit is much too high.
In my head, I wanted to scream at my colleagues: "...don't cringe, don't pull away, and save your sympathy. We don't need you to feel bad, we just need you to look. Look at this head on. This is what poverty looks like. Look, and then ask yourself, where would this money be better spent: creating value, or serving a critical need. Which is really the more important choice in this equation?" I'm so...tired....of our awareness being heightened, and yet we still aren't doing anything about it. Wait, some of us are aware, right? And some of us aren't. Even with 4-6 exabytes (?) of information at our disposal, yes...And even then, the childcare center wasn't truly poverty; yes - it's in an effed up position, financially and operationally. But that's luxury living compared to sub-Saharan Africa. And I'm not exactly donating 50% of my check to charitable causes either, no doubt. Yet....
I'd double check those sources, but my gut tells me that since I hadn't heard anything about the Sudan since Bradgelina did their African interview, this figure was probably accurate. And don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking what Brad & Angelina have attempted to do, along with One.org, Bono and so many other celebrities and their organizations. Darfur, the Sudan, actually sub-Saharan African has been likened to "hell on earth", so any effort that shines a light on that...
and there I sat, struggling to tie CSR-to-globalization-to-value...: trying to not pull on the corporate heartstrings, but to prove that corporations will benefit from CSR in ways that shareholders would actually appreciate. ER went off, with the staff heroes yet not angels, and the indigenous people still suffering. I sent off my case, no longer really caring whether/not I got an A. And I wondered to myself, when my colleagues and I reconvene, how can I make them understand the impact of their decision, despite the "metrics" we're charged with? How do I convince them, that the human story deserves equal consideration to numbers and measures? And then how do I "sell" them so convincingly that they can take the sales pitch, and run with it?
I love America like a crackbaby loves its mother - because they don't know anything else. But gaht dayum, what will it take to get Americans to collectively say enuff? Stop baaaaaa-ing, and force our culture to act as though we live in the world with the rest of the globe?