March April 2008
Where Christian faith gets down to business
Builder Harry Giesbrecht:
Return to Russia is “revenge in reverse”
Getting on with the job, flaws or not How “Christian” is your business? Katrina: “Edging back to abnormal”
The Marketplace March April 2008
Roadside stand
Debt be not proud Bart is a rising young professional with a respectable salary and a couple of credit cards that get worked pretty hard. He’s in hock to the tune of five figures. Sadly, he’s not average — he’s below. Recent reports in Canada show credit card debt has soared to $22,500 for middle-income households, almost double what it was in 1990. John Bul Dau, meanwhile, is a relatively recent refugee from Sudan. For years he wandered in the desert with other “lost boys” trying to escape the (un)civil strife in his homeland. All he had was the cloak on his back and a bowl for those rare times when there was food. Then he struck Christian gold when a church in New York sponsored him along with several other lost boys. They paid for his flight and furnished a temporary allowance and a few months’ rent. John’s first job on a loading dock didn’t pay much but it was enough so that he could send part of his first paycheck back to loved ones in Sudan. The other lost boys did the same. Then he got a job in a gasket factory, working from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon. He got a second job working evening shift in a fast-food restaurant. “I sent money back each month.... I always had plenty to spare, even after I became totally self-sufficient,” he says. Such “remittances” are common among immigrants, even those who toil near the bottom of the wage scale. My
Cover photo of Harry Giesbrecht by Wally Kroeker
The Marketplace March April 2008
wife Millie works with new immigrants, many of them refugees, and she brings home astonishing stories of how hard many of them work so they can help their families back home. John’s story is told in his recent book, God Grew Tired of Us (also the subject of an acclaimed National Geographic film of the same title). John could teach Bart a few things about a frugal and sensible lifestyle. Indeed, many North Americans could benefit from fiscal mentoring. Personal debt keeps soaring in our own backyard. “We’ve never had so many who owed so much,” says a leading economist with Standard & Poor’s. Maybe we should invite John Bul Dau and his friends to teach courses in money management. They could be economic missionaries to North Americans bloated with debt.
world’s population is expected to grow by an average of 100 million people a year, more than 95 percent of it in developing countries where pressure on land and water is already intense. The potato, the world’s fourth leading food crop, is being held up as a key player to ensure food security for future generations. Read more on www.potato2008.org and watch a short video titled “Potatoes On the Front Line Against Poverty.”
Epp marketing image, and with his team has achieved record levels of contributions this year. Epp has responded to the tug of business and will join TourMagination in May. He will maintain a business relationship with MEDA in arranging and leading tours for our members. The lowly spud is finally getting its due. The United Nations has proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of the Potato to raise awareness of the tuber’s importance in overcoming global hunger and poverty. A website devoted to the special year notes that over the next two decades the
The sad news — MEDA is losing Ed Epp as vice‑president of resource development. The happy news — he’s joining a MEDA-related company and will remain part of our extended family. Epp joined MEDA in 1998 as director of international operations, managing programs in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Nicaragua, Romania and Bolivia, as well as exploring new programs. In 2003 he became director of new business development and strategic planning, and the following year was appointed to his current role in resource development. His contributions to MEDA have been many. Through his creativity and resourcefulness he leaves us with the launch of MEDA Trust, a consistent
Religious groups aren’t often thought of as being players in the world of finance, but apparently they hold a lot of assets. A study by Citibank for the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) found that faith groups hold as much as 10 percent of the world’s liquid financial assets, and more than 15 percent of its land resources. “Overall, the role of faith players in financial realms is on the rise,” according to a new World Bank book titled Development and Faith. Go figure. Food experts say that all the world’s farms currently produce enough food to make every person on the globe fat. Yet 800 million people are chronically undernourished. — WK
Subscribers can choose to receive their copy of The Marketplace by e-mail. If interested, contact subscription@meda.org
In this issue
6
11
Return of the native
After fleeing the tyranny of Bolshevik Russia Harry Giesbrecht went back to practice “revenge in reverse.” His business and mission ventures are helping to repair and restore his former homeland.
Brand aid for the Green Rush
With everyone “going green” it can be hard to separate the static from the real thing. Here are some tips on how to make sure your commitment is more than just spin. By Hugh Hough From Hurricane Katrina to This Old House. Page 16
12
In praise of flaws
14
Marks of a Christian business
Departments 2 4 19 20 21 22
Roadside stand Soul enterprise Sand in the gears Reviews Soundbites News
How “Christian” is your business? Here’s a 10point checklist, from the quality of your products to the way you interact with employees and customers. By R. Paul Stevens
16
Volume 38, Issue 2 March April 2008 The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2008 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks
Sometimes we have to just get on with the job, even if not everything is perfect. Greg Pierce explores the spirituality of living with imperfections — our own and those of our co-workers.
Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1821 Oregon Pike, Suite 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-6466.
Update from the Gulf
“Welcome to the developing world — no passport required.” Such is the enduring carnage of Katrina in New Orleans, where MEDA’s legacy is rebuilding hope one business at a time.
To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 1821 Oregon Pike, Suite 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-6466
Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026. Web site www.meda.org
3
The Marketplace March April 2008
Job One
Spirituality for the “piety impaired” “Why would we want to look for God in our work? The simplest answer is that most of us spend so much of our time working that it would be a shame if we couldn’t find God there. A more complex reason is that there is a creative energy in work that is somehow tied to God’s creative energy. If we can understand and enter into that connection, perhaps we can use it to transform the workplace into something quite remarkable....” So says Greg Pierce, a Chicago publisher who is author of the article on page 12 of this issue. Pierce, who describes himself as “piety impaired,” says he buys into a spirituality of work that grows out of the work itself and connects with the God who is always present in our places of work. “This kind of spirituality,” he writes, “has little to do with piety and much more to do with our becoming aware of the intrinsically spiritual nature of the work we are doing and then acting on that awareness. Authentic spirituality – at least in the Judeo-Christian tradition – is as much about making hard choices in our daily lives, about working with others to make the world a better place, and about loving our neighbor and even our enemy as it is about worship and prayer.” His definitions: Spirituality: “A disciplined attempt to align ourselves and our environment with God and to incarnate (enflesh, make real, materialize) God’s spirit in the world.” Work: “All the effort (paid or unpaid) we exert to make the world a better place, a little closer to the way God would have things.” Spirituality of work: “A disciplined attempt to align ourselves and our environment with God and to incarnate God’s spirit in the world through all the effort (paid and unpaid) we exert to make the world a better place, a little closer to the way God would have things.” (God@Work)
Want the best job in the world? Examine your own skills and interests and see how they intersect with what God is doing to sustain human society and maintain the fabric of the world, writes Thomas Long: “Whether it is piloting a plane full of passengers from Minneapolis to Chicago, teaching a class of third graders, changing the diapers on a newborn, entering data into a computer, studying for a chemistry exam, or repairing a leaky faucet, the best work in life is work that we can understand as part of what God is doing in the world.” (Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian)
“What did you do at work today, Daddy?” Paul Cottle loved his job with a Canadian satellite company. He looked forward to Monday mornings. Then he learned that his employer was being sold to a corporation known for manufacturing land mines and cluster bombs. He wrestled with his conscience and decided “I just don’t want to be part of it.” So he quit. Other people might also face a dilemma if their work is seen to harm life rather than enhance it. Such decisions aren’t easy or black and white. Want a quick way to test your work? Here’s a two-part test that business professor Gerard Seijts uses in his management classes: 1. If your work was featured on the front page of the newspaper, would you be proud of it? 2. If you tried to explain your actions to your 10-year-old child, could you honestly sell it? (Globe & Mail) The Marketplace March April 2008
Taxi, taxi “Cab drivers, listen to this message: You are a priest at the wheel, my friend, if you work with honesty, consecrating that taxi of yours to God, bearing a message of peace and love to the passengers who ride with you.” — Oscar Romero (1917-1980), archbishop of El Salvador
Jalopy justice Car salesman Robert Chambers got ticked off one day when a colleague sold an overpriced, high-mileage junker to a single mother who earned $11 an hour. Since she had some credit problems she was talked into a high-interest loan that would last years longer than the car. The dealership made $5,000 profit. Chambers knew it was a rip-off. “I just couldn’t stand it anymore,” he says. Instead of retiring, he decided to use his years of expertise to help unsophisticated buyers who often get the short end of such transactions. He started a new business called Bonnie CLAC (“Car Loans and Counseling”) to give lower-income people better deals plus some forthright counsel on the hidden ways car costs can add up. Bad car deals can keep a struggling family from getting traction, says Chambers. You can’t get to work if your car breaks down, and you lose wages you need to pay for repairs. But a good car can reverse that cycle. He brings in well-maintained used cars and arranges loans with a local bank so that even clients with lackluster credit can get a decent rate. He rarely gets stung even though the loans would seem risky. “Our success rate is better than commercial lending,” he says. “On a portfolio of $10 million with 985 clients, we’ve lost $46,000.” Chambers plans to expand Bonnie CLAC across New England, maybe even nationally. For him, retirement is on hold; he’s having too much fun making a difference. (Steve Tripoli)
“One thing that makes my heart beat is the smell of drywall. I love to look at something and see what it can become.” — T.L. Rogers, pastor of a Baptist congregation in Maryland whose ministry includes urban renovation projects
Contesting for the faith Here’s a nice way to affirm faith-infused companies. The Catholic Spirit, published in St. Paul, Minn., holds a “Leading with Faith” contest for which Twin Cities residents can nominate anyone “whose business practices reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ and the church.” Winners must be from a just company that delivers a quality product or service. This year’s winners came from the bus, insurance, banking and construction sectors. (Initiatives newsletter)
Overheard:
“A person’s wallet is like a spiritual diary.” (Pete Hammond)
The Marketplace March April 2008
Return of the native The Soviets took his father and evicted his family, but when a window opened Harry Giesbrecht returned to do business. Now nearly 80, he still keeps up a feverish pace to help repair and restore his homeland. by Wally Kroeker
T
Mennonite Heritage Centre (NP07-01-7)
he train still rumbles through But that ground to an exLichtenau, Harry Giesbrecht’s cruciating halt. At the age of birthplace in the heart of four Giesbrecht was sucked Ukraine’s historic “Mennonite into the swirling conflict of region.” the Bolshevik Revolution. It carries passengers and freight, His father, who had been a but not nearly the throngs of the bank manager and worked 1920s. Then its cargo was Mennofor a trade mission, was nites. Lots of them. arrested as a political prisThe mainline station on the edge oner, dispatched to a prison of the village holds a mystical grip on camp and forced to work on the memories of Mennonites who the Trans-Siberian railroad. gathered there in droves to escape Giesbrecht’s mother and her the unfolding Bolshevik tyranny. That seven children were ordered was where thousands of them clamto leave. bered aboard with their few posses“We were thrown out of sions, leaving behind homes, farms the house,” says Giesbrecht. and relatives as they headed for a “We were allowed to take “What is life all about if you can’t give?” says new life in Canada. only what we could carry on Winnipeg contractor Harry Giesbrecht. You can still watch the train come our backs. So we walked. through, but today there are no teeming crowds of emiWe walked for three days, sleeping in the ditch at night, grants, no tearful farewells, no mournful singing of hymns to Melitopol, and spent a year there before moving to and prayers. Nikopol.” Harry Giesbrecht never That was home until made it onto one of those 1943 when they and many trains. By the time he came other Mennonites managed along the flow of emigration to get to Germany during had ebbed. When he left, it the Second World War. The was on foot. years were hard and hungry. “I never knew the feeling of Lichtenau was one a full stomach until I got to of the first villages in the Canada in 1948,” Giesbrecht Molotchna colony, which says. was settled by Mennonites His father was eventufrom Prussia in 1804. It was ally released from prison and located a few miles south of rejoined his family. “But he In the 1920s Mennonite emigrants flocked to the LichHalbstadt, a larger adminiswas never the same after tenau station to begin their trek out of Russia. Mentrative and educational centhat,” says Giesbrecht. “He nonites would again depart from the Lichtenau Train ter. For more than a century was broken in spirit when he Station in the 1940s when they were being shipped Mennonites flourished there. eastward by Communist authorities. came back.” The Marketplace March April 2008
The years of flight and scrounging to exist were like something out of a refugee novel. He describes the gritty struggles in an accent thickly graveled with Russian, his first language. The scars have not made him bitter nor dampened his lively wit. Instead, the memories seem to fuel his irrepressible spirit as he enthuses about the myriad projects he now carries on as a refugee who returned, who “made good” and now “does good.” There aren’t many folk around who do more business in Russia — or more mission. Stories abound of his free-flowing generosity: sending containers of supplies to orphanages, replacing a furnace at a village clinic, or digging deep to rescue a struggling business. He doesn’t hesitate to point out the shortcomings of the system that nearly wrecked his family, but nor does he gloat. He has chosen a higher road — to share, repair and show a better way. “What, after all, is life all about if you cannot give, and only take,” he says.
become a premier contractor of grain elevators and dryers in western Canada and as far as China, Romania, Hungary and Egypt. When traditional grain handling facilities were supplanted by large regional terminals, Central Canadian Structures moved into other types of construction — factories, warehouses, schools and hospitals.
In the mid-1980s he was invited “out of the blue”
to the Soviet Union to participate in a “technology exchange.” For three days his hosts picked his brains. “They took everything out of me that I “There was no had, and then I asked them to give, too.” construction But there was nothing forthcoming. material except The plainspeaking Giesbrecht told them, for gravel and “‘This is not an exchange of technology, it’s a transfer of technolcement. We ogy.’ So I went home.” Six months later he had to import got a letter from the Trade Union, the bigabsolutely gest organization in the Soviet Union with 16 everything — million members. “They owned every even nails.” hotel and every resort, and now they wanted to know if they could host foreigners,” says Giesbrecht, who instantly saw this would be impossible without massive upgrading or rebuilding. So they invited him to build a brand new 13-storey 365-room hotel in Leningrad (since re-named St. Petersburg), the second-largest city in the country. That $10.5 million project was Giesbrecht’s first job there, and “I stayed ever since.” The venture gave him media exposure as the first western company to work in the Soviet Union. He told the press that his purpose was more sentimental than financial. “It’s almost a case of revenge in reverse, of turning the other cheek,” he said at the time. “We have decided to forgive and help out because we believe the Soviets are sincere.” One of the people he would encounter was a bright and serious young man who was deputy mayor of Leningrad. His name was Vladimir Putin. They would become friends (see sidebar).
When Giesbrecht reached Canada it didn’t
Rudy Friesen photo
take long to find outlets for his work ethic. He found a job at a Winnipeg sausage company but soon saw opportunities as an engineer, and worked for Manitoba Hydro designing substations for the emerging electrification of the province.
When Harry Giesbrecht bought this school bus the whole village lined the streets to greet its arrival.
But even in his new land of freedom he encountered limitations. “Harry’s a fine engineer,” he overheard a supervisor say. “Too bad he’s German.” When he learned that this prejudice was more than lunchroom talk, he began to look elsewhere and soon found work with a growing construction company where his skills and entrepreneurial spirit could flourish. When the owner decided to retire, he offered the construction division to Giesbrecht on convenient terms. Soon a new company was born in partnership with two other members of Giesbrecht’s Mennonite church. Called Central Canadian Structures Ltd., it would grow to
The hotel project was anything but easy.
Although Mikhail Gorbachev was in power, and the improvements of perestroika were evolving, conditions were still far from western standards. “We had to import absolutely everything — even
The Marketplace March April 2008
structed. For years he traveled back and forth 16 times a year. “Now I go only about 10 times; I’m supposed to be retired,” he says. A few years ago he turned over Central Canadian Structures to his son, but he still handles the Russian work, which represents about 30 percent of the firm’s business.
things done in a place where da can mean nyet.
Giesbrecht has mastered the art of getting
things done in a peculiar environment where da can mean nyet. Seasoned by years of operating under Soviet and Rudy Friesen photo
nails,” says Giesbrecht. “There was no construction material except for gravel and cement, and even for that we had to use our connections with Putin. We imported supplies by the containerload.” When he needed steel he asked for the metal specifications. He was appalled by what he saw. “We haven’t used that low a grade of steel for over 50 years,” he says. “They are behind in almost everything they do. “Today we don’t take any construction material anymore. They have it there now, but it is all imported by them, because Russians He has mastered don’t produce anything. They are 50 years bethe art of getting hind.”
Nonetheless, Gies-
brecht relished the challenge, as well as the irony, of working back in the homeland where he had once been unwelcome. He didn’t resist pointing it
out to his hosts. One day he and a group of other western businessmen were invited to a villa in the Caucasus mountains. During the festivities it fell to Giesbrecht to make some comments and thank his hosts. “I told them I was going to say what was really on my mind. I said, ‘You probably know all about me. You know that you took my father away, that you destroyed my family. You took my oldest brother in 1937, never to be heard of again. You know all of this. And now you’re inviting me, as a businessman, to come and invest in your country. You know what I will suggest? I suggest you build a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean and that we meet on the middle of the bridge, throw our arms around each other, and say we are brothers. Our world is so small that it took Sputnik only 60 minutes to travel all the way around. Why are we enemies?’”
Harry Giesbrecht at the crumbling walls of the house he lived in as a youth in Nikopol.
later mafia clouds, Giesbrecht can tell eye-popping stories of surviving in a murky climate where “You don’t get a dog licence without paying a bribe.” His eyes sparkle as he grins and shakes his head. “It’s a strange world,” he says in a classic understatement. “I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t speak the language.”
The Russians accepted his candor, and kept
inviting him. Over time he erected apartment buildings in Moscow and the Canadian embassy in Kiev. He built a 35,000-ton grain handling complex and 25 high-end Canadian-style homes in Dnepropetrovsk, once closed to outsiders because of the missile factory located there in Soviet times. He says he can’t count how many buildings he conThe Marketplace March April 2008
As a man who knew his way around, Giesbrecht fielded countless requests from mission agencies that flocked to take advantage of the new openness of the early 1990s. He was always willing to help. He found
quarters for the staff of MEDA, Mennonite Central Committee and a Canadian Mennonite radio ministry. He opened doors for Campus Crusade and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. His heaviest lifting would be for ventures closer to home — his original home. Like Lichtenau, for example, which today has a population of 900. Giesbrecht singlehandedly refurbished its school system with computers and sent the teachers for special training. He saw there was no bus for a school that served six villages in a four-mile radius. “I told the mayor, a very honest, dedicated man. ‘Listen Petrau,’ I said. ‘You find yourself a bus and I’ll buy it for you.’ So he went to Melitopol and bought a bus. When he drove the bus in himself, the whole village lined the streets to welcome him.” Then he noticed that elderly people had to walk three miles to the nearest clinic. “I told the mayor to cooperate with me and clean up the village. I told him my childhood house no longer stood but the lot was still there. I said I’d like to build a house on that lot and bring the clinic in and put it in there, and upstairs we’ll have an apartment so maybe Harry Giesbre-
cht can stay there sometime.” He is now an honorary citizen of the same community from which he was expelled in 1932.
His eyes glow brightest when he speaks of the
Mennonite Centre in Molochansk (once known as Halbstadt). It is located in the old Mennonite Maedchenschule (girls school) which figured prominently in local Mennonite history and where his elder sister attended. Giesbrecht and Winnipeg architect Rudy Friesen completely renovated the rundown building and restored its original glory. It now houses an active spiritual and humanitarian ministry, including language and computer training, and help for the elderly. Giesbrecht is also a member of the centre’s board of directors. “I didn’t resist too much being roped into that project,” he says. “I was very happy to do it.” The facility is a regular stop on the popular Mennonite Heritage Cruise tours (led by Walter and Marina Unger) which have enabled thousands of visitors to explore their roots. Although his return to his homeland was ostensibly to do business, Giesbrecht’s charitable ventures outnumber his commercial enterprises. Each has its own reward.
A friend of Putin
T
Giesbrecht gestures to a photo of him with Putin and the advisor. “I sent him a copy, and Putin wrote back, ‘I remember you, my friend, and I will never forget you.’ “I got to know him very well,” says Giesbrecht. “I liked him.” When TIME disclosed rare insights into Putin’s religious inclinations, Giesbrecht was not surprised. “I got to know him as a religious man. We had quite a number of semi-religious discussions about morality. We quoted some Bible verses back and forth. We never disagreed on religion.” The relationship continued after Putin became Russia’s president, though Giesbrecht notes he has not received a response to his most recent letter, which contained some pointed suggestions about the country’s future. TIME described Putin as a man who makes no effort to charm visitors. Giesbrecht agrees. “He talks very little. He answers your questions but he does not volunteer too much more. “But he is extremely intelligent, and he’s honest. He says what he means and means what he says.” Giesbrecht glances at the photos showing him with some of the most powerful men in the world. “Power corrupts,” he says with a sigh. “Once you have this power, it’s hard to let go.” ◆
he walls of Harry Giesbrecht’s office hold a small gallery of mementoes from his life in business. There are photos of him with long-time Canadian politician Jake Epp as well as former Soviet leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. There’s also one of Giesbrecht with current Russian president Vladimir Putin, recently selected as TIME magazine’s Person of the Year. Giesbrecht has been Putin’s friend and associate for nearly 20 years. They met when Putin was deputy mayor of Leningrad (now renamed St. Petersburg). Giesbrecht was working with Atomic Energy of Canada, which was building a hydrogen plant nearby. Putin accepted an invitation to visit Canada and attended a barbecue in his honor at Giesbrecht’s home in Winnipeg. The visit went well. One of Putin’s chief advisors even accompanied Giesbrecht to a worship service at Portage Avenue Mennonite Brethren Church. “He participated in the Sunday school class and asked some good questions,” Giesbrecht recalls.
The Marketplace March April 2008
it growing, my heart leaps a little.”
Harry Giesbrecht will
turn 80 this fall. He says the university project will be his last. “After this job I’ll be out,” he declares. But he doesn’t sound convincing. If another Harry Giesbrecht says the Russian-American Christian University campus in Moscow, set to worthy project appears, it’s open in June, will be his last project. hard to imagine him saying His eyes mist when describing a kindergarten and no. And whether it’s a commercial or charitable venture summer camps with nice beds and clean sheets. may not make a difference. “Your heart smiles when you see that,” he says. For Harry Giesbrecht, business and mission are mixed together. Giesbrecht’s work is seen locally as a witness of “It’s all in one,” he says with a grin. forgiveness and reconciliation. At one public meeting the “Like borscht.” ◆ mayor of Zaporozhye, a city of a million people, declared publicly, “You Mennonites have been persecuted. You’ve been sent to jail. You’ve been sent to Siberia. And now you come back and are helping us, in spite of being wronged.” At the opening of the Mennonite Centre a Russian Orthodox priest formally apologized for what had been done to Mennonites in earlier generations. “I told him he arry Giesbrecht remembers a banquet in the had nothing to apologize for,” says Giesbrecht, “because opulent “gold room” of the Kremlin, presided what had been done to our people had been done to his over by then-president Mikhail Gorbachev and people, too.” foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
“We wouldn’t find the enemy”
H
Beside him sat the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces and the conversation turned to the arms race and the fear of Soviet military technology. “Let me make a confession,” the man said to Giesbrecht. “If war broke out tomorrow and the sun didn’t shine, we wouldn’t find the enemy.” It was a startling revelation, says Giesbrecht. “We were always under the impression that when it came to technology they had everything the West had. They didn’t, and still don’t. Anything you touch in the former Soviet Union, whether it be in Ukraine, Kazakhstan or wherever, is Western made and imported. They don’t manufacture anything.” ◆
Giesbrecht’s current project is building the
campus of the Russian-American Christian University in Moscow. The first of its kind to receive state approval and full accreditation by the ministry of education, it seeks to equip young Russians for leadership in business, church and civil society. It has 450 students and 25 faculty. “It’s an excellent university,” says Giesbrecht. “Students are snapped up even before they graduate.” Up to now it has rented space in the former Patrice Lumumba University but work began three years ago on its own campus. The main building, an $18 million project, is set to be finished in June. “It’s beautiful,” he says. “Every time I come, and see The Marketplace March April 2008
10
Brand aid for the Green Rush by Hugh Hough
G
et your brand in order, for the Day of Green Reckoning is coming. Today, green is big. Green is in. Every brand is rushing to figure out a way to take advantage of North America’s seemingly sudden concern for environmental issues. As a result, there are brands out there moving into the green space with either too much speed, or too few scruples, and sooner or later, they are going to get busted. They will be seen as frauds, charlatans or opportunists, and they will incur the wrath of the consumer. There are ways, however, for your brand to avoid such an apocalyptical fate. The first thing your brand has to do is recognize that “green” is only part of the equation. Today’s awakening consumer is paying close attention to corporate behavior and will hold you accountable for all other aspects of sustainability, including labor practices, community impact and employee relations. Yes, environmental responsibility is important, but it’s a starting point, not a final destination. Secondly, understand that the more your brand touts its environmental/sustainability efforts, the more scrutiny it will receive, and the more severe the rebuke if a fly is found in the ointment. And with high-speed Internet access now in 78 percent of households and 50 million blogs out there, it doesn’t take much for a misbehaving brand to be brought into the spotlight. Just ask TXU Energy, which was bought out last year after criticisms of its environmental practices. To keep this from happening, you need to be fully aware of every aspect of your production. It starts with your product design. What sort of formulation does your product consist of? Does it use potentially toxic ingredients or preservatives that could be a problem in the product’s afterlife? What about your ingredients? You need to know not just what they are, but where they come from, how they were produced and by whom. You’ve got to look at manufacturing. What is the environmental impact of your facilities, and their health and safety records? Your plant can be completely carbon-neutral, but if you’ve got a steady stream of accidents, you could be garnering negative attention and a boycott. You also have to look at your packaging. Are the materials recycled and/or recyclable? And how much packaging are you using? Might there be a way to cut that back, or use your materials more efficiently? Don’t forget to examine your warehouse and distribution systems, as well. Make sure your warehouses are
energy efficient, and your product gets to market with minimal environmental impact. On a more positive note, going through such a vertical examination of your supply chain and process could reveal a few positive actions you are already taking. Once you have a thorough understanding of your product and the processes behind it, you can examine the communication and outreach opportunities it affords you. As you develop your communications plan to promote your sustainability efforts, there are three key eleGo deep with ments in the equation to your company’s remember: tone, channel and volume. tone of your mesenvironmental sageThe could be humble, humorous responsibility; it matter-of-fact, or inspirational — just make sure it’s consistent. has to be more You’ll want to tailor your message to the channel than just spin it’s running in. Obviously, what you say on your website will be different from what you’d say in a 30-second television spot. As for volume, that’s really a matter of corporate comfort. How loudly you tout your sustainability efforts will inevitably be a source of internal debate, but I would suggest you err on the side of more, providing of course you have taken the steps described earlier. Finally, there’s one critical piece of advice I’d give a brand touting its sustainability efforts: be honest. People aren’t perfect, and they don’t expect companies to be, either. Admit your shortcomings, and communicate what you’re doing to address them. Today’s consumers will forgive pretty much any sin, except dishonesty (and that includes lies of omission). Besides, people are going to find out the truth about your brand one way or another, so it might as well be from you. Before long, the substance will be separated from the static in the green/sustainability space. Make sure your brand is on the right side of the fence. ◆ Hugh Hough is founder and president of Green Team and was recently featured as a presenter in the film, An Inconvenient Truth. His article is reprinted with permission from CRO magazine www.thecro.com
The Marketplace March April 2008
In praise of flaws Sometimes we have to just get on with it, even if we’re not perfect by Gregory F.A. Pierce
C
ardinal John Henry Newman once said that nothing would ever be done if we waited until we could do it so perfectly that no one could find fault with it. One of the spiritual disciplines of work is based on making a positive out of a negative. The negative is that we all make mistakes in our work. The positive is that we can find God in the midst of them. There is a Sufti story of a woman who went into a marketplace, looked around, and saw a sign that read God’s Fruit Stand. “Thank goodness,” the woman said to herself. “It’s about time!” She went inside and said to God, “I would like a perfect banana, a perfect cantaloupe, a perfect strawberry, and a perfect peach.” Standing behind the counter, God merely shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, I sell only seeds.” Even God leaves it to us to develop, however imperfectly, the potential in our work and in ourselves.
Overrating perfection The idea that our work can be perfect is, on the face of it, absurd. Part of the very nature of humanity is our imperfection. On the few occasions that a man or woman achieves perfection, we call it genius and the accomplishment a masterpiece. But for most people most of the time, our work will be less than perfect — less, even, than what we are capable of in our best moments. Does its inherent imperfection make our work less spiritual? Not necessarily. If we accept imperfection as part of the The “gift” of human condition, then we should be able to imperfection is celebrate our failures as well as our successes. In hard to ignore fact, the opposite of this discipline is a sin called because there’s “perfectionism.” Out of our egotism and insealways someone curity, we try to do the impossible — that is, be around to remind perfect — with the predictable result that we make a mess of the very us of it work we are trying to accomplish, we drive our colleagues crazy, and we harm our spiritual life in the process. In his book Protect Us from All Anxiety: Meditations for the Depressed, William Burke describes the problem with trying to be a perfectionist: “A perfectionist is ill, trying desperately to live an impossible life.” Burke then goes on to make this prayer: “Lord, I hate the imperfect in me. I despise it. I want to hide it. Which means I hate, despise, and want to hide me. Yet you love me. Something’s got to give.” People in the arts and in sports learn quickly how to
Getting out the last typos When I first became an editor, I went to a seminar where the instructor said that every book published should have two typographical errors. The idea was that the amount of work it would take to get those last two typos out of a manuscript was not worth it. Editors just had to live with imperfection if they were going to accomplish anything. That was a very liberating lesson for me — and not just in my editing work. I am very much an imperfect editor, parent, spouse, coach, community organizer, and church volunteer. I have to learn to live with it, and living with imperfection is one of the disciplines within the spirituality of work that I now practice. The beauty of this particular discipline is that we don’t have to do much to remember to practice it. Most of the time, our imperfection rises up and confronts us, and if it doesn’t, our bosses (or colleagues or spouses or children or friends or neighbors) are quick to point it out to us. All we need do to practice this discipline is build into the workday concrete ways of accepting that we are not perfect. (For example, every time I find a typo in one of the books I publish, I give glory to God.) The Marketplace March April 2008
12
example — then certainly there can’t be much tolerance for error. We can be more accepting of error when someone gets our lunch order wrong or when the bus is late. Mathematics and astronomy require much more precision than most of our occupations. We all know people who overreact to the mistakes and failures of others. They seem to almost enjoy finding fault in the work of others and are quick to point it out. I have not, however, found these people to be noticeably more in tune with the Creator than the rest of us. A second question we have to ask ourselves when we encounter the imperfection of others is Why are these lapses occurring? If it is a matter of sloth or inattention or lack of caring, then it is difficult to see anything spiritual about that imperfection. But if someone is doing less than perfect work because he or she is exhausted from caring for a sick friend or relative, then that fact might shed an entirely different light on the person’s minor failures. Similarly, can we really expect perfect work from someone who is being unjustly exploited in terms of pay or working conditions? Or perhaps a worker was momentarily distracted by the real needs of another colleague or a customer. Aren’t those good “I may not be enough reasons to make a mistake? are hundreds of legitiperfect, but I mateThere reasons someone might make an error. A new employee expect more might be learning the job. An older employee might be losing from you” a step to age. An engaged or newly married person might be daydreaming momentarily about his or her beloved. Think of all the reasons we have been less than perfect in our work; we can compile our own list of explanations. Did these occasions mean that we were bad workers or out of touch with God’s creative energy? In some cases, the very acts of imperfection proved how wonderfully human we were. The discipline of living with imperfection is merely a daily carrying out of the words of the Our Father, which — loosely translated — might be “forgive us our imperfections, as we forgive the imperfections of others.” ◆
live with imperfection. What concert does not contain a wrong note, and what painting could not be improved with more work? Yet the artist must at some point let go, or no communication would take place, no beauty would be observed. The best hitters in all of baseball fail six out of ten times, and even ESPN’s Athlete of the Century, Michael Jordan, missed shots and made mental errors. Athletes and artists are so great precisely because they are imperfect, not despite it. People in fact reach greater heights of performance because they push the envelope and risk greater failure and imperfection. Imperfection is a condition of growth, and athletes and artists know that if they don’t push beyond what they have already achieved, they cannot do their best work. The same is true for each of us. Living with the imperfection of others While we may be able to train ourselves to accept our own imperfection, learning to live with the imperfection of others in the workplace can be even more daunting. We count on others to do their work correctly, and we are justifiably irritated when they do not. The discipline of living with imperfection, however, forces us to take a step back and reconsider before we issue a complaint or a reprimand. The first consideration is the importance of the mistake. If it is a matter of safety — the proper functioning or operation of an automobile or a nuclear generator, for
Excerpted from Spirituality@Work: 10 Ways to Balance Your Life On-theJob by Gregory F.A. Pierce (Loyola Press 2001). Reprinted with permission of Loyola Press. To order copies of this book, call 1-800-621-1008 or visit www.loyolabooks.org.
13
The Marketplace March April 2008
Performance review How “Christian” is your business? A seasoned marketplace scholar suggests 0 things to check
by R. Paul Stevens
T
he presence of a Christian in a business does not necessarily mean the business is Christian, as some Christians keep their faith and daily work in separate compartments. Here are 10 things that can mark a Christian business. . The presence of Christians with a sphere of influence. Owners, managers and employees can “incarnate” their values into every aspect of a business. Clerks, for instance, can draw an imaginary 30-foot radius around their work station and regard it as their “parish” where all people, structures, equipment and interactions are within their circle of prayer and influence. 2. A product or service in harmony with God’s creational purpose. Adam and Eve were called to be priests of creation, to “work it and take care of it” as trustees and stewards (Gen. 2:15). They (and all of us who are restored to our human vocation through new life in Christ) had three full-time jobs: communion with God, community-building, and co-creativity with God (the latter including productive jobs and trade). Almost no place in the work-world is so demonized that a Christian might not be called to serve there (exceptions being businesses that thrive on prostitution, drug traffic, weapons and the exploitation of the poor). . A mission or purpose beyond mere profit. Of course, a business must make money or it will not last. Customers need a value for which they are willing to pay, so profit is a legitimate measure of the value the firm is producing for its customers. But those that exist only to make money are not very satisfying, and will eventually fail. A Christian business needs a well-defined mission that is held before all employees — why does the business exist; what does the business want to be; what are its values; what is its vision for its other stakeholders, such as the larger community, the environment, and future generations. The Marketplace March April 2008
4. Product and service excellence suggests the presence of the kingdom. A Christian in business strives to provide excellent services or products that surprise customers rather than Unpaid bills, poor leaving them yearning for more or resigned quality and sloppy to the minimum. Jesus invited his disciples to “do more” (like loving work speak enemies) than the tax collectors and pagans much louder (Matt. 5:43-48). Extraordinary service and qualthan any verbal ity invites the question “Why?” On the other declarations hand, unpaid bills, slow delivery, poor quality, dishonest advertising and sloppy workmanship all speak much louder than verbal declarations. . Customers are treated with dignity and respect. “The customer is always right” is the secular version of this. But there’s more. Christians in business treat every customer as a person to be loved and appreciated whether or not business is transacted. Difficult customers also need love, even when they are wrong. Loving customers as oneself is neighbor love (Matt. 22: 39). A salesperson will sell only on three conditions: the customer wants it, needs it and can afford it. Love for competitors is even harder. The Old Testament offers a powerful model of harvesting with the poor in view (Deut. 24:19-22), which means leaving something on the table. 4
6. Workers are equipped to achieve their potential. It is tragic when Christians are poor workers because their real interest is in evangelism and church activities. Work is part of our calling to live for God’s glory and to share in Christ’s purposeful rule of all creation, a calling that can be expressed anywhere. What makes work Christian is not its religious character or even that it may be visibly “people-helping” but because it is an opportunity to express faith, hope and love and to work wholeheartedly (Eph. 6:7). A Christian employer can see every interaction with an employee as an equipping opportunity to train, encourage and release potential. . All aspects of business are potentially ministry. Christian businesspeople do not create a secular-sacred division in business (witnessing is sacred but doing the accounts is secular). All is part of our creation mandate (Gen. 1:26-28) and is done for Jesus (Col. 3:23) and to God’s glory. William Tyndale, the English Reformer, said, “There is no work better than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or an apostle, all is one, to wash dishes and to preach is all one, as touching the deed, to please God.” 8. The culture of the business lines up with God’s purposes. The environment or culture of a business “speaks” more loudly than any stated policy. People “get a message” as soon as they walk into a store or a factory. Managers can convey a culture through the values they promote (honesty, dignity, equality and respect) and how failure and mistakes are handled. A Christian manager can be a community-builder in business, a “pastor” in a secular context. . The leaders are servants. “Servant leadership” is so commonly used it is easy to forget how these two words cannot normally be brought together. Being a servant leader (Matt. 20:25-28) does not mean being passive — there is room for godly ambition, dreams and visions.
Servant managers/leaders want to equip and bring the best out of employees and can be measured by their advancement. Servant leaders continuously hold up the mission purpose of the company; empower employees to do Every interaction their job well; say thanks to everyone, showing with an them they are appreciated. 0. The business runs on grace. Busiemployee can ness takes Christians into be an equipping the economic, social and political structures of society which have beopportunity to come broken and polluted by human sin. Christian train, encourage business persons find themselves frequently in and release situations where there is no easy answer, no “black potential and white” choices. While they may seek to make difficult decisions prayerfully on the basis of Scripture and in fellowship with other believers in business, inevitably mistakes and compromises will be made and sins committed. These must not be excused, but neither must they destroy. There is forgiveness and hope. ◆ R. Paul Stevens taught marketplace theology at Regent College, Vancouver, for many years. His most recent book is Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace (Eerdmans). His article is abridged from a talk given to Christian businesspeople in Ndola, Zambia.
The Marketplace March April 2008
Update from the Gulf In the enduring carnage of Katrina, MEDA’s legacy is rebuilding hope one business at a time by Wally Kroeker
T
from flooding. he wounds of Hurricane Katrina are still near the “Lots of people lost their insurance over that issue surface, covered by a thin scab that can ooze at — which came first,” she says. any moment. Everyone has their own disaster “Imagine how the poor fare when someone like me, story, and most are willing to share it. who works for a U.S. senator, has these kinds of prob“It’s all we talk about,” says an official of one of the lems.” many agencies working feverishly to help New Orleans It was a familiar lament. and surrounding area recover from the devastation of August 29, 2005. MEDA’s board of directors met in New Orleans Feb. 8-10 to visit its partner agencies and many of their clients (see vignettes). Among the people they met was Laverne Saulny, an assistant to U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. She reviewed the familiar story of being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and then being battered again two weeks later by Hurricane Rita and another round of broken levees and flooding. Besides the innumerable personal tragedies and loss of life, businesses also suffered, adding more devastation through loss of work and vital services. Of the thousands of businesses and operators who were impacted, only a quarter have come back. “After 2½ years it hasn’t gotten better in terms of people getting what they need,” she says. “A lot of businesspeople have not been able to get back into business.” Rashida Ferdinand is a master ceramist who produces ceSaulny says she herself had only ramic home accessories, garden sculptures and utilitarian pottery. Her work been able to move back into her has been exhibited around the world, including the Smithsonian Institute of house this January, citing continual Washington DC. A third generation resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, her problems with trades and insurance. house was ruined by Katrina, but in early February was renovated by the PBS Although she was insured, there program, This Old House. With the help of Good Work Network she was were persistent problems sorting out able to rebuild her company, Currents of Clay (www.currentsofclay.com). whether damage was from wind or The Marketplace March April 2008
16
Roadblocks from bureaucratic officials who were otherwise completely dysfunctional have seemed almost intentional, says Denis Jantz, a Loyola University professor who has been assisting Mennonite Disaster Service. For many months following the disaster there were no public services — no police, no ambulances. “But an inspector would appear promptly if an unlicenced out-of-state tradesperson would show up to do some work,” he says.
If you tour the Lower Ninth Ward, the
hardest-hit area, you no longer see miles of eerily unoccupied houses askew on their foundations. Today, some have been rebuilt, but vast numbers have been razed, leaving weed-infested desolation. “Pre-Katrina there were 20,000 vacant lots in New Orleans, now there are 100,000,” says Greta Gladney, director of the Renaissance Project, an early MEDA partner. A fourth generation resident of the Lower Ninth, she says the area used to “Welcome to the boast a 67 percent home developing world — ownership rate. “People no passport required” lived in homes that had belonged to their grandparents,” says Gladney. That has complicated the restoration process, since the long family lines meant that title wasn’t always clear.
“Welcome to the developing world — no
passport required,” says Richard McCarthy, director of Market Umbrella, another MEDA partner. His organization is committed to linking small scale food producers (farmers and fishers) to sustainable markets. He has high praise for the effectiveness of faithbased organizations like MEDA and MDS. “The big funders didn’t know what to do here,” he says. “The faith-based organizations knew what to do. They came in here and started to work.” Several months after Katrina MEDA hired Adele London to lead its Back to Business program in partnership with MDS. Her role was to help local partners expand services to business owners who had suffered from the hurricane. This year she transitioned to fulltime placement with one of those key partners, Good Work Network, which connects low income and disadvantaged entrepreneurs to the resources they need. Two-thirds of her clients had businesses before, up to half in the informal economy. A particularly hard hit sector was childcare, says London. Seventy percent of daycare centers vanished, posing a serious barrier to families returning to work.
Celestine Dunbar, owner of Dunbar’s Creole
Cooking, had been cooking for 24 years before Katrina wrecked her establishment. Her eatery, which serves Creole food like catfish, fried chicken, mustard greens, yams and beans, has been featured in Gourmet and Southern Living magazines. Currently she has found temporary quarters on the campus of Loyola University, and hopes to rebuild soon.
Pamala Thomas runs a daycare for 25 children. When her previous facility was destroyed she received help to reopen in a different location. Even though she had plenty of experience, she decided to take the 12-week daycare training as a refresher course.
17
The Marketplace March April 2008
“We just can’t A program was developed to train people who wanted to start abnormal again” new childcare facilities. Many have responded. “It has really been accepted,” says London. “It has taken on a life of its own.” As one client told her, “We just can’t wait to get back to abnormal again.” Last year Good Work Network offered technical assistance to 675 people, most of them African-American. Sixty-eight percent were women and 64 percent were lower income. Director Phyllis Cassidy cited MEDA’s “generosity of spirit” in strengthening Good Work Network. “Since Katrina our organization has grown five-fold, much of it thanks to MEDA,” she said. “You helped heal our very damaged souls and hearts.” ◆
wait to get back to
David Williams
has run his own drywall, paint and sandblasting business for nearly five years. His family (nine brothers and six sisters) was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. “We lost everything,” he says. “It’s been a struggle.” With his business ruined, he got back to work gutting houses after Katrina. Good Work Network helped him restart his business and bring it back to where it was before the storm. He especially appreciated help with banking issues, as well as the flow of ideas in the organization’s newsletter.
Julie (Menhati) Singleton, owner of The
Breath IS Life Wellness Center, lost family members as well as her business and livelihood in the storm. Her clients dispersed and she had to start over. Good Work Network provided help on a number of fronts, in addition to assistance with zoning issues as she relocated her business. “We need so much support on a business and personal level to get going again,” she says. “I’m the healer, and I needed healing.”
Carol Alexander-Lewis, formerly an educa-
tion administrator, decided after Katrina to start her own publishing company to “work my passion” of helping parents do a more effective job of parenting and to connect home and school. She has just put out her second issue of Modern Parents magazine, which is being distributed by Borders. Good Work Network made it possible for her to attend an educators convention to promote her magazine. “Without that help there was no way I could have made the contacts I needed,” she says.
The Marketplace March April 2008
18
Sand in the gears
Short-term trips short on impact by John Longhurst
O
ne of the fastest-growing trends in missions today is the short-term missions trip — church members going overseas to help at an orphanage, build a school or clinic or provide some other kind of assistance. An estimated one to four million North Americans go on these trips to poor countries every year (nobody knows for sure, since most people go independently). It’s impossible to say that nothing good comes from the experiences; homes, schools and orphanages are built, and that’s obviously not a bad thing. But neither is it the best way to help people in the developing world. Imagine, for example, that a group of people decided to go to Kenya to help construct a clinic. Each person would need to spend $4,000 to $5,000 for airfare, lodging and expenses. If 20 people go, that’s $80,000 to $100,000. That amount of money would enable 17 Kenyan construction workers to work for a year on the clinic and other projects, based on local wages. Or, it would enable relief and development organizations to send 3,125 children to school for a year, give 49,000 people access to clean water and provide emergency food for 10,000 people for a month. This point was underscored by a 2006 study by Kurt VerBeek, a sociologist at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He studied the effects of short‑term mission efforts in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch struck that country in 1998. Nearly every Honduran he spoke to expressed appreciation for the many North American Christians who came to help. But they also said the money spent on plane tickets, food and lodging could have been put to better use building houses for homeless people. They noted that once all the travel and other expenses were factored in, the houses built by the North Americans cost $30,000, compared to just $2,000 for houses built by local people. Supporters of short‑term missions often concede that the trips are not cost effective and that the money could be put to better use by local people. But, they hasten to add, that’s not the only way to measure effectiveness. Equally important, they say, is how the trips change the lives of participants. But VerBeek’s study raises doubts about that claim. He asked North Americans who went to Honduras if the experience had increased the amount of time they spent in prayer, volunteering, giving to charity and showing interest in poor countries. Eight years after their trips, only 16 percent of participants said there were significant long‑term positive changes in their lives in these areas.
Similar conclusions have been reached by 12 of 14 other similar studies. “This study shows that short-term missions as done now are not having the impact that people think or want, even if done to levels of excellence,” VerBeek said in an interview. “If that’s true, it requires a whole rethinking of whether or not we’re going to do this, and if so, how.” Short‑term missions trips are here to stay. Many North American Christians don’t want to just give money anymore. They want to When all costs be personally involved in helping poor people. But were considered, before they go to a poor country, they should think seriously about houses built by how they can maximize benefits for the visiting volunteers the people they want to help, and minimize any cost $30,000, harm they might cause. For VerBeek, this while those built means doing such trips only through a reputable with local labor development organization that integrates short-term volunteers cost $2,000. into longer‑term project goals, so that the work continues after the group leaves. He also recommends that short‑term mission groups continue to meet after they return, to provide “accountability and encouragement” to volunteers who want to translate their two‑week trip into “life‑lasting changes in prayer, giving and lifestyle.” I would add that anyone going to the developing world should learn as much as they can about the host country and its economic situation. They should also become familiar with both the positive and negative impacts of aid. And then, when they get home, they should keep the experience alive by volunteering with a local agency. Or, best of all, people could decide not to go at all. As one Honduran told VerBeek about the short-termers in his country: “They gather money to come here to do work, work that we are capable of doing.” Added another: “It is better for them to send the money in order to help more people who are in need.” ◆ John Longhurst is director of communications and marketing at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg.
19
The Marketplace March April 2008
Reviews
Enslaved by sex and chocolate Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade — and How We Can Fight It. By David Batstone (Harper, 2007, 301 pp. $14.95 U.S. $18.95 Cdn.) Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet. By Carol Off (Random House Canada, 2006, 326 pp. $34.95 Cdn.)
I
nscribed on David Livingstone’s tomb in London’s Westminster Abbey is the following plea against slavery: “All I can add in my solitude, is, may heaven’s rich blessing come down on every one, American, English or Turk, who will help heal this open sore of the world.” The legendary missionary would probably be surprised to find
slavery still practiced more than a century after his death. He also would want David Batstone and Carol Off included in the reach of his blessing, for their books are compelling efforts to ameliorate the “open sore” of which he spoke. Both authors are journalists. Batstone, besides being former executive editor of the The Marketplace March April 2008
evangelical activist magazine Sojourners, is also a business professor, ethicist and cofounder of Business 2.0 magazine. Carol Off is a Canadian broadcaster. Their books are both gripping dramas about something most of us don’t want to think about — the modern trafficking in human slaves. Batstone claims there are 27 million slaves around the world today, including 200,000 in the United States. These are kids and adults who loom rugs, harvest cocoa and mine diamonds. Some are child soldiers forced into service by renegade regimes.
“Because forced labor is often hidden in unregulated work environments or where cheap labor is the norm, most Americans will walk by an incidence of slavery and pay no notice,” according to Batstone. One common tactic is for a U.S. “employer” of young women to claim that the parents back home have agreed to an employment contract. Nowhere is slavery legal, but traffickers get away with it nonetheless. “If the laws that already appear on the books were enforced, the slave trade would end tomorrow,” Batstone says. Carol Off traces the history of cocoa and North America’s favorite confection with special attention to its secret ingredient of child slavery, especially in Ivory Coast, a leading producer of beans. She tells harrowing tales of children aged 10 to 18, bought for as little as $40 each, some of whom when finally liberated “could no longer remember where they were from.” Other examples are less dramatic, like the many thousands of non-enslaved children who work in West African cocoa fields with dangerous machetes and face prolonged chemical exposure. While the picture she presents is grim, there are some bright spots. Efforts are underway among some key players in the chocolate supply chain to better regulate the industry and monitor conditions. And the recent swelling of support for organic and fair trade chocolate is cause for encouragement. Meanwhile, some children’s rights activists have urged a “cranking down”of inflammatory “slavery” rhetoric to better achieve wider public
Nowhere is slavery legal, but traffickers get away with it nonetheless, to the tune of 27 million slaves worldwide. Many work unwillingly in the sex trade. UNICEF says that business alone comprises one million children around the world. According to World Vision, which Batstone says operates two of the most effective camps for freed slaves in northern Uganda, one fifth of men who travel to Cambodia do so for the purpose of sex. He profiles several agencies (such as International Justice Mission) that work specifically with an abolitionist bent and try to free slaves. One wouldn’t think slavery exists close to home but Batstone claims it does. In the U.S. most forced labor is in commercial sex (46 percent) and domestic service (27 percent) with smaller incidences in agriculture, sweatshops and restaurant/hotel work. 20
and industry support. The goal, says one, is to “take the hazards out of the work and not the child out of work. There are circumstances in which children should be able to have jobs — and they want to have jobs.” Both books carry an implicit message that economic development can play a pivotal role in alleviating the injustices they chronicle so passionately. The main problem with chocolate’s unsavory track record, says Off, is “poverty among the primary producers. Farmers seek, and exploit, the cheapest forms of labour possible because of economic necessity. Time and sophistication equipped all the other players in the chocolate production chain to extract a satisfactory return for their investment of work and capital — everyone except the farmers on the bottom of the pile.” Batstone, meanwhile, notes that microcredit programs are an important answer to the slavery problem, especially as it relates to the sex trade. “Abolitionists all over the world are launching microenterprises in an effort to create sustainable jobs for ex-slaves,” says Batstone. He quotes one of them as saying, “If we create new jobs and stimulate economic development, it will proportionately reduce the risks that girls must take that lead to trafficking.” — WK
Soundbites
Forbidden fruits and yum-yum trees I respect every diner who makes morally motivated choices about consumption. And I stand with nonviolence, as one of those extremist moms who doesn’t let kids at her house pretend to shoot each other, ever, or make any game out of human murder. But I’ve come to different conclusions about livestock. The ve-vangelical pamphlets showing jam-packed chickens and sick downer-cows usually declare, as their first principle, that all meat is factory farmed. That is false, and an affront to those of us who work to raise animals humanely, or who support such practices with our buying power. I don’t want to cause any creature misery, so I won’t knowingly eat anything that has stood belly deep in its
own poop wishing it was dead until bam, one day it was.... But meat, poultry, and eggs from animals raised on open pasture are the traditional winter fare of my grandparents, and they serve us well here in the months when it would cost a lot of fossil fuels to keep us in tofu. Should I overlook the suffering of victims of hurricanes, famines, and wars brought on this world by profligate fuel consumption? Bananas that cost a rain forest, refrigerator-trucked soy milk, and prewashed spinach shipped two thousand miles in plastic containers do not seem cruelty-free, in this context. A hundred different paths may lighten the world’s load of suffering. Giving up meat is one path; giving up bananas
is another. The more we know about our food system, the more we are called into complex choices. It seems facile to declare one single forbidden fruit, when humans live under so many different kinds of trees. — Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Tell it like it is From the C-suite to the mailroom, truth telling is key to productivity. If you missed your numbers or made a mistake, admit it. There’s tremendous power in being known as a person who speaks the truth. — Communications expert Dianna Booher in Training magazine
Silent witnesses Christians witness to the world every day in a thousand silent ways. The tender care of a night nurse, an attorney’s rigorous maintenance of integrity, the honesty of an auto mechanic, the truthfulness of a journalist, the patience of a convenience store clerk — all 21
of these forms of service, and many others like them, can be, in their own ways, Christian testimonies. — Thomas G. Long in Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian
Pondering purpose Businesses need to think hard about moral purpose. When they do, employees come alive and want to be part of it. — Citi executive Marv Adams in CRO magazine The Marketplace March April 2008
News
Counting the ways to make charity pay Why do businesses give? Some do so out of religious conviction but many have selfserving motivations. One is to build their brand, says Lisa Hartford, a communications executive with Torontobased Imagine Canada. “An offshoot of that is to build strong communities that support their business interest but also to build social capital in their community and support the people in their organizations. It’s building goodwill.” It also helps firms recruit and retain employees. “More and more employees want to
work for companies that have a social conscience and manifest that visibly,” Hartford says. Another benefit is an opportunity to network, says an official with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. “It’s all about meeting other people and you never know where that will take you. That is not the driving force for philanthropy, but people who tend to be entrepreneurial in nature will look at any activity as an opportunity to do more business and connect the dots.” Community involvement sends a message that the com-
pany has a heart, which pays off in customer loyalty, adds Monica Patten, president and chief executive of Community Foundations of Canada in Ottawa. “Small business already understands they are part of the social and economic fabric of their community.... It’s good for their business. And giving back is one more way they can connect.”
MEDA internships MEDA is recruiting two seven-month U.S. internships for recent college graduates. Microbusiness Development Associate — Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi The Gulf Coast Community Service Center (GCCSC) provides assistance to people recovering from Hurricane Katrina. MEDA’s role is to develop a microbusiness program using the ASSETS+ model of training, technical assistance, lending and mentoring. The intern will help develop and deliver these services to those wanting to start or grow a business. Qualifications: Degree in Business Administration, Community Economic Development, Entrepreneurship or related field; cultural flexibility; appreciation and support of MEDA’s faith, values and goals.
Human Resource Administrator — Haiti Fonkoze, with 378 employees in 15 branches, provides small business loans and savings products to meet the needs of Haiti’s poor. MEDA transferred its rural finance program to Fonkoze in 2004 and remains involved. The intern, based in Port-au-Prince, will help with job descriptions, performance management and HR policies and training, working closely with Fonkoze’s HR director and MEDA’s HR staff in Waterloo, Ont. Qualifications: Knowledge of French; college degree (studies in Human Resources preferred); HR experience an asset; appreciation and support of MEDA’s faith, values and goals. Check out the full postings at http://www.meda.org/WhoWeAre/Internships.html. Send resumes to jobs@meda.org
The Marketplace March April 2008
22
One survey of small business owners in the four western Canadian provinces found that an overwhelming majority (96 percent) reported some sort of community or charitable involvement. Eighty percent gave cash, 62 percent made in‑kind donations of products or services, and 50 percent donated time. (Financial Post)
“MEDA Europe” to test waters for expanded global outreach Plans are underway to create a new European version of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and establish an office in Germany. MEDA’s board of directors recently approved the formation of “MEDA Europe” on a two-year trial basis. Initially, the new organization will have a dual purpose: To invite European businesspeople to join and support MEDA’s mission to “create business solutions to poverty,” and to establish a regional base to access funding from large European donor agencies who prefer to work with agencies located there. “Leading Mennonite businesspeople have encouraged us to come there and build up a base among companies,” says MEDA president Allan Sauder. “At the same time, we’ve found that some large funders will not deal with North American initiatives.” In addition, a broader fund-
In time additional elements could be added to the mix, such as European versions of MEDA’s programs and publications to promote faith-business integration. “One of the uncertainties is whether European businesspeople will support a vision like MEDA’s,” says Gerhard Pries, director of investment fund
ing base could enable MEDA to work in countries that traditional funders in Canada and the U.S. aren’t interested in supporting. MEDA has begun the process to recruit a European manager to set up an office, carry out legal registration and begin to build relationships with contracting agencies and businesspeople. The office will initially be located in Germany but its scope will not be limited to that country. Sauder noted that MEDA already has members in other countries, such as The Netherlands. The target will be primarily Christian businesspeople but will also be open to others who share MEDA’s mission of creating business solutions to poverty. “If we are successful we could then pursue a full member-based organization in Europe, much like we have in Canada and the United States, but remaining under the larger MEDA umbrella,” Sauder says.
MEDA employment opportunity
Vice-president Marketing & Resource Development Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) invites applications for a Vice‑President Marketing & Resource Development. MEDA is an association of Christians in business and the professions who share their faith, abilities and resources to address human needs through economic development. MEDA brings hope, opportunity and economic well-being to low‑income people around the world, through a business‑oriented approach to development. Position summary: Reporting to the president, this position is responsible for the overall management of MEDA’s marketing and fundraising functions, including the development of a marketing strategy integrated with the product line strategies; direct fundraising, and development of new sources of financial resources including foundations, planned giving and special projects; and the increased involvement of a growing and diverse membership in all areas of MEDA’s work. The position is based in Waterloo, Ont. or possibly in Lancaster, Pa. with frequent travel throughout North America and occasional travel overseas. Start date is April 2008.
New kids book touts microcredit A movement has reached new heights of acceptance when it becomes so embedded in popular culture that people write children’s books about it. Such is the case with microcredit. Based on a true story, One Hen: How One Small Loan Made A Big Difference tells the story of Kojo, a young boy in Ghana who scratches together a few coins from his mother’s loan to buy a hen
development. “The culture of donations that we enjoy in North America is not as prevalent in Europe.” Discussions with various European members have been encouraging, says Pries. “We believe we ought to capture the positive and growing energy within MEDA to expand into new markets at this time.”
so they will have eggs to eat. Soon there are extra eggs to sell. Kojo uses his profit to buy more hens to pay for his school fees. After finishing school he gets a small loan to expand his flock and eventually develops a poultry farm that grows into the largest in the country.
Qualifications: • Senior management experience in business and marketing • A flair for creative marketing solutions and a track record in strategic marketing • Advanced degree in business and marketing • Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written • An active member of an Anabaptist church and business community • Appreciation and support of MEDA’s faith, values and goals
One Hen: How One Small Loan Made A Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway (Kids Can Press, 2008, $18.95 U.S., $19.95 Cdn.)
Please send your resume to jobs@meda.org For specific questions contact Kim Pityn, Director, Human Resources at 519‑725‑1853 ext 19
23
The Marketplace March April 2008
Pew? The Marketplace March April 2008
24
