'Strengthening the motivation of care to address the root causes of poverty’ was the basis for discussion at the first Dialogue on Globalization dinner, organized by Caux Initiatives for Business in the House of Commons (UK)

‘Strengthening the motivation of care to address the root causes of poverty’ was the basis for discussion at the first Dialogue on Globalization dinner, organized by Caux Initiatives for Business and hosted by Tony Colman MP in the Astor Suite of Portcullis House, the House of Commons, 17th April.

Introducing the discussion, Chris Evans, CIB coordinator in the UK, invited the 15 participants to say what they each thought were the ‘hinge’ or key issues around which a more just globalization might be achieved. This might point the way to further focussed discussions on hinge issues at future occasions.

The range of participants included:

Five participants planned to take part in the UN’s Earth Summit, Johannesburg, in August, with its primary focus on reducing poverty in the poorest countries.

Among hinge issues expressed by one or more of the participants were:

1. Develop economic activity and markets in the world’s poorest regions; and develop the appropriate regulatory and governance structures so that resources are not squandered or stolen;

2. Encourage Western companies, from manufacturing and tourism to health and banking, to grow their businesses in one, two or three of the 49 poorest nations, to develop local economic activity; this to be done in consultation with NGOs to generate trust in the process; to create test cases (eg Barbie Doll toys not just made in China but also in sub-Saharan Africa). This would require commitments to capital investment.

3. The need for multinationals to be as much concerned about labour standards and the environment as they are about TRIPS and TRIMS; and recognition that organized labour plays a major role in the fairer distribution of wealth;

4. Greater stability in international financial markets, including tax on international currency transactions;

5. The war against corruption. Corruption squanders aid and allows non-democratic countries to take aid agencies and businesses for a ride. Commitment to rules on paper alone is not enough: even Enron had declared itself committed to transparency. Environmental destruction is caused by corruption, such as illegal rain-forest logging by big companies. Arms industry surrounded in a huge cloak of secrecy. UK arms exporters among the most secretive in the world. (TI publishes its first major report on corruption and the arms trade, April 25th)

6. Several speakers highlighted the need for small scale success stories, which can be replicated. These based on the foundations of:

The Earth Summit will include a web-based ‘virtual exhibition’ to highlight good practice stories and link the two worlds of the elite among conference participants and the poor whom they aim to service, who otherwise might remain disconnected.

7. The role of education in promoting ‘social activism and social empowerment’ to overcome a sense of powerlessness. This to include education within and about Islam.

8. The need to exercise ‘moral muscle’ and generate ‘moral fury’ about the condition of the poor. ‘Exercising brains, hearts and hands’; recognition of the role of human nature in purchasing decisions, including American and western consumer products and life-styles. Globalization is not just driven by American corporate interests but also reflects consumer demands, and attraction to the model of Western liberal democracy. ‘Why do so many young people in the world want to go to the USA?’ ‘Personalized responsibility is very difficult but enormously important’. But there was also a danger of a ‘moral imperialism’ based on the Western model. Several speakers highlighted the role of the ‘spiritual dynamic’ in personal motivation: ‘spiritual element in sustainable development’; ‘your soul, your essence, your moral compass’; ‘spiritual enrichment at the workplace’.

Finally, there was recognition that not everyone around the table agreed on definitions of globalization: whether it was based on Western corporate interests, consumer demands, trade, the primacy of capitalism and big business since the end of the Cold War; or the development of the ‘weightless’ economy based on the movement of capital and knowledge around the world; or whether globalization represented a new paradigm in world affairs, a new renaissance through communications, interdependence and the spirit of humankind.

Menso Fermin, the European director of Caux Initiatives for Business, outlined future CIB conferences, in Caux, Switzerland, 20th to 24th July, and in India in January 2003, and invited the dinner participants to attend these conferences.

submitted by Michael Smith, Joint Coordinator, UK, Caux Initiatives for Business, 18 April 2002