CSR or a Whitewash?

CSR is seriously not providing scholarship for standing first at various exams or running a health camp with the help of agencies.
It seems that Nepalese CSR activities mostly revolve around these kind of trivial issues in the name of corporate social responsibility.
CSR is often associated with enlightened self interest- how organizations plan and manage their relationship with key stakeholders. CSR therefor is the responsibility an organization defines for its society and stakeholders.

Janak Lives Among These Needy Children.

Mom informed me that Janak's parents have come from Germany. Which suddenly revived the pain that I went through when I was informed about Janak's death last year. 21 year old Janak, only son of his parents  had died in a car accident.

Janak was only 12 years old when I saw him for the first time in Germany. There was a party in his house and I had gone there to attend with my uncles. Angle looking Janak became so fond of me, when he knew that I worked for a T.V channel. He was with me throughout the party, asking me about my life and job in Nepal. I still remember him talking about second World war and how the Germans escaped bombings, hiding in the Keller. His talks were too smart for a child his age.And yes, he traveled with me  throughout Germany, guiding me as my tour guide.

The news of his death really shocked me. I only remembered his innocent face and cried for hours.

When I saw his parents this Saturday, I could not stop my tears. Two of his photos were there in the living room and he was smiling in both of them. It seemed to me that he was saying, see I am happy here, why are you crying for me? His mother couldn't stop herself , when she saw my mom. His father  seemed strong though.

They were in Nepal for his first death anniversary, his father informed. They had established a fund of 1million rupees and planned to provide scholarships to deprived students from the village where Janak was born. For this year , they have selected 49 students and were providing them education materials and paying their annual fees.

This is indeed a very good idea to immortalize Janak. I remembered him saying that he wanted to contribute for the education of children when he came to see me in 2009. And his parents were materializing his dreams.

Hindus in Nepal spend a lot of money in death anniversaries of their beloveds and in other religious functions . They give huge amount of money in donation to the priest believing that their beloveds would get that in their next life. Janak's parents decision to support these deprived children is an effort, that is new to Nepalese culture and should be copied.

The concept of Charity is not so strong in Nepal. It exists, but in the form of religious ceremonies. People donate millions of rupees in the name of religion and God, but none for the humaniterian cause. When I see street children in the streets of Kathmandu and other cities and the poor people in the far west,  I feel , aren't people wasting their money for nothing when they donate money for religious ceremonies and God? If the amount to be spent on such occasions are put into proper channel and for the welfare of poor Nepalese, It can really help millions of poor people in the country.

Current statistics say that only 25 % of people are below the line of poverty in Nepal. And if the remaining 75% of them spend their money wisely , when they feel like charitable, we certainly can help these people see better future. Janak's parents this year gave better  future to 49 children and if each of us followed suit, being ready to spend a small amount of income for such noble cause, I believe there won't be anyone below the  line within next 10 years.

Being Ethical, too theoretical..

I did not do much external relations while working for UNHCR. Though I was working as External Relation assistant to its operation for Bhutanese Refugees, much of my work revolved around dealing with the local press and running information campaigns targeting the refugees.

My decision to change my job was so sudden, I was offered a job on second and decided to leave UN on the fifth. Quick decision, isn't it? Well, the thought of my separated family and a desire to work for the corporate world was more than enough to give me a decisive push. Well, yes, one of my major was corporate PR while studying at the University of Westminster and I still remember Pam Williams' glittering words when she spelled 'Corporate' to get us interested into the subject.

Real external relations started once I joined the corporate. One of the responsibility was to deal with the embassies of their concern. And I remember my first day in which one of the assistant  of the consular said that, our officials have changed the details in the visa issued by them. That was just a start, they kept on complaining over so many things, about details in original documents to the addresses written on the forms. I could not stop my laughter when the consular asked, so you are from Katunje Village, what is the name of your V.D.C? Poor diplomat even did not know that VDC and Village are the same . He then started asking questions like, how much does your certain product cost? How much does that cost in his country? That gave me a hint, yes things that make them work, is the gift pack that they used to get from my predecessor. As they have discontinued the provision, it was hard for me to get my things done.

I was compelled to think, is bribery a best tool for  external relations?Yes, ethical dilemma!, but when you do not have any options and you want your work done, forget the ethics..


Contradicts my old post though, I was too theoretical then..


 

Paras Shah, Don Kings and Monarchy

Paras Shah, the ex-crown prince of Nepal is in deathbed. He has been struggling for life in a hospital in Thailand from the last one week. With the news about his health, there was a hype of reactions regarding him in social networks and media. People wished him speedy recovery and felt sorry for his state.

When Monarchy was abolished some years ago, Nepalese remained quite. Yes, a small group of people loyal to the king protested against it but that had no effect. "Spiral of Silence" works well with Nepalese, though Nepalese really did not want to abolish monarchy from the country, they remained silent and let the leaders of political parties do whatever they wanted.

Now after 4 years , scenes have changed. If we try to find out "public opinion" regarding monarchy, people have started saying that its better to have monarchy as a political system. Monarchy had united all the Nepalese and there was a equilibrium in the society. People of different caste, religion , social background, all considered themselves Nepalese rather than trying to get a separate identity for their sect.

Yes, Paras Shah has a dubious past but so has most of the politicians. Current Home minister, Son of Comrade Prachanda, and many ministers in the current cabinet all have tainted images. It makes me wonder, haven't we  abolished monarchy to be ruled by several other 'Don' Kings?

Corruption is on a rise, there is no rule of law, politicians have even 'bribed'  judiciary and included them in their game of power politics, people are threatened and troubled and the press turns a blind eye. Yes, situation can be worst than this only in countries, which are involved in civil war or are involved in genocide. But aren't we heading towards the same? 

These politicians with their policy to remain in power are disturbing the harmonious relationship among people from different ethnicity, tribe or communities. If continued to be encouraged, we can not say that there wont be genocide in Nepal soon.

Ours is a small country and we don't need to experiment with several types of government to attain prosperity. Provided that , there is peace, law and order and people are let to earn their living, Nepal will be prosperous soon. I do not say that we should reestablish monarchy  but strongly believe that we could have done much better if there were kings, who prioritized national interest more than any other interest and stood as a symbol for national unity,speeding up development works needed for the country.

May be the spiral of Silence will be broken soon, people will burst their anger and sweep away all the filth from the country.

Baidhya Ba's bombing Hoax.

Some days ago all major newspapers had a news on Mohan Baidhya led Maoist party. They had planted bombs at several places of the country to protest against current political agreement among 4 parties. The news made me wonder, Is that the right way to protest? Threatening innocent people of their life?Is Baidhya trying to get his dream fulfilled killing innocent people and threatening others with those killings?

Poor Nepalese people, their level of awareness is so low. The media , instead of being a watchdog for the people, serves as a loyal dog to the politicians and those with vested interest. No wonder, people can be fooled easily, threatened and used to fulfill the interest of these politicians.

Media should have covered the news in a different angle. Instead of glorifying Baidha's action of placing bombs at several places, they should have made people aware that these politicians play with general public lives to achieve their political aims. Media could have united all the people against this and threatened all political leaders that people are not the pawns in their hands.

 Really feel pity for my people and media, who keeps on watching this instead of condemning these kind of actions.

Social marketing!

Never ever thought that there is something like 'selling the ideas attitude and behaviour'. Social marketing the brainchild of Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman talks about using marketing principals that were used to sell products to consumers to sell ideas , attitudes and behaviours.According to Kotler and Andreasen, 'social marketing seeks to influence social behaviour not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society.'
When I read these lines, it reminded the father of our profession, Edward Bernays.He said,

' The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the ruling power of our country.'

Berney used his idea for his clients in commerce and in politics, and he though his manipulation was for positive reasons ' Berney believed ,' The 'good' is not defined but the implication is that which serves order in society is 'good'.'
Social marketing seemed the newer version of Berneys model to me. Berneys was more focused on making his clients happy using 'white propaganda ' . He had cautioned the manipulative part of propaganda and have talked about ' orderly life'. So isn't social marketing some how similar to Berneys version of propaganda, trying to sell ideas, attitude and behaviours for an orderly life.Is n't it positive manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses to serve them.
Berney lacked his focus on the welfare of the public, though he had talked about the orderly life. He was more focussed on 'creating consent , sometimes for benign purposes'(Rethinking Public Relations, Moloney Kevin 2006), that makes him different from Social marketeers, who try to sell ideas and manipulate people's views for positive outcomes in the society, for example smoking cessation programs, health awareness programs.

Crisis management? Do people in developing countries benifit from the concept?

I was working as a secondary level teacher , when a child aged 11 committed suicide in Om Secondary School, in Nepal. Winter holidays had started and the boy was all alone and depressed as his parents had not come to take him home even after he spent a whole week in school.

The incident put the school in big crisis, there were questions on security in the school, some blamed the school of beating the boy to death, some created a story that as the boy saw some illicit relationship going on between a teacher and a student , the boy was killed.All these rumours were capitalized by local and national media, and everybody was talking about the incident.The hard earned reputation of the school in the time frame of 16 years had all been shattered into pieces.

How the school dealt with the situation? Did it send a press release to media, like they do in these countries at the beginning of a crisis? NO, they did not. Did they apologize with the sufferers, i.e the child's parents and relatives? No, instead, they were furious at the parents for not taking the child home on time, which depressed him and eventually leading him to a decision of committing suicide.This worsen the situation, the parents filed a case against the school telling that their son was murdered. The police took all blamed people into custody for interrogation. That was one of the detailed and highly interrogated case in Nepal. Samples were sent to forensic lab, all the children, teachers,and whoever were related to the case were interrogated.Finally the school got a clean chit.

Did the school , after this organized a press conference? No, not again, all those investigative process had shattered them. They had become emotionally weak and though media continued writing against them, they remained quite. And although they had not done any thing wrong this crisis cost them their hard earned reputation.

Crisis management thus is a handy tool for developed countries, but as people still do not know about it in countries like Nepal. So their reputation is at stake, when they suffer from crisis.As Nepal represents the developing country, we can assume that situation in all other developing countries would be the same.

Global PR, is it for making money?

Global PR is a fantasy dreamed up by International PR agencies to generate money! Is it true? though the debate ended up with a 'draw', I still believe that Global PR is not only for making money. We all know that each and every activity of a human being is directed towards earning money, because money buys all those basic needs. So in a sense that International PR agencies want to generate money using Global Pr is true. But as the world is varied and with different people, different cultures, different languages,if International PR agencies only think about making money, it will always remain a fantasy. Some of my collegues said that , whatever interest big international companies are showing in the developing world or less developed world is for generating money.but when 'organizations move into the global economy, practitioners will need to adjust to see, listen, and speak to international publics. An internationalization of Public relation is both an opportunity and a challenge for professionals.'. (Heath.L. Robert Handbook of Public relations, 2002)
Though money making is an opportunity, there are many challanges, for example, 'socio culture' is the basic one. Sriramesh and White (1992) suggested that 'international Public relations will have to reflect the cultural and societal norms of the host nation.'
And if the organization tries to acclamatize itself with the host nation , only with a motive of generating money, without its concern for the socio cultural value of the society, its effort will not generate profits.
For example, MCdonalds India had to face controversy when a US attorneyclaimed that the restaurant chain has lied to customers for more than a decade by using beef fat in its french fries. Cow is revered in India and eating beef is strictly prohibitated among huge number of public. McDonalds India had to come up with a serious crisis plan to solve the issue.http://www.jphpk.gov.my/Malay/formaduan/English/May2001%207A.htm
So Global PR though is a concept to expand business and make money in this global village, there are many hurdles that PR companies have to consider , before they start making money.

Does the arrival of Neo media replace the traditional tools used in Public relations?

Neo media is a recent phenomenon, it came into existence after 1980's but it revolutionized the world within a time span of 30 years. According to Edward j.Lordan , cyberspin chapter 52, Handbook of public relations, the knowledge base that had accumulated by the year 1600 doubled by 1950 and then doubled again by 1980. It now doubles every 7 years and might be doubling every 35 days by the year 2010. If the situation is like this, can PR personnel still depend upon traditional tools for the practice of their profession?
People may say, the primary objective of using neo media or traditional tools both are same.
Edward J. Lordan says 'regardless of the complexity and haphazard evolution of new technologies, they still are used primarily to gather , package, and disseminate information.But does the gathering, packaging and dissemination of information is as easier as it is if we are not using neo media?
The answer to both of the questions raised above is 'NO'. With the advent of Information Technology, timely information is necessary, and as information is updated every second, lack of knowledge about the update can be disastrous for a PR personnel.As PR highly depends upon information gathering, lack of neo media can affect the profession.
Similarly, though the primary use of neo media and traditional tools are same, that is gathering , packaging and disiiminating information but the arrival of neo media has made all these process faster, reliable and trendy. Neo media offers Pr practitioner an opportunity to maintain data about its clients, media, competitors, and industries and help them to analyze the trend which is almost impossible using traditional methods of storing and sorting information.( Edward J. Lordan)
In the same way , desktop publishing has a number of advantage over traditional methods of printing. The use of Internet,CD-Roms, easier graphic designing softwares, editing softwares has made the information packaging process much simpler than the traditional methods of doing it.
And as far as information dissimination is concerned neo media helps PR in so many ways. Like in traditional methods , people do not have to rely upon other media to get their message across. With their webpage ready, they can directly talk to the people who they want to target.Information dissiminatinon is just a mouse click far.
So we can conclude that the arrival of Neo media will certainly replace traditional tools.

CSR, is it a responsibility or a corporate whitewash?

Adam Garfunkel in our class on Corporate social responsibility expressed that CSR is a voluntary action of business , to achieve positive social outcomes whilst benefiting its business objectives. A few days ago , I did a presentation in my corporate communication class and tried to express my opinion that though most of the business have CSR programs to achieve positive social outcomes, some corporates do it for a white wash of their activities. I had taken an example of Philip Morris USA a n Altira company, which produces world class cigarettes and is one of the largest cigarette producer in the world. According to WHO, 5.4 million people die annually because of tobacco.
This made me wonder, Philip Morris on the one hand is encouraging people to buy its products which is fatally harmful to them and on the other hand it has developed CSR programs to achieve positive social outcomes.Doesn't it contradict each other? Activists groups like 'Campaign for Tobacco free kids in USA' against Philip Morris blame that, most of its CSR activities focuses on young children, which is its tactics to attract young people so that it can keep on making profits. They have backed up their opinion with a researched data that 60% of young smokers smoke 'Marlboro' a Philip Morris Brand.
So isn't CSR an easier way for some corporates to make money? They look like a Messiah on one hand when they are contributing for philanthropic cause but deep inside they have their wicked intention of making money out of peoples sentiments.