Replying to LO27574 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl> writes:
>Dear Fred,
>
>Thank you for sharing your insightful analysis of the
>differences between military and civilian communities.
>It gives us some clear examples.
Greetings dear Leo,
I have thought what Fred and you have said carefully over.
We have to take care not to restrict each of us within the borders of our
country and the law for that country. We also have to bear the whole world
in mind.
Leo, you write upon Fred's call that a business organisation ought to have
a Constitution in addition to its legal Charter:
>I hope you once will be the Secretary of State :-)
It is not so much specific countries which worry me, but the so-called
Global Village. Who is going to legislate that a Multinational Corporation
(MC) ought to have a Consitution? Even Fred's brilliant suggestion will not
work here.
Are these MC such nice organisations as they pretend themselves to be? Let
me offer you one example coming from the world of banking.
Use Google's advance search engine
< http://www.google.com/advanced_search >
Type in the top window the words:
poverty ignorance
and in the second window the phrase
international bank
You will get hundreds of hits, many of them telling how much
such and such an international bank is so aware of its social
responsibility. It sounds like heaven stuff.
I live in Africa. Poverty and ignorance are rampant in most African
countries. Several MC banks lend money to African countries so that they
can undo poverty and ignorance. Some of these MC banks are quite open in
telling how much they do for what country.
But what they are quiet about, is that they lend money at an interest rate
many times the national growth rate for that country. They also require
payback in the currency of their choice, never telling how much more they
will have to pay back as a result of devaluation of their currency. If you
are clever enough with Google, you may discover yourself the relevant
information for some countries which they mention.
What happens when money is lended to a country at an interest rate at least
5 times (or even double that value as a result of inflation) more than its
growth rate so as to "combat poverty"? That country is sucked deeper into
poverty while it tries to escape that very poverty. This is in direct
contrast to the sixth priciple of the 10Ps (Ten Principles of the
Enochites) -- take care of the belongings of fellow humans.
I want to tell you fellow learners of many other similar examples involving
MCs who took over local firms in South Africa after the uplifting of
sanctions. But what these MCs did to get bigger profits for their share
holders while putting hundreds of thousands of South Africans out of their
jobs will be too horrible for this LO-dialogue. The one example for the
world of banking ought to convince us that we have to wake up to wicked
practices disguised in "bleeding heart" window dressing.
The plundering of poor countries in the name of global commerce has taken
epidemic proportions by amounting to trillions of dollars. Do the
constitutions of your advance countries forbid it? Do your democratic
elected governments avoid it?
>And if so, please remind At's contribution
>on this issue - try to formulate the rules, laws,
>and regulations in a positive way.
I am sorry that I had been so negative about what is happening here in
Africa, but we cannot call a spade by any other name as a spade. Once we
know what is destructive, we can begin to plan constructively. Perhaps
there are some fellow learners who want to make positive suggestions here.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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