I have come across an excellent article in the September 2009 Harvard Business Review, by Yale School of Forestry and Environmental studies, Professor James Gustave Speth, entitled ' Doing Business in a Post growth Society' (http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/09/doing-business-in-a-postgrowth-society/ar/1).
"It challenges the popular notion that economic growth is never ending, and that good business requires this growth to always be taking place.
Just as unlimited population expansion is untenable, so is unlimited GDP growth. Yet the open-ended commitment to economic growth persists, and it is now creating more problems than it is solving. It undermines jobs, communities, the environment, a sense of place and continuity, and even mental health. It fuels a ruthless international search for energy and other resources, and it rests on a consumerism that is manufactured by marketers and failing to meet the deepest human needs."
How many more laptops, cellphones and new cars can our planet sustain? How many more dot com fantasies, telco start-ups and low cost airlines can our planet sustain? How many more global rugby tours by beer swilling paunchy managers? How many contrived BEE deals leading to uber conspicuous consumption and zero social good?
I don't have the answers, but at least we are starting to ask the right kind of questions, and questioning the narrative of ever sustainable growth at the expense of everything we hold to be important.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Why Prof Jansen is correct in forgiving the Reitz Four
South Africa continues to look for lightning rods for its national collective zeitgeist, laden with its unhappiness, anger and the stresses of change, so that it can be unleashed like a three pm Johannesburg summer thunderstorm bolt of lightning. So it really shouldn't surprise anyone that Prof Jansen, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State, has confronted the acceptable narrative of punishment and retribution by offering forgiveness to the Reitz Four, and is now paying the personal and political price for his actions.
That the making of the Reitz hostel video was despicable is not even up for debate. That it symbolized the worst of our country's chauvinist white male culture, prolific in institutions across the language and class spectrum (from waspy boarding schools to working class army barracks) is not up for debate. That it is symbolic of the transformation challenges in South African higher education, is a given.
That it goes against our state sanctioned national meta-narrative is not up for debate either, unfortunately. And it is this fact which has caused the backlash and outcry which has exploded in Prof Jansen's lap. Forgiveness has never been popular, particularly when it is costly and requires us to review our own agendas, and perhaps to change our own hearts.
Prof Jansen has challenged the national meta-narrative, that unconcious story running in our collective head, which tells us that it is more than fair to punish transgressors of the race equation. This state sanctioned mythology is close to a Caesarean myth, and Prof Jansen has dared challenge it. I don't profess to know the man, but the comments I've read indicate a deep sense of self awareness, and a self-professed brokenness with the resultant response of 'communing with the Divine'. Sounds like he has wrestled with his own demons before...
Good for you. Prof Jansen! Putting things to rights requires sacrifice, especially when you counter Caesar's narratives. Forgiveness is costly. I stand by you.
That the making of the Reitz hostel video was despicable is not even up for debate. That it symbolized the worst of our country's chauvinist white male culture, prolific in institutions across the language and class spectrum (from waspy boarding schools to working class army barracks) is not up for debate. That it is symbolic of the transformation challenges in South African higher education, is a given.
That it goes against our state sanctioned national meta-narrative is not up for debate either, unfortunately. And it is this fact which has caused the backlash and outcry which has exploded in Prof Jansen's lap. Forgiveness has never been popular, particularly when it is costly and requires us to review our own agendas, and perhaps to change our own hearts.
Prof Jansen has challenged the national meta-narrative, that unconcious story running in our collective head, which tells us that it is more than fair to punish transgressors of the race equation. This state sanctioned mythology is close to a Caesarean myth, and Prof Jansen has dared challenge it. I don't profess to know the man, but the comments I've read indicate a deep sense of self awareness, and a self-professed brokenness with the resultant response of 'communing with the Divine'. Sounds like he has wrestled with his own demons before...
Good for you. Prof Jansen! Putting things to rights requires sacrifice, especially when you counter Caesar's narratives. Forgiveness is costly. I stand by you.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Let's get this right, once and for all
So I need to get this online presence thing working properly. Here's to creating digital footprints all over the web - what a fine day for Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and a new blog posting.
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