Kid's Play - Enterprise

There is this trusting little girl who never locked her school locker. Nothing had been lost, until one day when she left some sweets in it. The sweets disappeared, but some money was left there, presumably, by the taker.

Curious, she again left sweets in the locker, and then again found some money left there the next day, apparently in exchange for the sweets. 

Amazed, she repeated the process, but this time , leaving more sweets there, and voila, she found more money left in her locker.

She then thought this could become a business and bought more sweets to leave them in her locker, and true enough,  money flowed in and a business quickly flourished. Her locker soon became the popular de-facto candy store.

Then came a new student from a financially poor family who needed money. Realising that, she transferred her business to the new student and even bought the new stock.

And so, a social enterprise and micro-economy is born.

For more posts on Kid's Play, click here.

Kid's Play 18 - The Entrepreneur

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This is kid's play in another perspective.

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Bring out the kid in you.

Find a need in society and fill it.

Do it better. Enterprises serve society in creative ways more efficient that many government programmes.

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For more of Kid's Play, click here

For more of Social Enterprises, click here

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If you are reading this from facebook, click here

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Bucky Group 37 - Journalism

14th February 2009

I rushed down to the Bucky session though I wasn't feeling too well with the cough and the flu. Nevertheless, I made it on time.

At the usual opening of "What I have to say...", one of us brought up this book called "One Hen", which is a children's book about social enterprise and hard work. This is very much like what I am helping my friend with, but in his case, it is by rearing cows.

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This morning, we had the privilege to have Henrik, a correspondent based in Singapore, from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, to share with us his experience as a journalist, via a talk called, "The Meeting between East and West, from Presidents to Pedestrians".

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[The following is spoken in first person for the purpose of readability. It is not a record of his speech ad-verbatim. This is all written from memory with my flu and thundering cough. Not very good journalistic practice!]

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Hello, my name is Henrik. In English, you call it "Henry". I grow up in Denmark. My venture into other countries started when a friend of mine run a business that exploited the cheap prices of cars for export in Denmark and were therefore attractive for other Europeans to buy.  I helped my friend in the business in the business to deliver (drive) the cars to his customers.

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My usual experience of Germany is one with many autobahns without speed limits. So that was my experience delivering those cars much of the time. Then one day, I took a wrong turn and went into Bayern (Bavaria) and realised that it is very beautiful. That experience made me realize that I should never be afraid of leaving the "right and safe path".

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From that experience, I decided to visit Eastern European to learn more about those countries. However, after some time, I realised that other than having been communists before, they aren't that different. Basically, they are still much like us.

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It was only when I went to India that I discovered that there it was really different. (Still grinning and shaking head in awe and ridicule. ) There, many things that are normal in Europe are not normal there, like the chaotic order of people, traffic,...etc.

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Denmark is a peaceful place with not many changes over long periods of time. There is not much you can report that is new in the place. You can almost get a newspaper from ten years ago and read it as if it is today's news. So I thought, it will be more interesting if I become a foreign correspondent.

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Then, I decided to learn more about Algeria and the French language. I thought that will give myself some edge and specialisation as  a journalist. When I was living there, it was the first time in my life that I was living alone without any friends or family around. I couldn't just call up a friend to go for a meal or a movie - simple things that I could do commonly in Danmark. That was a new experience to me.

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Then I got a job with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, which I have been with now for a long time. The Danish Broadcasting Corporation is like your BBC, but only we are not quite that big. 

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Then, I got divorced. At this time, then I am free from being tied down to a place. I became myself again. 

[Me: Yes, normally one reverts to oneself, when divorced. *laughters*] 

[Someone else: He made a wrong turn!!! *laughters*]  

So, I decided to do some traveling. 

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I then visited Singapore and was happy that it is a nice modern city and that English is spoken here. So I was thinking that since the Danish Broadcasting Corporation has no correspondent here in Singapore, it'll be a good chance for me to report on the regional news through the eyes and viewpoint of a Dane, not just listening to the American's.

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It is also here that I met a beautiful lady, whom I started dating. I like her very much and later asked her to marry me, which she agreed and becomes my wife. 

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My wife is from Dalian and she loves the order and cleanliness of Singapore and refused to be based anywhere else in South East Asia other than Singapore. The chaos in Jakarta and Bangkok just wouldn't be acceptable for her. I didn't mind. I just needed a city with a good big airport and good Internet connections. The fact that English is spoken here and that it is safe here also helped.

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When I first came here, I came with the usual Western package of democratic ideal. This is not so much anymore, as I realised that political and cultural situations are very different in the region. This happens a lot with Western diplomats that come with their ideals to impose on Asia. 

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Me: You can bring the free sex. *in jest*

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Yes free-sex we can. *laughters* 

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[My note: I was being sarcastic about some items in the Western package that seems to have seeped into the Eastern spheres of life.]

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Questions:

What is "freedom of expression"?

The freedom to express what you want. There are still defamation laws governing what you can say, so there is this balance. Respect is still needed. I don't subscribe that if you give such freedom to everyone, then everyone is going to be rabid. Most people are sensible and can separate fact from fiction. In Singapore, nobody is going to believe you if you tell them your own stories.

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Flip: In Singapore the freedom is included in the laws.

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Me: Yes, but it is much subjected to the Minister's abitrary discretion.

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Me: In Singapore, it is not the problem of freedom of expression, but the freedom after expression! *laughters*

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Is there a guideline for freedom of expression?

Me: In Singapore - Yes! That answers your question.

Elaine: No, I want to hear from him, the real world.

Flip: If there are, then it won't be considered free.

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Were you given a set of guidelines?

No. When I first came, it was very hard. I thought I could call up people and get some information, but people here are very unwilling to talk. When the Election came in 2006, I thought it will be an excellent chance to hear what people would say, but  nobody wanted to talk. Even the Opposition party didn't want to talk. So, I started a 'vox-populi' (voice of the people) thing to stop people in the street to ask them, but nobody talked.

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Joo Hock: In Singapore, you can go to the coffeeshop and listen. They discuss about politics there. 

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Me: But you need to know dialects and Mandarin.

Then slowly I build my network. It took me some time. For every story, I need to have two independent sources to confirm the facts. If you write with only one source, you are asking for trouble.

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Now, I have built enough trust through my network to get officials to grant interviews. After some time, they realise that I am not causing trouble and just want to report.

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Do you think  a reporter should inform or influence?

Depends. If it is a regime like Pol Pot, then he needs to influence. Otherwise, he just reports. In most situations, he just needs to report.

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Me: How about Reporteurs Sans Frontier? They actually create news and reported it themselves. For instance by displaying the "Free Tibet" banner when the Chinese Minister was speaking during a press meeting. They should be just reporting on what is happening, not participate and report.

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[By the way, there are good parts of Reporteurs Sans Frontier in that they help journalists to get out of being imprisoned by some dictatorial regimes.]

How about the responsibility of a reporter to use discretion in certain sensitive situations?

For instance, in a case where a Chinese man beats up a Malay man in a pub in Singapore.

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I would recognise the sensitivity and report as a fight between two (say) drunk men over (say) ten dollars or something trivial and at the end discreetly mention that one is Malay and one is Chinese.

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Do you use the Internet?

Yes, I do, but with caution. One do not based one's reporting on information from the Internet. I don't believe in information coming purely from the Internet.

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However, the Internet has a major influence on regimes, like Malaysia.

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Me: In Singapore too. Truth hidden by mainstream papers are revealed by blogs. There are some good political bloggers in Singapore, eg. The Yawning Bread. 

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Yes, and if you notice, the good ones practises the same principles in good journalism, like checking and confirming their information from multiple sources.

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Someone: During the recent Mumbai Bombings, many mainstream reporters from major agencies were using information typed in from Twitter. Do you use that?

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I don't use information purely from the Internet. If I am put in a situation that I must, then I'll need four independent sources to verify its accuracy.

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Me: There is a de-facto ranking in the Internet. 'Bad' blogs have their rights to exist, but almost nobody reads them.

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Comment from the floor: Yes, we are discussing about politics. So what, there is nothing wrong discussing about politics. There shouldn't be a fear to discuss about politics.

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[At this point, I could see some surprise in Henrik's face over this vocalism. It is perhaps a situation that he has yet to experience among unexpressive Singaporeans.]

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Joo Hock: By the way, this is how we are here. We are quite open.

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Joo Hwa: Don't worry, we are not underground ok? We are just in the basement. *laughters*

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Some people ask me if a journalist move from broadsheet to tabloid papers, does it mean that he has become a lower quality journalist. Usually, that is not the case, as the facts reported are usually correct and having gone through the usual checks. However, his report is now sensationalised.  This is the low end of journalism, sadly.

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Me (not Henrik): About politics in the East vs in the West

I find there are problems in both East and West regarding democracy. Except that they are different types of problem. In Singapore, I have written to the Prime Minister twice to make some suggestions, which were adopted and implemented very quickly. Now I won't be able to get this done in Europe. In Europe, I can't even get to write to the Prime Minister, let alone effect changes. So where is it more democratic? 

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The difference between East and West, is that in the latter,  there is more checks and balances, to ensure that power is not abused. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely - this saying is tested true in the many countries I live in. After some time, the person who has the absolute power given to him, thinks that it is his right to have that power.

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From my experience and in my opinion, I find the quality of politicians in Singapore is higher than that those in Europe. Europe is in  a grid lock of too much checks and balances and yet corruption persists. *sigh*

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Social Enterprise 3a - Appropriate Technologies

I have found more Youtube videos on implementing appropriate technologies in developing countries and empowering the poor...
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Appropriate Technologies.

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Appropriate Technologies Gaining Ground in Developing Countries

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Renewable Energy Opportunities for Women

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Myths about the Global Poor

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Finally,... Is it 'Simple'?

Social Enterprise 3 - Simplicity

Problem: Lack of clean water for a remote village without electricity or affordable energy source. River water is some distance away and has to be laboriously carried manually in buckets.

My immediate idea to a solution is to install pumps and pipes to bring water from the river, through a water treatment unit, to the villagers for consumption. I think most engineers would think of doing just that. However, it is a solution the village cannot afford. They do not even have the resources to buy diesel to operate the pump.

I am therefore very impressed with what an organisation called PlayPump International does. See the video below...

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What's more the solution is fun, self-sustainable and serves the villagers' needs.

Social Enterprise 2a

In the 1960s and 70s, Singapore was a poor country and there were many who hawked their food by the streets. It was untidy and posed a threat to public hygiene and environmental pollution. The government recognised that and built "hawker centres" with clean tiled cubicles, water supplies and sanitation to house these food stalls. Rents was nominal, food was cheap and delicious. Gangster extortions from the hawkers were also wiped out by the late 70s.

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Then in the 1980s, it became difficult to get a stall in the hawker centres and aspiring hawkers had to rent their stalls from coffee shops, which charges a higher rent based on market forces. Demand for these stall space was good and that created a bid for coffeeshop space. The bids went higher and higher. Sometimes to absurd levels and it was obvious that they were economically not viable. But still the high daring bids went up and up, which lead many to suspect that money from the black economy was involved. Food was afterall a cash business. Sorry we don't accept credit cards or cheques! :)

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Around that time, a Singaporean company called Food Junction, started the concept of foodcourt, which is an air-conditioned clean environment which employs cooks and attendants rather than renting them out stall cubicles to independent hawkers. So for the first time, for a higher but moderate price for your plate of food, you can enjoy it in air-con clean comfort. Quite a good deal, but the food is usually lousy compared to those sold in original hawker centres. With economies in scale, food items like chilly paste, fish balls, and sauces are no longer 'home made', but factory produced.

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Fast forward to the 2000s, rents for foodcourts have become so high that they have to cut down on the operating costs by hiring cheap labour from China as stall attendants and cooks. Prices have also risen to meet the higher rents, but quality of food has dropped further. Some traditional and lower priced categories of food like goreng pisang, pudu mayam and peanut pan cakes have gradually disappeared, as they are not profitable enough. Stall attendants being from China do not speak English and Malays and Indians have to use sign language to order their food. In other words, the eating out culture and experience in Singapore has changed, with some food dishes gradually going extinct and the necessity to speak Chinese.

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Market economy has its limits and perfect market does not exists, because perfect knowledge does not exist, fair access to information is impossible and not everyone has the same amount of capital to start a business. It is quite hard to bid against the big boys when you don't have much money.

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Market forces does not take care of public infrastructures and the needy. Also some institutions cannot be based on market forces. For instances, would we want to allow foreigners to stand as candidates in our Parliamentary General Elections? If they are from China, probably they can be cheaper too! We can save some million dollar salaries! :) Or do we want a private army or private police force? Some things just couldn't be privatised.

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What we need is a going back to building more government hawker centres, where rents are cheap, food prices are low with delicious food cooked by independent local hawkers. It will also bring back employment to the less educated and lower rungs of the society. This I think, is one of the social enterprises Singapore needs now.

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Social Enterprise 2

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I have a friend who is starting a cattle farm in Asia. He is going to rear the cows till they are mature and sell them at a low price to the villagers, who will keep them. These cows are bigger and fed with specially planned diet, a departure from local traditional methods that results in skinny and small cows. He will also dispense medical log books to them such that his vets will be able to monitor the health of the cows regularly. With one or two healthy cows in each family, they will breed future calves, giving a good income to these otherwise improverished rural folks.

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I am impressed because this will be done without government or any NGO funding, and yet it will be profitable. Also fascinating is that my friend thought of the welfare of his people first. Clearly, it will be more efficient to acquire the villagers' land and centralise them for industrialised cattle farming and he can do this forcefully in his country, as it is not a democracy. Yet he didn't even think of such efficiency gains. To him, the people come first.

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Further, he has plans to use the profits of his farm to build schools, hospitals, low-cost housing, roads and bridges to bring up the quality of life of his people.

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This is a leapfrog from a third world developing society to a futuristic social enterprise rural society. The irony is that he is doing it within a framework of a dictatorship. His country is not a democracy. In fact, that is also why he could implement his plan quickly.

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Normally, cattle farming wouldn't be seen as a business that is socially responsible. Yet, my friend has turned such critics on their head. While environmentalists scorned at the damages to the environment, he has all the dung manually scooped up and all the waste water treated before discharge. He will soon build a power station that uses the dung as fuel and supply the electricity to those outer reaches of the hills - and this is good for the environment, as there will be no burning of fossil fuel and CO2 discharge.

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Some of my vegetarian friends would scream at me if they know that I am supporting a cattle farm. Yes, they would. I have some very staunch ones! :) Being a former vegetarian myself, I must admit I am also a little uncomfortable with the slaughtering of animals. But this is what brings employment, income and basic necessities to the rural folks. Given the present prices of agriculture, growing vegetables will not derive the same social and economic results. In cattle farming, no part of a cow is wasted, not even its bones, hide or dung!

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The success of such projects will keep the rural folks in the countryside and reduce the exodus of people into city. Transmigration from rural country to cities usually results in overcrowding and crime. Families in rural areas thus won't be separated, as their young ones will not move to cities to find jobs. It thus maintains political stability in the country.

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This is a project worth watching. I will update you further in this blog.

Social Enterprise

Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore is starting a new course called a "Diploma in Business and Social Enterprise". Perhaps all enterprises shall have a social objective someday.

Bucky Group 13 - Personal Planet

Just came back from a gruelling 21 hour Personal Planet workshop organised by the Bucky Group and facilitated by Mr Medard Gabel at the Singapore Management University on the 3 and 4 November 2007. I was exhausted at the end of the workshop. There was so much cramped into the two-day seminar plus lots of documents to take home to read in a CD-ROM.
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Medard Gabel is a noted author and speaker who co-founded World Game Institute with Buckminster Fuller. Medard also co-founded Osearth and is founder and CEO of BigPictureSmallWorld. In conjunction with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Medard created the Design Science lab which is a workshop for developing strategies to address the United Nations Millenium Development Goals. For more information, click here

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What I got out from this workshop is that "Perspective is More important than Knowledge". For that Medard took us to the key statistics of the world to show how disproportionate resources are alocated in the world and how so many in developing countries are suffering.

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We went on a universal view that we are living in a world of abundance where the universe is continuously re-generating, since energy is neither created or destroyed. Then we went also on a personal view of who we are and where we would like to go to. The exercises in the workshop oscillates from the individual's perspectives to universal perspectives and vice versa. It thus led us to reflect on the Big Picture and also the individual aspirations in this Small World. A world made small as it gets more and more wired by telecommunications and air travel.

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I find that it is in this pulsation between individual and universal views that we put our plans into perspective to change the world and serve humanity much as Bucky did. Bucky is able to articulate the energy flows in the Universe and is also able to go into monumental detail of designing various life supporting inventions, like the geodesic dome.

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As the workshop moved on, the activities became more and more interactive and experiential. We all were expected to think of a global or local problem and create a business plan to change the world.

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I have envisioned a self-contained ecologically sustainable housing product, other participants dwell on education, organic products, recycling, renewable energies and products for autistic children - all to change the world and make it a better place. I think all aspiring entrepreneurs should attend this workshop to understand the individual's perspective in the world and its prevailing problems and then design enterprises to solve them. That way, there will be more creation of life supporting wealth to serve humanity.

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Usury

If we buy a cup of coffee and get charged for the coffee and also for (the act of) drinking the coffee, then we are being charged twice! We won't accept that and no sane cafe owner would dare charge you that way!

However, when we borrow money, we accept being charged twice. Once, for the payment of principle sum and second time for the privilege of using the money (interest).

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The Wikipedia defines usury as "charging a fee for the use of money". However, as it is now common practice in modern commerce to charge interests, usury is more commonly referred to as "excessive interests charged".

I used to think that only Islam forbids the charging of interests, but this is not so.

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"Usury (in the original sense of any interest) was denounced by a number of spiritual leaders and philosophers of ancient times, including Plato, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, Aquinas, Muhammad, Moses, Philo and Gautama Buddha." [Wikipedia].

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasizes lending without concern for a return - or even repayment:

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If ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest, for he is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil. (Luke 6:35)

The Quran says the same thing:

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The usury that is practiced to increase some people's wealth, does not gain anything at God. But if people give to charity, seeking God's pleasure, these are the ones who receive their reward many fold. (Ar-Rum 30:39)

Aristotle wrote:

"Usury is detested above all and for the best of reasons. It makes profit out of money itself, not for money's natural object... Money was intended as a means of exchange, not for increase of interest."

Buddhist teachings on the Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha over 2500 years ago, includes “the right livelihood,” which says that one ought to avoid treachery, deceit, usury, exploitation, or other harm to humans or animals.

Even Jews were forbidden to practise usury to other Jews, but are allowed to do so beyond their community, ie. to non-Jews.

So it is surprising that the mainstream financial systems that are practised today are mainly interest-based. This is easy profits, and compound interest is accelerated easy profits that grow exponentially! :) To exacerbate the matter, in modern banking, monies are represented as mere electronic digits. Which means that it takes the same effort to count one billion dollars as it is to count ten dollars. So, for the same effort, banks make more money transacting a billion dollars, since computers don't wear off very much (if at all) counting bigger numbers. Hence, it is safe to opine that profits are good in modern banking! Besides, it is the borrower who bears most of the risks, not the lender, as loans are almost always collateralised.

Islamic banking is an attempt to level this playing field. In Islamic banking, both the borrower and the lender share the risks and profits, without the involvement of interests. They are also to fund projects which are for the greater good of both investor and investee, the community and the environment and not for profit maximisation. Islamic banking will not fund haraam activities, ie. activities that are considered detrimental to society, like gambling. In recent years, Islamic banking has gained popularity rapidly, and more surprisingly, among non-Muslims and countries without Muslim majority.

Let's hope this growth happens for noble reasons, since it would be tempting to disguise conventional banking beneath a thin layer of Islamic banking for profit maximisation.

Islamic banking also forbids the trading of financial risks, as it is considered as 'gambling', and gambling is a 'haraam' activity.

That said, big financial institutions and hedge funds have made financial risk management into a fine art. With big capital flows, clever algorithms, market research and computerisation, these institutions are capable of giving huge returns with great certainty in their trades.

Actually, it is faster for institutions to make money in the financial markets than in direct investments. This is not healthy as it means that good startup technologies and businesses will not get the investments needed to create tangible wealth. Sometimes businesses with noble objectives to bring society to a higher good are unable to take off without investments.

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With attractive returns from the financial markets, investors will be more motivated and tempted to multiply their money in there. Also, financial markets are zero-sum games. That means, when one wins, some others have to lose. And when big institutions win big, many small investors will have to lose. This does not help with wealth distribution.

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Communist countries have attempted state planning to distribute wealth which had failed miserably. I think communism was a noble ideology that could not overcome human greed and selfishness. What we need badly is a new way of distributing wealth, without destroying the fabric of society, freedom and the dignity of people.

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This gives rise to a new breed of entrepreneurs who call themselves 'social entrepreneurs'. Social entrepreneurs set out with noble objectives to improve the community sustained through profits. Some examples of such enterprises deal with providing clean drinking water, converting domestic garbage to energy, providing micro-loans to rural villagers, promoting eco-tourism, ecologically sustainable housing,... etc.

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Social enterprises focus on what value they bring to the society in the long term. So, typically, it won't be interested in businesses whose sole aims are to encourage more people to send sms messages on their mobile phones; or for the distribution of more chemically preserved fast food to the masses. Social enterprises will definitely not charge you twice for your cup of coffee. Instead, it might set up cooperatives among coffee growers so that they can sell their crops at a better bargain and have their proceeds used to set up village schools or better access roads to their plantations, benefiting everyone in the long term.

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There is a social enterpreneur who told me that in social enterprises, there are no exit strategies. He cited an example in a project in a village in Nepal where they succeeded in piping water to the hilltops and learned that the 3 hours up and down from the hill to the rivers made by the womenfolk each day was the only time they had away from their mother-in-laws. So, you see, there is still no exit strategy! When old problems are solved, new ones emerge! :)

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Whichever method that will become vogue, be it is Islamic banking, social enterprises, or otherwise, there is a need to balance the globalisation and the cut-and-thrust of the market economy. I am glad that there are many kind souls out there doing their part in this balancing act. Many of them unsung heros and silent achievers, without which many communities would have collapsed into more sufferings.

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With this balance, we would be living in a "capitalism with a human face". Though sounding stark in contrast to Gorberchev's "Socialism with a human face", they both seek to achieve the same - that is, to love people and to move money to where love is.