Haiti ... smoke and mirrors ... not much accountability!

Dear Colleagues

A huge amount of smoke and mirrors ... which explains why there is not very much interest in transparency and accountability.

The following text is from (1) an e-mail soliciting support from the Clinton Foundation and (2) from the William J. Clinton Foundation website as of July 16, 2010.

I would like to see some boring rigorous accounting about the resource flows that have been mobilized and disbursed in connection with the Haiti earthquake and its aftermath. The information I see suggests that there is a huge disconnect between the talk and the walk ... a ridiculous amount of double counting to make organizations "look good" and a terrible failure to deliver value on the ground in Haiti.

The big organizations have all failed to make accountability possible ... they either do not "get it" that accountability is important, or they "get it" and want no part of it. I do not accept either of these positions and will put as much pressure as possible to get the needed paradigm shift.

From the email solicitation:

Peter,

This past Monday marked six months since a devastating earthquake shook the coast of Haiti. I wanted to give you, a supporter of the Clinton Foundation and our work, a brief update on where things stand.

For the people of Haiti, each day since the earthquake is simply one more in the long process of rebuilding and reimagining their future. One step at a time, with the cooperation of the international community and through the generosity of individuals like you, they are reconstructing their country, their families, and their lives. Although recovery is not going as quickly as many of us involved in the process would like -- progress is being made.

Despite the challenges, I remain committed to helping the people of Haiti build back better. Through the Clinton Foundation, as the United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti, and now as the co-chair of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission along with Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, I will continue to strive to help the Haitians build the nation that they desire and deserve.

With your support, the Clinton Foundation has provided the equivalent of $23 million worth of assistance to the people of Haiti since the earthquake in the form of grants to relief organizations, emergency supplies, and supporting the shipment and delivery of more than $16 million worth of goods, including more than 100 trucks, 14 pieces of heavy equipment, 32,680 solar flashlights, 24 tons of medicine and medical supplies, portable classrooms and educational supplies, 390,000 articles of clothing, and much more.

Additionally, the Clinton Global Initiative has facilitated over $100 million worth of commitments to help rebuild Haiti, the Clinton Health Access Initiative continues to work there to help provide access to essential health services, and recently, as a project of the Clinton Guistra Sustainable Development Initiative and Fundacion Carlos Slim, a $20 million fund for small- and medium-sized enterprises was announced to help Haitian entrepreneurs. Learn more about what's happening in Haiti and all the Clinton Foundation's work there.

However, the scale and the urgency of the needs on the ground continue to be enormous. Millions of people still require shelter, access to basic services like education, water and sanitation, electricity, health care, and the tools to lift themselves from poverty. We still have a long road ahead.

Months and years of work remain to help the people of Haiti realize the future they have imagined for themselves.

I intend to be there every step of the way and I offer my humble thanks to you for being there alongside me.

Sincerely,
Bill Clinton

From the website:

A Long-Standing Commitment to Haiti

President Barack Obama, along with Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, announces the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund in the White House Rose Garden on January 16, 2010. (Credit: White House Photo / Lawrence Jackson)

President Clinton first traveled to Haiti in 1975. As President, he worked to encourage economic development and restore democratically elected leadership in Haiti. After leaving the White House, he continued to travel to Haiti as a private citizen and respond to the needs of Haitians through the work of the William J. Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and recently, as the UN Special Envoy for Haiti. After the January 2010 earthquake, he was invited by the Government of Haiti to serve, along with Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, as the International Co-Chair of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission.

Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti (IHRC)
President Clinton was invited by the Government of Haiti to serve, along with Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, as the International Co-Chair of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC). Established in April 2010 by the Haitian government, the IHRC reflects a shared vision for the future of Haiti that is rooted in the priorities of the Haitian people, marked by transparency, implemented in partnership with friends of Haiti, focused on quickly providing improvements in the lives of Haitians, and informed by reconstruction experiences in other countries.

The mandate of the IHRC is to conduct strategic planning and coordination and implement resources from bilateral and multilateral donors, non-governmental organizations, and the business sector, with all necessary transparency and accountability. In order to ensure that all activities are aligned with the Action Plan for National Recovery and Development of Haiti and Ministry plans, not duplicative, and implemented effectively.

United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti
In May 2009, building on President Clinton’s leadership as UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Haitian President René Préval asked President Clinton to become the UN Special Envoy for Haiti. In this role, President Clinton has worked with UN agencies, NGOs, government and multilateral donors, the international business community, philanthropists, the Haitian Diaspora around the world, and the Haitian people to help implement the Haitian government’s plan to develop a more modern economy.

In addition, since the January earthquake, President Clinton has worked to enhance and expedite the humanitarian response by mobilizing the international private sector, civil society, and donors to advance the Government of Haiti’s priorities and their plans for reconstruction. He also is bringing any gaps in the response to the attention of the Secretary-General and international community, while advancing the principle of building Haiti back better than it was before the disaster.

The Clinton Foundation in Haiti
Providing Earthquake Relief in Haiti

As part of the William J. Clinton Foundation’s focus on global issues that demand urgent action and measurable results, and reflecting President Clinton’s decades-long connection to Haiti, the Clinton Foundation is turning the donations of money and supplies made by individuals and organizations into direct assistance for the people and government of Haiti.

Since the January 2010 earthquake, the Clinton Foundation has been turning the donations of money and supplies made by individuals and organizations into direct assistance for the people and government of Haiti. More than 100,000 individuals have donated more than $16 million to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund.

The Foundation issued $3 million in emergency relief grants to 12 organizations, and recently allocated $1 million for communal hurricane emergency shelters and $1 million for operational support of the IHRC. The Foundation also directly purchased emergency relief, education, and agricultural supplies as well as supported the shipment and delivery to Haiti of more than $16 million worth of goods, including 14 pieces of heavy equipment, 32,680 solar flashlights and lanterns, 58 solar-powered streetlights, and 390,000 articles of clothing.

Thanks to supporters and partners, the total value of assistance to Haiti provided through the Foundation’s efforts has been nearly $23 million to date. The Foundation also provided pro bono staffing, administration, and fundraising support for all Haiti relief efforts.

The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Haiti

In October 2009, President Clinton signed a memorandum of understanding with President René Préval and the government of Haiti. The agreement invites the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to provide on the ground programmatic and technical support to the government, to help expand access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment services and strengthen the systems required to deliver primary health care services. In close collaboration with the government, CHAI has established a country office in Haiti with the goal of helping to increase access to essential health services. CHAI will support the government in strategic planning and resource optimization and will focus on vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children.

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and Haiti

In 2008, a series of hurricanes and tropical storms ravaged Haiti, leaving many communities without water, food, shelter, or access to basic services. In response, President Clinton made a call to action at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), asking CGI members to do what they could to help the nation rebuild. The response was enormous. Business CEOs, NGO leaders, and philanthropists came together to pledge more than $100 million in projects to deliver immediate and long-term assistance.

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
One week after the January earthquake, President Barack Obama asked President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush to raise funds for immediate, high-impact relief and long-term recovery efforts to help Haitians who are most in need of assistance. In response, the two Presidents established the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (CBHF) to respond to unmet needs in the country, foster economic opportunity, improve the quality of life over the long term for those affected, and assist the people of Haiti as they rebuild their lives and build back better. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund works primarily through partnerships and collaborations with other nonprofit and for-profit entities – particularly Haiti’s own. In all activities, CBHF will work with the Interim Haitian Reconstruction Commission to ensure consistency with the Haitian

//////////////////

Haiti Fund Fact Sheet and Update
July 8, 2010
Since the January 2010 earthquake, the Clinton Foundation has been turning the donations of money and supplies made by individuals and organizations into direct assistance for the people and government of Haiti. More than 100,000 individuals have donated more than $16 million to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund.

The Foundation issued $3 million in emergency relief grants to 12 organizations, and recently allocated $1 million for communal hurricane emergency shelters and $1 million for operational support of the IHRC. The Foundation also directly purchased emergency relief, education, and agricultural supplies as well as supported the shipment and delivery to Haiti of more than $16 million worth of goods, including 14 pieces of heavy equipment, 32,680 solar flashlights and lanterns, 58 solar-powered streetlights, and 390,000 articles of clothing.

Thanks to supporters and partners, the total value of assistance to Haiti provided through the Foundation’s efforts has been nearly $23 million to date. The Foundation also provided pro bono staffing, administration, and fundraising support for all Haiti relief efforts.

Organizations Supported by the Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund
The Clinton Foundation Haiti Fund has allocated a total of $3 million to the following organizations on the ground in Haiti:

ACTED, to support emergency assistance as well as provide and deploy over 1,000 shelter and first-aid kits.
CARE, for the distribution of much needed food and water to survivors.
Concern Worldwide USA, to provide food, water, shelter, and medicine to survivors.
Food and Agriculture Organization, for the immediate purchase of seeds and fertilizer in and for Haiti.
International Organization for Migration, to support the coordination and delivery of emergency shelter.
International Rescue Committee, for medical care, clean water, and emergency sanitation for survivors.
Médecins du Monde, for the distribution of medicine.
Médecins sans Frontières, to provide surgery and basic medical care to as many patients as possible.
Oxfam, to provide more than 10 tons of water, sanitation, and health and shelter equipment.
Partners In Health, to provide medical care and supplies as well as bring in urgently needed medical expertise to Haiti.
Save the Children USA, for immediate needs such as shelter, health, water, sanitation, and child protection; and, as conditions allow, the restoration of education for children.
UNICEF, to provide adequate sanitation, safe water, and basic health care for survivors.
World Food Programme, to distribute high-energy biscuits as well as airlift food from WFP emergency hubs.
Current Supply Deliveries
The Clinton Foundation is currently supporting the shipment and delivery to Haiti of over $16 million in supplies since January 2010, including:

Trucks: There are 141 trucks, 40 donated by Penske/Mack, 30 donated by General Motors, 30 trucks donated by Nissan, 20 trucks donated by members of the National Automobile Dealers Association, 20 trucks donated by Daimler, and one truck by the JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the ground in Haiti to facilitate aid distribution.

Heavy Equipment: The Clinton Foundation has delivered 14 pieces of heavy equipment, which were donated by Navistar, to the Haitian Department of Civil Protection. An additional three trucks are in the process of shipping to Haiti from Puerto Rico.

Agriculture: The Clinton Foundation has delivered $300,000 worth of seeds to the government of Haiti for this planting season. These seeds were transported in drums that can be reused for water storage.

Portable Classrooms: The Clinton Foundation shipped four portable classrooms, which can serve up to 30 students each and were donated by Broward County School District, to the Ministry of Education.

Mobile Classrooms: The Clinton Foundation shipped 10 school buses, which were retrofitted to become mobile classrooms, to the Ministry of Education. Each bus will seat approximately 25 students.

Educational Supplies: The Clinton Foundation delivered three truckloads of school furniture, which were donated by Miami-Dade School District, two truckloads of educational supplies, which were donated by Newman Office Supplies, and over $5,000 worth of school supplies, which were donated by New York Teacher’s Union and Staples, to the Ministry of Education.

Flashlights and Lanterns: A total of 16,480 solar flashlights and lanterns, along with 800 adaptors that plug into the lights and allow for mobile-phone charging, have been delivered to Haiti. Earthspark International donated 2,700 solar flashlights through the Office of Special Envoy (OSE) and the Clinton Foundation to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

Street Lights: Solar Outdoor Lighting (SOL) donated 58 solar-powered streetlights to Haiti, which the Clinton Foundation shipped from Miami to Haiti. The OSE and Clinton Foundation worked with SOL and the Haitian government to ensure that the lights were placed in strategic locations selected by the Haitian government in Port-au-Prince to help improve security.

Generators: A total of 68 generators have been donated to relief efforts in Haiti. A total of 52 generators have been donated by Home Depot, along with 20 extension cords. In addition, 16 generators were donated by North Shore Generator Systems, Inc. to Partners In Health, which the
Clinton Foundation and OSE helped to facilitate.

Tents: 34,480 tents to Haiti, including 27,000 tents donated by Wal-Mart Corporation, 4,000 tents donated by an individual donor, 280 tents donated by Kelty, and four pallets of plastic sheeting donated for temporary shelters. The Clinton Foundation purchased 3,200 tents of these tents, each capable of fitting 5 people plus gear, offered by Coleman at a discount.

Large Tents: An individual donated a 21,000 square-foot tent, which will serve as the temporary office and logistical center for the mayor of Port-au-Prince and his staff. The tent came with tables, chairs, and other important equipment, which will allow the office to be operational on an expedited basis. Transportation to Miami for this tent was provided by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, after which the Clinton Foundation shipped the tent to Haiti.

Community Water Purification Systems: A total of nine GE Sunspring solar-powered water filtration systems, each capable of serving up to 10,000 people a day with microbiologically safe drinking water, have been delivered to Haiti. Five GE Sunspring units were donated to UNICEF and are being deployed in hospitals, clinics, and small communities. Three GE Sunspring units have been donated to DINEPA (Direction Nationale de l’Eau Potable et Assainissement), and one GE Sunspring unit has been donated to SOS Children’s Village.
Bottled Water: 45,000 pounds of water donated by Coca-Cola and 39,000 bottles of water from Eventide Natural Spring Water.

Medical Supplies and Medicines: More than 24 tons of medicine and medical supplies, including a donated shipment of medical supplies coordinated by the governor of Iowa’s office and 2,000 sheets from Hilton Hotels donated to hospitals in Haiti.

Latrines: A total of 3,000 latrines have been delivered to Haiti to date. A total of 1,000 PolyJohn latrines, which were purchased and donated by the Clinton Foundation to UNICEF, and 20 cordless drills, which were donated by Home Depot to help set up the latrines.

Clothing: A total of about 391,700 articles of clothing for men, women, and children have been delivered to Haiti to date. SAE-A donated 104,511 articles of clothing. Forever 21 donated 52 pallets of women’s and girls’ clothing to the Haitian Ministry of Women’s Affairs. AIT Worldwide Logistics and Sterling Transportation provided pro bono trucking of the goods to Miami. In addition, Forever 21 delivered 50,000 shirts to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. About 18,000 pieces of worker clothing, including gloves, shirts, shorts, and pants, were donated by Carhartt. American Apparel donated 10,000 shirts to the people of Haiti. Wrangler donated about 200 pieces of male clothing. Timberland donated 822 pairs of flip-flops. Crocs donated 447 pair of shoes. BU and the Duck donated children’s clothing and shoes.

Stoves: Working with several nonprofit organizations such as AIDG and Earth Trees and People, the Clinton Foundation has helped to deliver over 2,350 stoves to Haiti, for Haitian families.
Whistles: 2,000 whistles were purchased by the Clinton Foundation and distributed to women as a safety measure.

Mobile Command Center: A mobile command center was purchased by James Lee Witt Associates and transported to Haiti by the Clinton Foundation. It will be used to facilitate communications and reporting by the government of Haiti and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the upcoming months.

Educational Needs: To meet educational needs for students displaced from school, the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) is working with the Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP) to place Haitian students into U.S. universities, facilitate faculty exchanges, provide material assistance toward reconstruction in the education sector, and establish connections between Haitian and international secondary education institutions.

February Supply Deliveries
On February 5, on his second trip to Haiti after the earthquake, President Clinton delivered supplies, coordinated through the Clinton Foundation and OSE, which included the following:
50 laptops from the IBM Foundation for the government of Haiti; 5,000 protein bars donated by Health Management Resources Corp; 400 protein bars from Element bars; 280 tents donated by Kelty
20 generators donated by Home Depot; 20 extension cords for generators; 4 pallets of 10 x 25 polyethelene sheeting donated by Home Depot; 2 pallets of five-gallon buckets donated by Home Depot; Approximately 1,900 pounds of medical supplies as well as 100 pairs of walkers and crutches, for GHESKIO, a Haitian health clinic in Port-au-Prince

January Supply Deliveries
On January 18, during his first trip to Haiti after the earthquake, President Clinton delivered supplies including: 5,000 bottles of water; 1 pallet of food; medical supplies, including syringes, medicines, anesthetics, painkillers, first aid, and surgical supplies; 32 generators, 72 work lights, extension cords, gas cans, and 150 solar flashlights donated by Home Depot; Walmart in Linden, New Jersey; Costco and BJ’s in the Bronx and Rite Aid

Haiti ... WFP, free food and perverse incentives

Dear Colleagues

The UN World Food Program (WFP) has been a big component of the relief effort in Haiti. There are many questions, however, about how efficient and effective the WFP work has been. At some level the work of WFP is very positive ... but there is also the flip-side that the role of food aid has wrecked local agriculture in many fragile communities.

I have seen forty years of WFP promoting its activities ... but it is rare to find the studies that show how food aid provides a perverse incentive to local food production.

In Haiti it is being reported that the petty merchant class has been economically disadvantaged ... I mean, put out of business ... by the activities of the WFP. Not surprisingly, I do not see this referenced anywhere in the WFP material that is set out below!

The following is WFP starting to use the Social Networks to promote their activities and obtain donations.

Bulletin from the cause: Feed a Child with Just a Click!
Go to Cause
Posted By: World Food Program USA
To: Members in 46 Causes
Haiti: Six Months On

Six months ago, a devastating earthquake changed Haiti forever. You responded, and WFP was able to help millions of Haitians survive the aftermath. WFP’s teams are still on the ground, preparing for the coming hurricane season and building back Haiti stronger and better than before. Donation by donation. Day by day. One person at a time.

I’m proud to be part of this amazing community and to report back on our outstanding success in Haiti.

Haiti: Six Months On

The World Food Program was on the ground distributing food within 24 hours of the January 12th earthquake, and we’ve been able to feed 4 million Haitians to date.

The focus has shifted to longer-term solutions, rebuilding society from the ground up. WFP’s Food and Cash for Work programs have already created jobs for 30,000 Haitians and that number continues to grow. In exchange for enough food to feed a family of five, workers are helping repair roads and dig irrigation canals, benefitting entire communities.

Watch the latest video straight from Haiti to hear firsthand how lives and livelihoods are being rebuilt.

WFP’s school meals programs are providing daily meals to 655,000 children. These kids will continue to receive hot, nutritious food throughout the summer even though school is out. WFP is also helping to ensure the most vulnerable people, including pregnant mothers and young children, receive the right food through supplementary nutrition programs.

Many have predicted this will be a bad hurricane season, and WFP stands prepared for the worst. Working together with the Haitian government and many NGO partners, WFP has already positioned food supplies for more than 1 million people in case disaster strikes again.

Catch up on all the latest developments in Haiti here.

Thank you for all you do in the fight against hunger,

Sincerely,

Jason Corum
Online Communications Manager
World Food Program USA, formerly Friends of the World Food Program

I am not at all sure that the WFP is building back a Haiti that is "stronger and better than before" but more likely one that depends even more on the international handout. A poor society does not progress when it is fed and clothed and housed ... but progresses when people in the society have opportunity to earn something, and with these earnings to feed and clothe and house the family.

I am amazed that the international experts have not set up some programs to employ Haitians to do work that needs to be done ... especially clearing debris and constructing shelter.

I do not like "food for work" ... this and company scrip was banned in Britain in the nineteenth century for good reason, but food for work is a common practice with the UN and the WFP. People deserve money for work ... and with money they should be able to buy food and other items they need. The following is something else written by WFP.

Six Months in Haiti: From Relief to Recovery
By WFP Published on July 6, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE

Six months after the catastrophic earthquake on January 12, WFP has fed some four million people in Haiti. Now, its operation is shifting gears from emergency food relief to a long-term strategy using food assistance to fuel the recovery.

Over the past six months, WFP’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti has unfolded over four main phases, from saving lives in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake to helping Haitians rebuild their country.

1. IMMEDIATE RESPONSE
Despite the death of several staff and major damage to its office and warehouses, WFP began distributing high energy biscuits (HEBs) and other ready-to-eat foods within 24 hours of the earthquake.

Faced with enormous logistical challenges, WFP was able to distribute one million food rations to 200,000 people in the week following the quake.

With Haiti’s telephone lines knocked out, WFP’s FITTEST teams set up an emergency communications network for the entire humanitarian community that was up and running within seven days.

2. ORGANIZED DELIVERY
With the capital, Port-au-Prince, in a state of disarray, WFP was able to set up a network of 16 distribution centers that gave out a two-week ration of rice to over 1.3 million people in under six weeks.

Distributions were organized through a speedily organized coupon system that gave priority to women, ensuring that they and their children got the food they needed.

WFP provided ready-to-eat meals to some 370 orphanages around the country, home to an estimated 37,000 children, many of them orphaned by the earthquake.

3. PROTECTING ON THE VULNERABLE
A nutrition drive launched in February targeted nursing mothers and small children with specialized foods like a peanut paste designed to protect toddlers from malnutrition.

School meals programs resumed in March, eventually providing over 655,000 children with a daily meal.

Some 300,000 high-risk families began receiving a complete food basket in March, consisting of rice, beans, corn soya blend, oil and salt. The food reached an estimated 1.3 million people, mainly women and children.

4. WORKING TO REBUILD
Already more than 30,000 workers are participating in projects that provide them with cash and food in return for work to rebuild areas damaged by the quake and the number is growing daily. The projects ensure rations for over 150,000 people.

Paid around $5.00 per day and enough food to feed a family of five, workers clear roads, dig irrigation canals and building flood works in view of the upcoming hurricane season.

By the end of the year, Cash and Food for Work programs will provide over 140,000 workers with a steady source of income and food, benefitting some 700,000 people.

Bracing for hurricane season

Haiti was spared from hurricanes in 2009, but no one can say what will happen this year. In preparation for the worst, WFP has prepositioned food around the country and set up a system of barges to move food and supplies should the roads become unusable.

I would very much like to see an "accounting" of the resources used and the benefits arising from the work being described by WFP. My expectation is that there is no such accounting, but it would be enormously helpful if there was. The lack of any meaningful information about the activities that are being undertaken and the resources being consumed is a scandal ... but those responsible for this are well "protected".

I was hopeful in January that this time the emergency response would include much improved accounting and accountability relative to the Tsunami experience and the Katrina experience ... but my hopes have been dashed. Neither the Government of Haiti, the UN nor USAID have stepped up to provide good accountability, and up to now no NGO seems to have emerged to fill this vacuum. In a system with no accountability it is normal for money resources to be used ineffectively ... and the situation in Haiti is in the normal pattern!

Sad!

Peter Burgess

Corporate big-wigs ... saved by government and now whining big time!

Dear Colleagues

I guess I am pretty damn mad ... like many ordinary folk.

Over the past two years the corporate community, and especially the too big to fail banking and industrial organizations, have been saved from economic oblivion by government as the safety net of last resort! For the past several months, since it became evident that the safety net for the big corporate community had worked ... the big beneficiaries have been on an all out crusade to stop the sort of reform that many of us think are the least that needs to get done.

The healthcare reform legislation and the financial regulation legislation are substantial pieces of law making ... and certainly progress, if not perfect. Neither is popular with the corporate community, which is disturbing since they should have been working to ensure that society got good legislation that served the population. Instead the corporate community sounds more like they are part of the world that Dickens wrote about in the 19th century!

It is quite sickening! The corporate world has become accustomed to getting its way in Washington, as well as with governments around the world. Hopefully this era is over, but the corporate lobbyists and PR people are not going to be quiet about it. Society needs its governments to be funded ... and big and multinational corporate organizations should be paying their fair share of taxes.

Robert Scheer wrote an interesting Op-Ed along somewhat similar lines ... the text follows ... the URL is:
http://www.truth-out.org/robert-scheer-theres-just-no-pleasing-some-robber-barons61376

There's Just No Pleasing Some Robber Barons
Wednesday 14 July 2010
by: Robert Scheer | Truthdig | Op-Ed

The flight from reason that now marks American public discourse came home for me last Friday, when I found myself on public radio debating whether Barack Obama is anti-business. The "news hook" for KCRW's "Left, Right & Center" show, which I have co-hosted for 15 years, was an absurd spate of charges from Obama's former big-business allies that he had become their enemy. If only it were so.

One of those who has been complaining is billionaire publisher Mort Zuckerman, who now finds in a White House he once supported "hostility" to the business culture he credits with the country's greatness. I assume he is not talking about the belated efforts to hold BP accountable for the cost of the oil spill that our pro-drilling president once thought not possible.

And then there was Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric and once friendly to Obama but now alarmed by new regulations. He was one of the many CEOs cited by Fareed Zakaria in The Washington Post as evidence of "Obama's CEO problem." General Electric is a company that got into deep trouble when it stopped worrying about making better light bulbs and came to devote much of its business through GE capital to fancy financial products. With GE having been saved by the taxpayers, one wonders what the conglomerate has to complain about. Or Wall Street donors now stiffing the Democrats and claiming Obama is hostile to them.

All this comes at the very time that Wall Street lobbyists stand poised to win a sweeping victory preventing a reversal of the radical deregulation that made the banking debacle possible. The "Volcker rule," restoration of the New Deal-era barrier between investment and consumer banking that Obama had pledged to support, is gutted. As a disappointed Paul Volcker told Louis Uchitelle in an interview for The New York Times, he would rate the reforms just a B and not even a B-plus. Leading Wall Street economist Henry Kaufman told the Times, "The legislation is a Rube Goldberg contraption, and there are long timelines before the Volcker rule is fully implemented."

Game over, Wall Street won big-time, and the George W. Bush-Obama policy has made the financiers whole while largely ignoring the deep plight of the true victims of the economic collapse, the unemployed and the foreclosed.

The argument that Obama is anti-business is nothing more than the old propaganda trick that the best defense is a good offense, so blame the victims for your crimes. The high-tone intellectual argument for that position was supplied by Harvard professor Niall Ferguson, a transplanted Thatcherite, at the same Aspen, Colo., gathering where Zuckerman spoke.

At a conference on ideas paid for and attended by the rich and well-positioned, Ferguson argued that the high rate of unemployment is not due to the Wall Street high rollers whose funny-money games wiped out 8 million jobs but rather the extension of the government's unemployment insurance program:

"The curse of long-term unemployment is that if you pay people to do nothing, they'll find themselves doing nothing for very long periods of time. Long-term unemployment is at an all-time high in the United States, and it is a direct consequence of a misconceived public policy."

Yes, except that the public policy that was so terribly misconceived was that of radical deregulation, launched by the Reagan Revolution and implemented by President Bill Clinton, not the pathetic palliative of unemployment checks.

Notice that the attacks on Obama are not about his having followed George W. Bush's example of throwing money at Wall Street, the cause of the meltdown and the run-up of the national debt, but rather the much smaller amount spent on ameliorating the pain that the titans of finance caused for ordinary citizens. And of course there is never a word of self-criticism on the part of folks like Ferguson, Immelt and Zuckerman for their own roles in having cheered on the radical deregulation that made this mess not only possible but inevitable.

Not so Volcker, once the darling of fiscal conservatives when he tamed inflation during the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan years, and when as Fed chair and later as an influential observer he failed to stand publicly against the move to radical deregulation. As was reported in the Times interview: "In retrospect, Mr. Volcker regrets not challenging the widely held assumptions that underpinned much of this. `You had an intellectual conviction that you did not need much regulation -- that the market could take care of itself,' he says. `I'm happy that illusion has been shattered.'"

Unfortunately, that illusion has not been shattered for many of the elite in this country, as evidenced by their rage against Obama's too modest steps in the right direction.

Robert Scheer is editor of truthdig.com, where this column originally appeared. E-mail Robert Scheer at rscheer@truthdig.com.

Copyright, Creators.com

I posted a quick comment in response to this.

Dear Colleagues

I note with interest the fickleness of the political community, the shallowness of the media and the mass audience and the self serving posturing of the robber baron business community.

I am an advocate for profitable business ... but equally I am an advocate for business to be value adding for the communities in our society. When profits go up and jobs go down there is some serious inefficiency in the "market" which is being exploited and gamed by business and the market makers.

My position is very much along the lines that we need value accounting as well as profit accounting ... and with this there can be behavior change that would be a substantial paradigm shift towards what is needed.

Peter Burgess

The more I engage in the dialog about politics and the governance associated with the corporate sector, the more I become convinced that the lack of value metrics is a big part of the problem. GE has been in trouble before because its financial business unit has been out of control ... and the business media is lurching from story to story without, it seems, having much of an understanding of the what it is that drives a profitable sustainable society.

My hope is that Burgess Valumetrics will help ... sooner rather than later! Most of the elements needed for a complete system of metrics based on socio-economic value are available ... the challenge is to make them easy to use and relevant to the economic actors in society.

Peter Burgess

CSR and sustainability for the pharmaceutical industry

The Pharmaceutical CSR and Sustainability evening organized by NetImpact and Fairleigh Dickerson University (FDU) was very good ... but maybe there was something of a bubble characteristic surrounding the event. Everything that was said in the course of the event was consistent and "good to hear" ... but then I stepped back into the real world where CSR and sustainability are notable for their absence!

From my perspective CSR is a "good" thing ... just as environmental sustainability is a "good" thing ... but who cares. It is quite likely that many actually care ... but how many are in a position to do anything meaningful about these issues.

Most people in their daily work have to do what their employers demand ... usually in a "no questions asked" mode. Ordinary people need their jobs to pay their bills, and very few ordinary people have much of a cushion against bad events.

And this is in the United States ... perhaps the richest economy on the planet. Clearly there are a whole lot of things that have gone wrong ... and remain wrong. My view of the problem is quite simple ... allocation of resources for the best part of the last three generations, say six decades, has been all about consumption growth and rather little about investment in productivity and quality of life.

Getting back to the specifics of the pharmaceutical industry ... I am struck by the efforts by the big pharmaceutical industry to manage IP not so that the world's health is as good as it can be, but so that the companies are able to maximize profits. The only metrics in play are those that relate to profit and stock market valuation of the company ... yet a good pharmaceutical company could have a really huge impact on the health of the world. As far as I know ... and I have looked fairly hard ... there are no metrics about the value that the pharmaceutical industry brings to the healthcare sector.

Even simple metrics are not easy to find. I wonder how much is spent on meaningful CSR versus how much is spent on Washington lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry ... not to mention EU lobbying in Brussels ... and making sure that the WHO stays in control of what are "official medicines"!

My guess is that the value destruction associated with poor global health is way bigger than the profits being realized by the pharmaceutical for profit process ... and that science is already well enough advanced to make a huge difference to global health if that was a mainstream priority. This will never happen until there are meaningful metrics around these matters!

With a complete system of value metrics it will become possible for the capital markets and corporate board rooms to take the value construct into consideration as well as the prevailing ubiquitous business model for profit.

The FDU evening was great ... an important subject was discussed ... but I am afraid there is a big jump still needed to get to meaningful value metrics that will make CSR and sustainability mainstream!

Peter Burgess
http://communityanalyticsca.blogspot.com/

Bamboo ... a possible housing material for Haiti

Dear Colleagues

I have not studied the engineering in detail, but the ideas expressed in this are interesting and seem well worth further analysis.

http://www.co2bambu.com/LowCostHousing.php

This is from the website:

Housing Deficit
Central America and the Caribbean have a massive deficit of housing for poor families. In Nicaragua, there is a deficit of 500,000 homes, and in post-disaster Haïti, the shortfall has exploded to 1.2 million homes.

Bamboo: An Ideal Housing Material
Guadua bamboo, a species that grows natively in many Central American regions, provides an important alternative to traditional house construction materials. The unique characteristics of Guadua lend themselves particularly well to conventional processing techniques such as nailing, gluing, and finishing.

Bamboo is wonderfully strong and flexible and therefore ideal for countries that experience earthquakes and hurricanes. Based on naturally occurring air pocket nodes, with proper design, bamboo structures can also provide natural insulation from cool and hot temperatures. Equally important, the material offers a significantly lower carbon footprint versus traditional building materials such as wood, cement and steel.

Low cost housing that uses local materials has some of the characteristics that are required for sustainable development. I would be interested in learning more about this from people with practical experience of the methods.

Peter Burgess

Secretary Clinton going to talk about Global Health

Dear Colleagues

It is going to be interesting to hear what the Secretary of State will say next Monday at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

I am not optimistic.

Global Health has not progressed very well over the past fifty years in good part because the experts have not done a very good job of understanding the cost behavior of the health sector under very different conditions around the world.

The following is the announcement of the presentation:

Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
August 12, 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will deliver remarks on Monday, August 16 at 11:30 a.m. on the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative. The speech will take place at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in the Kenney Auditorium.

Secretary Clinton’s speech will focus on The Global Health Initiative, a centerpiece of the Obama Administration's foreign policy and an expression of U.S. values and leadership in the world. Secretary Clinton will describe the Global Health Initiative’s core principles, and call on governments, organizations, and individuals to join the United States in pursuing a sustainable approach for delivering essential health services to more people in more places.

SAIS will host a live webcast of the event accessible at www.sais-jhu.edu.

Kenney Auditorium
Johns Hopkins University
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) – first floor
1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C.

The speech will be open to SAIS students, faculty/staff and invited guests only. The event will also be open to credentialed members of the media.

Felisa Neuringer Klubes
SAIS Communications Office
202.663.5626
fklubes@jhu.edu

Department of State
Office of Press Relations
(202) 647-2492

I cannot be at this presentation ... but I would like to engage in a dialog about what is best to do around the world to improve global health.

Some of the work I have done suggests that community level health interventions are going to be very important ... a practical application of "prevention is better than cure" as well as the idea that early intervention is way better than leaving a condition to deteriorate until it is difficult to treat.

It is also clear that the professional structure that has become the norm in rich societies cannot work in resource poor settings. The management of resources requires that some of the constraints that serve medical professionals but do not serve poor patients are addressed.

The problem of profit rather than value being the main driver of the health sector needs to be addressed ... pharmaceutical research needs to produce drugs that improve health whether or not they are block buster profit generators ... and the question of IP and generics needs to be addressed not only to preserve business profits but also to produce health value.

It will be interesting to see how much attention is paid to malaria and HIV-AIDS. Huge resource allocations have been made to these health sub-sectors ... but in my view the results of these expenditures are modest compared to what would have been achieved if better management of these resources had been in place.

Health is important. The debate needs not only quantified costs, revenues and profits but also the value adding associated with optimum allocation of resources.

Peter Burgess

The Acumen Fund ... value as well as profit!

Dear Colleagues

If you go to the New York Stock Exchange ... or the London Stock Exchanges ... or any other major stock market, there are thousands and thousands of companies listed, all of them doing their best to grow sales and make profits. Sadly there are almost no organizations that are committed to building social value ... yet it is social value that is most needed in order for society to have any chance at a future with an acceptable level of quality of life!

Some weeks back I got this message from the founder of the Acumen Fund, an organization engaged in "social investment".

May 18

Dear Peter,

When I was in business school, company growth was frequently depicted as a lovely upward curve. However, my experience has been that growth happens in sharp steps, some upwards and some downwards. The process is anything but smooth or predictable.

In the past few months, it feels like Acumen Fund is in the midst of a big leap, with all the excitement and anxiety that can provoke. We’re seeing more robust and widespread growth and impact among our companies. The ambulance company 1298 recently signed contracts with multiple Indian state governments. Over the next 3-4 years, more than one million people will be served. The company also will hire more than 2,500 individuals (1,000 in the next few months). Ecotact just launched two more public toilets, taking their total to 26 active facilities. D.light recently hit a milestone by bringing affordable, safe solar power to more than one million people. Our companies are on the move!

I remember when we first started Acumen, many believed we would see outsized social impact but were doubtful about exits. We are actually beginning to see capital returned from our investments – of the $2.1 million of capital expected to be paid back to Acumen in 2010, we have already received $1.2 million since January. This means an additional $2.1 million that we can invest in other innovations serving the poor. As the person most responsible for fundraising, the power of this can’t be overstated.

We’re learning at a faster rate. Some of the lessons are due to our finding that we made incorrect assumptions when we started Acumen. When it came to government, for instance, Acumen feared corruption and mismanagement – often, for good reason. But social entrepreneurs can grow companies and organizations only so large without government or the capital markets. With the right counterparts, government provides an answer that will extend services to the widest array of people, especially when it comes to reaching those who the markets might not ever touch.

We also were wary of companies that depended too heavily on institutional sales rather than selling directly to low-income consumers. We still focus our aim on building companies with diverse customer bases. But when you see VisionSpring selling hundreds of thousands of pairs of eyeglasses through BRAC, one of the world’s most extraordinary organizations, you see the potential of using a growing ecosystem of social enterprises to help distribute critical goods and services to the poor in myriad ways.

Beyond our investments, our community is rapidly expanding in a thrilling way. Chapters for Acumen are emerging in cities around the world, including New York, San Francisco, Dubai, Chicago, Washington DC, Pakistan and more. These are organizations typically headed by young professionals and can include anywhere from a few hundred to more than a thousand individuals who form an active part of our community, meeting to learn, discuss and raise resources for this work. Most recently, New York for Acumen raised $27,000 during a wonderful spring event, and Dubai for Acumen raised $15,000 in their Inaugural Spring Benefit. We could feel neither prouder nor more excited for the future of the chapters.

Our community is also increasingly global. Due to the generosity of the Tokyo Foundation and the Japan Society as well as two outstanding volunteers, I participated in a week of events and discussions surrounding the launch of The Blue Sweater in Japan. We found strong interest in the ideas of Patient Capital and a yearning among both local institutions and young people to play a greater role in social entrepreneurship and the global issues of our time.

From Tokyo to the Cairo Summit in Washington, DC: President Obama invited 200 delegates, largely from Muslim countries, to Washington to honor promises made in his elegant Cairo speech last January. I felt a swell of pride in seeing Acumen’s representation: five Acumen entrepreneurs (Shaffi Mather of 1298; Jawad Aslam of AMC; Roshaneh Zafar of Kashf; Magda Iskandar of Care with Love; and Helmy Abouleish of SEKEM) as well as a number of Acumen partners, including Fadi Ghandour, Arif Naqvi, Fred Sicre, Kashif Zafar, and others. In terms of follow up, we are talking to a number of officials in DC, exploring ways in which Acumen could be supportive while also staying true to our mission and investing approach.

We’re also meeting amazing storytellers who are bringing the ideas of Patient Capital to a more mainstream audience. PBS NewsHour did an excellent piece on Ecotact’s work on public sanitation in Kenya. Christiane Amanpour brought forth a “different face of Pakistan”; and we’re also reaching new audiences through an interview with Katie Couric in Glamour magazine. Next month, we are excited for the airing of a documentary on our Fellows Program. The New Recruits is a Skoll Foundation-funded film being broadcast on June 15th on PBS about three Acumen Fellows who are working to bring a new approach to tackling poverty through business. It is likely to raise Acumen’s profile and also spark conversation about our work – and the phenomenon of the current generation that is increasingly interested in using business skills to change the world.

Finally, two founding board members, Angela Blackwell and Cate Muther, completed their nine-year terms with Acumen Fund. It is with the greatest appreciation and a bit of sadness, too, that we thank them for their immeasurable service in bringing Acumen to life, and bringing it through its early stages of development. We also welcome David Heller, Co-Head of the Goldman Sachs Global Securities Division, to the board. David brings not only powerful skills and experience, but a way of listening to others and a deep commitment to giving back that is at the core of our values.

So what does this feeling of transition really mean? To me, it means doubling down on the anchor that is our portfolio: getting smarter, digging deeper, doing what it takes to scale and strengthen and partner with our investee companies to provide the world with real examples of what Patient Capital can do. At the same time, we are actively seeking to exchange ideas and knowledge with our peers and major stakeholders that can help us advance the idea of Patient Capital and investing in leaders through our Fellows, our team and our growing community around the world.

We will need your help to do it. We will need your help as communicators, as fundraisers, as champions. Every day, I am more convinced that Patient Capital is an important way to effect fundamental change in the lives of those who for too long have been left out of the opportunities of the global economy. Wayne Fletcher, President of Sandbox, a division of Media Brands (which has been giving generous pro bono support to us), has said, “Acumen is a philosophy.” Maybe that philosophy isn’t Acumen alone but is something bigger than us altogether, the ideas surrounding Patient Capital and what it means about the way we see low-income people.

It begins with a fundamental belief that each of us is born equal and each should have the opportunity to pursue our dreams. And as I keep learning, by providing choice and freedom, we give dignity not just to the poor but to all of us.

I wish you peace, and thank you always for your support of this work,

Jacqueline Novogratz

This message is positive ... and I like optimism. But I would observe that most business organizations have little or no focus on the social importance of their work. And while the Acumen Fund is quite well known in the social business space it is tiny compared to the profit centric entrepreneurial organization. Worse, there are very few organizations like the Acumen Fund compared to thousands and thousands doing for profit work with no interest in the social impact.

I understand this ... business has to be profitable in order to stay in business! However, I would also argue that there is no point in having business that is profitable when its basic business model destroys value in society.

Without value metrics, most organizations do not know very much, if anything, about the value dynamic of their activities. Everyone knows something about money accounting and the calculation of profit ... but almost nobody knows anything about the value proposition that coexists in the money profit business model. Without specific attention to value, it is easy for value to be destroyed to the detriment of society.

There has to be deployment of value metrics ... sooner rather than later. In my view, it will be a game changer!

Sincerely

Peter Burgess