"Cultivating knowledge – Generating Action": A series of lectures engaging people in honest conversations on the broad issues associated with globalisation and the human face of economics.
Reported by Bek Brown,
Teacher, Farnham Street Neighbourhood Learning Centre, Melbourne, Australia
We were about fifty in all, gathered in the elegant ballroom of ‘Armagh’ (the Initiatives of Change centre in Australia), poised with pens in hands to hear how we – ordinary people – might ‘be the change we want to see’ not only in the world but in the world of business.
We had come to listen to three people sharing their experiences about the world of business – Sandi Noble, a fashion designer whose gowns had been worn at the Academy Awards; Amanda Ralph, a bank executive and Col Duthie a business consultant.
To start the night off Sandi Noble shared her experiences of how, whilst on a business trip to India, she was shocked to discover the appalling conditions that the textile workers lived in. When, some time later, their boss decided to cut their pay (which at that time was $1US a week) Sandi made the radical decision that she could no longer be able to work in an industry that did not value work or dignify humanity. She said that while in India she also had ‘an experience of God’ and heard the call to change her career and serve the needy. She now works at the Prahran Mission in Melbourne – as a disability worker, ‘with people who hear voices’. I was moved by her compassion and genuine belief in the potential of each life.
What courage she had to dramatically change direction from being a highflyer to serving the most vulnerable in society.
In terms of generating action, I have had the growing conviction that I need to be more ethical in what I spend my money on. The more I learn about the conditions of textile workers, coffee growers, cocoa farmers (the list goes on) around the world, the more responsibility I have to do the right thing. If I continue to support unethical, or in some cases immoral, practices with my money then how am I any better than the big businesses that exploit these workers in the first place? Sandi’s story challenged me to live beyond myself and inspired me that change is always possible.
Amanda Ralph was the next speaker. She intrigued me right from the start. How does someone go from working in corporate business to the not-for-profit sector and back again? Amanda decided that no matter where she worked, she must live by the moral compass inside of her.
Now working for the National Australia Bank, Amanda presented us with some bleak statistics on the state of personal debt in our economy. Only twice before has our country’s debt levels been this high – and both times preceded a Depression. But perhaps even more confronting than the statistics was her concern that as a society we don’t have the resilience and fortitude to withstand the financial crisis that we may be about to face. What will that look like in our communities, she asked?
However it wasn’t all bad news. Amanda reminded us about the importance of perspective – to be grateful for what we have and not endlessly yearn for more. The very nature of consumerism is insatiable. But we don’t have to subscribe to that. At some point we need to decide that we have enough. We need to realign our priorities and live beyond consumerism.
The final speaker on the panel was Col Duthie, the Managing Director of a company that is dedicated to building values-based leadership in the business sector. He began with a thought-provoking question: “how do we harness the goodwill and intelligence of people to create healthier social realities?” He continued on to give some equally thought-provoking possibilities. I liked his suggestion to look for kindred spirits. This tied in beautifully with Amanda’s words about the importance of having a “community consensus” - individuals who stand up for what they believe in and are committed to integrity are great and definitely needed, but communities who can do that make things happen.
After the speakers, a very stimulating conversation followed that went on for nearly an hour. Near the end of the evening someone made the comment that “the two things that drive the market are fear and greed – they are the two evil empires”. It seemed to resonate with a lot of people. Yet as true as that comment is, the danger of it is to see fear and greed as abstract constructs when what we really need to acknowledge is that they live inside each of us.
So the question I came away with was “where is there fear and greed within me?” The word I came away with is integrity.
If you were to rate conversations that matter – I’d say this one would be somewhere near the top.
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