Human Business, Humanity Profits

Today my mum and I were bemoaning the fact that business ethics seem to differ so much from human ones.

In Britain, business ethics seem set apart from human ethics, and yet are increasingly dominating our human society - for which everybody (but a very privileged few) suffers.

For a relatively mild example (compared to companies that lie cheat and kill) but an important one;   Amazon and Starbucks are not paying tax by setting up in Jersey.   It's perfectly legal, and that seems to be the end of the story.  This despite the fact that Amazon is now a market leader, surely it doesn't need to behave like this?  It could be contributing positively to society, taking a philanthropic approach which would be good for business and good for society.  Is it just thinking about the business ethic PROFIT?

Here is an idea for getting business ethics back in line with human ethics (from the film "The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner" rudolfsteinerfilm.squarespace.com)

"Customers and bankers at Triodos bank are trying to work in a different way with money:  greater tansparency, greater responsability, and greater consciousness about the way the money deposited is actually used.

Peter Blom is Chairman of the Executive Board of Triodos Bank:

"I am convinced that we need to concentrate more on what is really needed in society, and then make that into a feasible business.  There is profit of course, you cannot do without that - but you don't have to start with profit.  Profit is the result.  This relates to what Rudolf Steiner said - profit is not something to aim for but is a sign of a healthy operation, emerging from healthy transaction.  This is a much better way of looking at profit than putting it there as a goal, as an objective, making everything work for that goal.

Steiner always had the human being at the centre of his thoughts, whatever he was talking about, economics, medicine, whatever....in most of our thinking now we exclude human beings - it is about a system and we must fit into  the system.  What he did lets us take each human being as a starting point; let's design around debt for example, in a way which serves human beings.

We cannot achieve this by just repeating or copying Steiner.  Our challenge is to work with what he brought us."

Why 0 out of 10?

Things were not so easy for R with Papa, who wanted to know how the 0 out of 10 was won.  Here are some of R's responses:

• Because she wants me to be superman & work 24 hours a day
• I don't have the test with me
• There's nothing to see
• Strange Donald Duck noise
• Forget it
• I'm tired
• I'm too tired get up and go upstairs
• I don't need to talk about it the teacher talked about it for an hour and shouted at everyone and I've understood now.
• I feel WEAK
• EVERYONE got zero
• My friends got 5, 7 and 8 out of 20 (oh dear, the stoats and weasels are not performing)
• OKOKOK she wants us to put the title on one place and the number on each page and the subtitle underlined and the holes punched and the pictures stuck on and the sources listed.
• Strange Donald Duck noise

Papa finally located the evidence in R's bag.   It would appear that the 0 out of 10 relates to file management, which R seems not to have concerned himself with for 3 months, considering it not important and making no sense and because the teacher issued instructions at the end of a long day just before the holidays and nobody was listening.

Finally the teacher's instructions for getting marks for subject of folder administration were uncovered (I translate):

Documentation in the Folder

• Number of documents:  a minimum of three per theme
• Relevance of documents to the theme
• Neat and tidy work (cutting out, presentation)
• Title and source
• Personal remarks (at least one phrase to describe the document, make the link with the theme, and show why it is relevant)

Sapristi Knuckoes (this is of course my personal remark).

School Report; Judgement Day Approaches

We are to be honoured with a school report which I am informed by printed message will be delivered into my hands (presumably they can't trust the inmates to deliver it) on the 20th December 2012 (just in time for Christmas, how lovely).    The teacher has calculated that she will have precisely 6 minutes for each parent, and if you have more than 6 minutes worth of things to say you should make a separate appointment.  I can only deduce that as I will not have had time to read the report, the 6 minutes will be spent by the teacher presenting me with her facts.

My interest in this piece of fire-fodder can be summed up in the French style as 0 out of 20, however, the teachers are in a frenzy of statistical collation and the pupils are preparing for Judgement Day.

R told me today that he managed a 7 out of 10 for one Geography test, but a 0 out of 10 for the other, which he puts down to 'bad organisation' on his part.  His overall mark for the Report is therefore 7 out of 20, which tells me precisely 0 out of 20 about my son's ability achievement or improvement in geography.

"Any teacher who gives a pupil 0 out of 10 without giving him a chance to re-do it gets 0 out of 10 from me"  I said hotly.  "If my pupil got 0 I would be questioning my ability to teach".

R tells me that the school report will divide pupils into categories.  Those with consistently low notes would seem to be unworthy of attention, those 10 - 12 shall be called WHITE, and those over 12 shall be called ENCOURAGEMENT.  He didn't have anything to say about the top scorers, presumably because he has no hope of being one of them.   I'm not sure he's totally understood.  I certainly haven't.

"What is WHITE a sort of blank neutral nothing of a white wall?  I said to R

"Yes".

And what of ENCOURAGEMENT, you are all encouraged I would hope?  In fact I would have thought those with low notes need the encouragement whilst those with high could be congratulated?

"Yes".

I have had to do some emotional processing following all of this and was unable to empty the dishwasher without the help of Amy Winehouse Back to Black turned up very loud.

At least it is midwinter, when I go to collect the offending article I can wear a hat and a scarf round my mouth to hide my hostility.  R says I should just say 'I agree not good' about any complaints and 'Jolly good' for anything satisfactory.  This could be the longest 6 minutes of my life.

FULL REPORT OUT ON 20TH DECEMBER 2012 watch this space