Inspiring and Encouraging Global Dignity

Excellent topic Parag.

Just today, I was writing something for the Charter for Compassion which tries to convey that its about seeing the objective as people like ourselves, in acccordance with the Golden Rule that one should treat others as one would hope to be treated - as fellow humans.

http://charterforcompassion.ning.com/[…]/peoplecentered-economics

In his poem about an Old Cumberland Beggar, I believe Wordsworth draws attention to the difference between charitable duty and the real desire, to be in their own right generous.

      "But of the poor man ask, the abject poor;
      Go, and demand of him, if there be here
      In this cold abstinence from evil deeds,
      And these inevitable charities,
      Wherewith to satisfy the human soul?
      No--man is dear to man; the poorest poor
      Long for some moments in a weary life
      When they can know and feel that they have been,
      Themselves, the fathers and the dealers-out
      Of some small blessings; have been kind to such
      As needed kindness, for this single cause,
      That we have all of us one human heart."

That I believe is what enables dignity.

Now about the plans. I think you refer in the latter to the Chinese 'Marshall Plan'. I'm suggesting that both can be applied.

In the 'Marshall Plan' strategy paper we delivered 3 years ago. A microeconomic approach was proposed in which a social investment fund would facilitate social enterprise. The social enterprise component is the latter of two parts below.

http://en.for-ua.com/analytics/2007/08/06/121201.html

http://en.for-ua.com/analytics/2007/08/09/110003.html

Jeff

How should we best facilitate dignity?

By setting out in a spirit of openness and humility to learn, understand and embody in our relations towards those with whom we interact whatever dignity means to them. But I have to say that 'facilitating dignity' seems to be a slightly labored kind of activity to me. I'm wondering why it is not just a part of the way we expect to be in our relations toward ourself and others in the world, rather than something we have to 'do'? I wonder if focusing on reducing or eradicating moral condescension could be an easier and maybe a healthier aspiration?

• Is the intent of providing dignity required in such efforts? Or can it simply be a secondary effect?

in my experience treating each other with mutual dignity is at the root of healthy and enduring human relationships, no matter who we interact with. And it includes treating oneself with dignity. That said, this is my own moral judgment and if someone with whom I interact doesn't care if I treat them with dignity or not, who am I to seek to foist my dignity values on them?

I think dignity emerges from within as well as being a function of environment. If someone has a natural sense of self dignity and has also been treated with dignity, the way I behave toward them will probably not affect them in the least, although it may well affect whether I am seen as dignified in my relations with them! If that person has a propensity to think ill of themself and/or lived a life of constant humiliation by others, the fact that I experience and treat them as equals may not be noticed, may be seen as bizarre, may be experienced as condescension and/or may be felt as healing. If I care about their well-being, I'll continue to accord the dignity that they deserve, irrespective of how they react toward me. At the same time I will maintain my own boundaries for how I need to be treated if I am to remain in relationship with them. Expecting and requiring that I be treated with reciprocal dignity can also be useful to others.

• How do we ensure it is not just a buzz word thrown around but actually implemented?

I guess by aspiring to embody dignity toward self and others and live it as our natural way of interacting in the world.

• Where have you seen dignity (intentional or unintentional) make a difference?

I know the minute I meet someone whether or not they see others as their equals and for me it is a wonderful basis for building successful relationship. i've seen many people who are not used to be treated with respect and dignity unfurl like flowers and grow visibly when treated as the equal human beings I know us all to be. This is especially the case where previous interactions with people from other cultures or other groups within their own culture have been intentionally or unintentionally demeaning and insensitive to them. Children who have not been accorded respect are an especial joy to watch when they are treated as human beings rather than some lesser species. The deaf, disabled, blind, women, people affected by AIDS etc etc can write the book on what it is to receive day in and day out anything from a subtle sub-text of condescension through to deliberate social ostracism and exclusion.

for me there is a difference between the apparent absence of intentional dignity as currency, which may simply mean a neutral situation and the active presence of felt humiliation / condescension. It seems to me that, in the Chinese example spoken of here, "without moral condescension" is key. Having chewed over this subject in my mind while writing, I still can't help feeling that there is soemthing contrived about needing to set out to behave with intentional dignity toward those with whom we interact. I wonder if it speaks more about the moral paucity of the cultural context from which we come? Respect toward self and others is written into some of those so-called 'marginalized cultures' in which I have lived where children learn dignity at their mother's - or grandmother's - knee, by being accorded dignity and being expected to behave with dignity toward others from their earliest days.

At root I think it's very simple - relate to others from an open heart and focus on understanding what being in relationship means to them. Respond and deliver this, without giving away one's own self dignity. And in my experience no relationship has ever suffered from having dignity as its base currency, whether or not it has been perceived as necessary by the other party.

Thanks for reading!

Dear Jeff and 'MidiBerry',

Thank you for your insightful comments! An interesting theme emerges out of both your posts - that of treating someone with respect naturally rather than making a special effort. Is this what is happening with China's work in Africa? Establishing partnerships rather than donor-recipient relationships? Perhaps this is a common linkage then with social entrepreneurship in working with rather than working for people. Certainly, part of the promise of the 'Base of the Pyramid' is the idea of treating the marginalized as partners in consumption and production rather than as 'beneficiaries'. More on the beneficiary distinction below in Jill's post...

Are the services you provide for your "beneficiaries" or are they for your "constituents"? Are you accountable to them, and they to you? Are the poor your partners and expert advisers on culturally appropriate technology and user defined/iterated design?

“Empowering the Talent” is a positive trend toward empowering, employing, and engaging local/indigenous people in solving their own problems.

If this is one key to ensuring dignity, what do they need to be successful in solving their own problems?

Is it tools, knowledge transfer, funding, jobs, legal changes (ie the rights the trash pickers needed), the chance to be heard, opportunities to lead?

Are there best practices/guidelines on how social entrepreneurs and NGOS (and governments and private sector) can provide those needed inputs?

Martin Montero evangelizes elevating the status of poor to partners and co-creators in his post on "Three crystal clear cases why social entrepreneurship is an economic development tool."
http://montero.tumblr.com/post/211999835/socentasecondev


IDEO came out with the human-centered design toolkit that promotes prototyping as “a methodology for making solutions tangible in a rapid and low-investment way.” In a joint project of IDEO and Acumen called the Ripple Effect, Sangeeta Chowdhry explained two keys to success: 1. A short deadline (2 months) prompted local participants to start and complete projects and 2. Rapid iteration led to both faster & better solutions.
http://www.socialedge.org/[…]/seeding-innovation
http://www.ideo.com/[…]/

Kjerstin Erickson's social entrepreneur venture Forge took a financial hit last year when they employed the refugees themselves to lead, run, and do the work which is their their long-term goal. By not bringing in foreign students, she lost not only the “free” student labor (paying instead the refugees salaries) but she lost the student fundraising dollars as well. However, employing and empowering the refugee camp people plays a big role in the longer term recovery of the war torn country as exemplified in the post where she recounts a letter explaining how FORGE's programming is helping otherwise-ineligible populations to join the reconstruction process. They heard that seven former students managed to pass the test and get jobs with the electoral commission of DRC. "FORGE was not wasting time and resources in its projects but was actually investing in people. The good seeds that FORGE was sowing are now producing."
http://www.socialedge.org/[…]/news-from-drc

So one great outcome of this discussion might be identifying what it specifically takes – describing the types of inputs, process, etc – needed to effectively empower talent. Are there guidelines or principals that could be published as an outcome of this collaborative discussion?

Thank you for that practical approach to creating dignity Jill! In creating partnerships, we touch upon a principal-agent relationship which helps to ensure dignity and an outcome in which both parties have a vested interest. Arguably, philanthropy's biggest challenge is not in achieving sustainability but rather that organizations are beholden to the philanthropist more than their constituents (by the same token, capital markets which run on principal-agent relationships in customers purchasing products, went awry when CDOs and derivatives removed the principal-agent relationship). Is this principal-agent relationship necessary to create dignity?

Jill, just picking up on your comment about social entrepreneurship being an economic development tool. I wondered if you realised that that's where we started as people-centered economic development rather than social enterprise 13 years ago with a white paper on the subject. I know I'm connected to Michael Montero on Twitter but can't actually use it to communicate this common understanding. I could give him even more examples, like introduction of moral collateral microfinance to Russia 10 years ago.

This is the essence of what we've advocated, that business is for the interest of all people, their economic, social and cultural rights. In Pakistan, Ramla Akhtar goes into greater detail of her people-centered model of business which arose independently.

http://www.scribd.com/[…]/The-PeopleCentered-Model-of-Business-tm

Jeff

A follow up on a blog of my own relating the business approach to economic development and recent convergence with social enterprise.

http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=137144

Dear Parag,
I am Ashish Sharma, a Chartered Accountant from India. I have evolved a unique concept called "e-currency system" that can solve almost all the socio-economic problems of the world. Exclusive implementation of e-currency system as legal tender of the country can make any country economically autonomous. E-currency talk of solving the problems like black money, hyperinflation, cash crunch, economic recession, terrorism, poverty, unemplyment, finacial and social crimes. E-currency system creates income cycle with the potencity of multiplying itself to infinity without any worries for CRR (Cash Reserve ratio). Closure of banks due to paucity of funds can be easily dealt with here in this e-currency system. For details please visit: http://www.electroniccurrencytime.com , http://www.electroniccurrencytime.com/global.html , http://www.electroniccurrencytime.com/Economists.html , http://www.electroniccurrencytime.com/newspapers.html , http://projects.tigweb.org/ecurrency .
I Request you to kindly go through the concept and the hundreds of Global discussions posted in the above mentioned addresses with certification from IMF and international economists.
I hope you will certainly look into the concept that claims to be the only conept in the world for solving the economic crisis.
i expect a healthy discussions with the expectation that if found worth, you will certaily advocate for the implementation of e-currency system for the protection of dignity of the common people.

Dear Ashish, Thank you for your post and multiple links. I will certainly check them out!

Happy Global Dignity day!

In principle, dignity is given with self-autonomy and self-determination, not ostracism and exclusion, within a main culture. Congrats to FORGE for getting it and enabling the sowing of seeds of dignity for refugees, that would otherwise face humiliation and rootlessness.

Parag, I think "without moral condescension" is double-edged and is about cultural context with the Chinese (and the marginalized cultures that live around them ie. Tibet) - so if dignity is taken away by one culture, it has no currency in another.

In the Old beggar, "that, attempting to prevent the waste/ crumbs still in little showers/ fell on the ground" explains that with every action, there is still unintended consequences, Wordsworth's right "every mode of being/ (is) inseparably linked." I agree, ultimately our own dignity is linked with the dignity of others, which of course means, no one has any real dignity until everyone has dignity.

   

In places where there is a huge gap between those who have, and those who do not have, there is a way to find more common ground...

and waste picking in South Africa can be a place of common ground. The change in global economies has meant that people are exploring other currencies and ways of making a living - and recycling can be one of these.

The informal recycling industry on the streets of SOuth Africa is similar, and different to what you describe in India.

Our recyclers are also using "rubbish" as a currency. Those who can pay, do. Those who have no currency, use what is thrown away from those who have more than they need. Cycles of goods used, reused, thrown away. One person's trash is another's treasure.

The "upper" environmentally aware class and "lower" currency poor classes are doing the same thing - reducing, reusing recycling.

And in a way that brings currency to those who take the time to recycle.
Tin can recycling is the most formalised, with great numbers recycled.

Dignity is in the act of recycling - regardless of class of those doing the same thing, becuase we are doing this, across the huge economic divides.

The combined efforts will be for the same end, and in the process, the removal of currency of money, allows a new currency to develop. Stuff, and its value is determined by the one who has it, the one who doesnt want it passes it on to the one who can best use it.

In my mind, this reduces the divides, and brings a new currency to one person's rubbish is another's treasure...

Thanks Ingrid for sharing. Would love to learn more about waste pickers in South Africa! Touching upon currency as it has come up a couple times in discussion - dignity comes along with having something that others want to trade/ buy for. Sociology study after another all point to the tremendous effect having work and being productive has on those that have been down on their luck and on welfare (social entrepreneurs in the livelihood sectors have empirically proven this and have shown the debilitating effect hand me outs with no path towards empowerment has yielded). WasteBank helps to make the BoP process of solid waste management more efficient and effective for waste pickers to garner a currency and livelihood they can conduct with pride. To do so (in a scalable manner), the organization is building the commercial case. WasteBank builds the market and the market builds the dignity of wastepickers (the environment and social factors like city health are nice by-products!)

For anyone interested in this discussion I'd recommend 'Cry Dignity!' by Dr. John L. Peters, founder of World Neighbors. Free to read and share here: http://tinyurl.com/yllgtlb

Thanks Rich! On low bandwidth internet over here so look forward to downloading and reading in the near future. Would love to have your thoughts on it or dignity in general!

Love the idea of turning trash into treasure Parag.

In turning public perception on its head, China's model of development could work, (in the 'collabor-motion paradox') if history doesn't repeat itself. Rather than giving top-down assistance to governments and companies for infrastructure improvements, economic engagement could take on a bottom-up social entrepreneurial approach - if China simply promoted recycling on the continent (alongside its non-interference policy with trade)- that would encourage creating value add-on services "with margins being realized down the value chains" for the waste pickers and others etc, needing better products marketable at the BOP with the flow-on effects that it creates. In the broader context of aid and multilateral relations, the conclusive and cost-effective result would be, China giving people the inherent opportunity to create their own dignity. I can't remember who said it, but - we lose dignity if we tolerate the intolerable. That's everyone, not just China's efforts in Africa. I agree with you, in your talking trash column, "collaboration takes time to do right, and needs complete transparency of action."

Aristotle had said "dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them." I also agree, a fundamental mindset shift is needed - not just with waste and the consumption that fuels it- but with a shift in the consciousness that Aristotle talked about. Recycling as awareness of this consciousness, is a mindset that sustains relationships etc.
The interesting thing about recycling waste, is that creativity most blossoms when resources are most limited, so indeed, trash turns into treasure.

Thanks for the comments Jo and for reading the Talking Trash blogs! I whole-heartedly agree with your quote, "ultimately our own dignity is linked with the dignity of others, which of course means, no one has any real dignity until everyone has dignity." Unfortunately, it seems we are going in the opposite direction. (I just read an article that stated that one in six people in the United States may be considered under the poverty line - and this in the wealthiest nation!) How do we get individuals to share this point of view? This also relates to the topic of environmental dignity which we have not yet covered in this discussion. If we cannot think as a collective to ensure global environmental dignity, then are we doomed with the climate change version of the tragedy of the commons?
    

Parag, In 2003 I was in correspondence with a man who raised the issue of economic social and cultural rights in the US with a fast in Chapel Hill NC. I made an effort to help, pitching a pastiche of the Frank Capra movie 'Meet John Doe' at an ABC news reporter. In this case life failed to imitate art, but it did set off a chain of events which are reflected in news today.

http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=137296

You know, I think it's the economic model of free enterprise that has tipped the pyramid upside down, when most of the resources go to those at the top, it leaves those at the bottom scraping for next to nothing while balancing on a pinnicle of despair. Like the tragedy of the commons, multiple individuals acting independently, out of their own self interest, will ultimately destroy the resources for everyone's long-term interest.

With a radical shift, open access resources and community co-ops (to rebuild the economy so the most at the base of the pyramid have the most resources) the concept of poverty and its ensuing lack of dignity, can be turned around.

I think how it's going to happen is, with a reversal of social darwinism - where everyone exists for their own survival alone (an idea that has been built up over the past few centuries, based on the false beliefs of a Newtonian model of the universe) - in shifting the mindset, perceptions, thinking and values, to create thriving, sustainable communities. With an understanding, in the web of life, self-organizing means that humanity strives to have a belonging to the connectedness of the cosmos, as a whole. I heard that asking deeper questions is the essence of the paradigm shift.