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“In the beginning, woman was truly the sun. An authentic person.” -Raicho Hiratsuka, Japanese writer and feminist
“Today more than ever, the global economy needs precisely this kind of radiant sun—to provide light and nourishment. To provide healing. To dry out the swamps of poverty and unrest...I urge everyone—all women and men of goodwill—to dare the difference and bet on women. I promise you this: you will not be disappointed. For when women shine like the sun, their radiance will be forever undimmed.”-Christine Lagarde, Managing director, the International Monetary Fund
Meghanomics is all about Women’s Empowerment
‘Recent trends are perfectly illustrated by the Harry and Meghan match. He struggled at school and went off to join the army rather than go to university; she got a double major in theatre and international relations and has had a successful acting career. If the monarchy were abolished and the members of the royal family had to fend for themselves, there’s little doubt which of the couple would be the more reliable breadwinner.’-Photo:bing.com
“We will never achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals without overcoming the discrimination and poverty that stunts the lives of girls and women from one generation to the next. We must work at all levels, from grassroots to global leaders, to put equity and inclusion at the heart of every policy so that all girls, whatever their circumstances, go to school, stay in school and become empowered citizens.”- Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General
Economic Empowerment
Photo: unwomen.org
‘Investing in women’s economic empowerment sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth. Women make enormous contributions to economies, whether in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or by doing unpaid care work at home.
But they also remain disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination and exploitation. Gender discrimination means women often end up in insecure, low-wage jobs, and constitute a small minority of those in senior positions. It curtails access to economic assets such as land and loans. It limits participation in shaping economic and social policies. And, because women perform the bulk of household work, they often have little time left to pursue economic opportunities.’-UN WOMEN
I was prompted to write this Blog, after reading an excellent article by Larry Elliott, the Guardian's economics editor. Writing in the Guardian on Wednesday 23 May 2018, he suggests that, ‘Meghanomics’ can be the answer to Britain’s productivity crisis. He notes that, Meghan Markle-Duchess of Sussex- wants to champion female empowerment.
As Elliott notes:
‘There’s nothing quite like a royal wedding to get the British to part with their cash, so in one respect the idea that the new Duchess of Sussex could be good news for the economy is a statement of the blindingly obvious. Retailers have had a tough time recently, and a bit of Meghanmania was just what they needed to get the tills ringing.
Interest in the newest member of the royal family will linger longer than the feelgood factor. People are clearly fascinated by her backstory and take notice of what she thinks. Role models are important, and just as it matters that Christine Lagarde sees fighting for women’s rights as a vital part of her job as head of the International Monetary Fund, so it matters that the Duchess of Sussex calls herself a feminist and wants to champion female empowerment. Feminism is an economic issue.’...
More on Elliott’s article later. Now, I very much wish to share with you, something a bit more personal, more heartfelt:
I, too, am feminist and proud of it! Yes, I, too, believe that in order to build a better world, we must promote ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment’, and thus, I, too, support ‘Meghanomics’.
Let me explain a bit more, by quoting a few excerpts from a Blog I had written in February 2015, very relevant to today’s discussion:
“Economic Woman”: The Time is Now
Photo: africanexecutive.com
‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest When Adam Smith wrote that all our actions stem from self-interest and the world turns because of financial gain he brought to life 'economic man'. Selfish and cynical, economic man has dominated our thinking ever since and his influence has spread from the market to how we shop, work and date. But every night Adam Smith's mother served him his dinner, not out of self-interest but out of love. Today, our economics focuses on self-interest and excludes all other motivations. It disregards the unpaid work of mothering, caring, cleaning and cooking. It insists that if women are paid less, then that's because their labour is worth less - how could it be otherwise? Economics has told us a story about how the world works and we have swallowed it, hook, line and sinker. Now it's time to change the story.’..Continue to read
And now returning to the Elliott’s article in the Guardian:
…’Feminism is an economic issue.
‘Plenty of explanations have been canvassed for Britain’s recent woeful productivity record: too little investment, poor infrastructure, insufficient spending on research and development, too many low-paid, low-skilled jobs, weak management and a long tail of under–performing firms among them. Strangely, the one that gets the least attention is the failure to utilise fully the skills of the available workforce.
Women outperform men in higher and further education, yet their talents are being wasted. Women and men are not equal partners in the workplace and the gap between them remains large despite some progress in recent decades. A report by McKinsey in 2015 said that advancing women’s equality could add $12tn a year to the world economy – equivalent to the economies of Britain, Germany and Japan combined. As David Coates says in his new book, Flawed Capitalism, an enormous pool of human capital is being squandered because of sexist cultures, glass ceilings and economic structures that make it hard for women.
The evidence for this starts right at the top of British society. Five out of 21 permanent secretaries in Whitehall are women; there is one women out of nine members on the Bank of England committee that sets interest rates; there has never been a female chancellor or cabinet secretary. When Moya Greene steps down from the Post Office in the summer, there will be just six women running FTSE 100 companies.
The Labour governments from 1997 to 2010 sought to address gender issues in the economy in a number of ways: through the tax and benefits system, by introducing a national minimum wage, by providing financial help with childcare, and by making maternity pay more generous.
Many of those gains have been rolled back over the past eight years. Tax credits have been made less generous; Sure Start centres have been closed; and job cuts in the public sector have disproportionately affected women. Austerity has had a gender dimension. Meanwhile, the way in which workplaces are organised is unfit for purpose in an age in which brains are more important than brawn.
Childcare remains a big problem. The gender pay gap will never be closed while women take most of the responsibility for childcare, because they are out of the workplace in their 20s and 30s and lose out on promotion to men who are often less qualified to do the job.
Many parents make the choice to look after their young children, but incentives for women to get back to work quickly after having children are weak, because expensive childcare combined with low wages means that the sums simply don’t add up. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has said the cost of childcare as a share of wages is higher in the UK than in any other rich developed nation. As a consequence, many women take the decision to look after their young children rather than return to work.
There is an obvious solution to this problem – a nationwide system of universal free childcare that would start from when a child is six months old. On the face of it, this would be an expensive commitment, although the Women’s Budget Group – which scrutinises the gender implications of government policy – says it would pay for itself.
Upfront costs are certainly high – £33bn a year if the staff hired to run the scheme were paid at current wage rates, and £55bn a year if they were paid the same salaries as primary school teachers.
But this assumes that all parents would take up the offer immediately, which they almost certainly wouldn’t. A more realistic cost would be £28bn a year, which would be offset by the additional revenue the exchequer could expect to get. More women would be working, so income tax and national insurance receipts would go up. The new entrants to the workforce would have more money to spend and so extra VAT would be paid. Finally, the bill for benefits would go down. In all, the Women’s Budget Group says this adds up to just under £27bn a year.
If the government plumped for the more expensive £55bn a year option, it could raise £28bn by introducing a single rate of pension tax relief at about 25%, postponing further cuts to corporation tax, unfreezing fuel and alcohol duties, and reallocating the money it already spends on childcare and early education.
The wider economy would also benefit because better-educated and better-qualified women could be expected to make smarter decisions than men, if only they were in a position to make them.
Recent trends are perfectly illustrated by the Harry and Meghan match. He struggled at school and went off to join the army rather than go to university; she got a double major in theatre and international relations and has had a successful acting career. If the monarchy were abolished and the members of the royal family had to fend for themselves, there’s little doubt which of the couple would be the more reliable breadwinner.’
Read the original article: The answer to Britain’s productivity crisis? Meghanomics
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What might an Economy for the Common Good look like?
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American Bishop Michael Curry has captured the world's attention with a long and powerful address at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday 19 May 2018
Most Rev. Michael Curry, delivering his powerful sermon at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
“There’s power in love. Love can help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.”
Photo:bbc.co.uk
‘It was a sermon that will go down in history as a moment when the enduring seat of colonialism was brought before the Lord, and questioned in its own house. In the mention of slavery was the inherent accusation of white silver-spoon complicity, and that this union should not go forth without acknowledging it.’
‘Curry’s sermon was one of three moments during the royal wedding when I felt moved. I had not expected to be moved. I had expected to remain full of cold indignation at the pomp and aristocratic indulgence of the day, at the preparatory shooing of the homeless off the streets of Windsor by police officers who should be tending to more important things like knife crime, at the £32m shamelessly spent amid the rising presence of foodbanks and child poverty. The first of these moments was Ragland arriving at the chapel, a black woman quietly alone, being assisted from her car by a representative of an institution that had partaken in her oppression and was now required to respect her. The other was the Kingdom Choir’s beautiful rendition of Stand By Me, in part because it followed the sermon.
Reading from his iPad, gesticulating, swinging his robes, smiling, rocking back and forth on his feet, Curry was in complete contrast to the solemn and stationary ecclesiastical address that preceded his. Where there was stillness, now there was movement. For 14 minutes he preached in the full-throated, uninhibited, theatrical and emotive style of the traditional African-American church. He preached of Moses and Jesus of Nazareth, the Hebrew scriptures and the “old slaves in America’s antebellum South” who recognised in their singing of spirituals, “even in the midst of their captivity”, that there is “a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole”. Quoting from Martin Luther King to begin and end the speech, this was not something ever witnessed within the lofty walls of the pinnacle of the Anglican establishment at a royal wedding. This was a speech that could have been lifted straight out of the pages of James Baldwin or ZZ Packer.
An ardent campaigner for social justice, particularly on immigration and same-sex marriage, Chicago-born Curry, himself a descendent of slaves, did not tone down his passionate message of the social and political power of love in order to align with the reserve of his pale and stately onlookers. He did not filter. He did it black, with music in his arms, and rhythm in his voice, and a looseness and openness in his face that supposed an almost familial acquaintance with his audience.
In his world, words do not travel alone from the mouth, with just their letters and their grammar for company. Here the body comes too, giving life to the words, lifting them into the air to float and dance into comprehension and human feeling. For Zara Tindall, captured open-mouthed in her pricey, shiny teal in the pews, it was something to behold.
The expressions on the faces of the congregation around the church were also something to behold, ranging from empathy to bemusement to confusion to downright scorn. Four minutes in, Camilla Parker Bowles’s ludicrous hat was trembling as she held down her head: was she laughing? Prince Charles was also bowed, red around the ears, more so than usual: was he?
There was half a smirk at the Duchess of Cambridge’s mouth, and, when Curry exclaimed: “Oh that’s the balm in Gilead!”, throwing up his hands in emphasis, the Queen straightened in her chair, purse-lipped. Meanwhile, Oprah swayed. Ragland looked steadily on, a little sadly, as if aware of something of which others were not, yet also with an innate sweetness; while her daughter sat holding hands with her prince, occasionally conferring in love-soaked whispers.
It was a sermon that will go down in history as a moment when the enduring seat of colonialism was brought before the Lord, and questioned in its own house. In the mention of slavery was the inherent accusation of white silver-spoon complicity, and that this union should not go forth without acknowledging it.
“Love is the way,” Curry chanted, in a rolling, conversational repetition borne of the deep south. “When love is the way, we actually treat each other, well” – he put his hand on his hip and his elbow on the lectern – “like we are actually a family”. A utopia for our time indeed, delivered with a grand humility apparently wasted on some of its listeners, who were not quite expecting such blackness from a black bride.’
*The above excerpts are from an article by Diana Evans which was first published in the Guardian on Sunday 20 May 2018
Read the full text of Bishop Michael Curry's rousing royal wedding sermon
Love is the way | Bishop Michael Curry's captivating sermon - The Royal Wedding - BBC- The Video
Who is Michael Curry? The minister who told royal wedding 'love is the way'
...And now finally a note from me:
In his wonderful sermon, Bishop Michael, shared many beautiful and timeless gems with us. One of those gems that landed right on my heart, was when he told us about the power of ‘ Love and Imagination’ (see below).
‘That’s what love is. Love is not selfish and self-centred. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.
If you don’t believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way.
Imagine our homes and families where love is the way.
Imagine our neighbourhoods and communities where love is the way.
Imagine our governments and nations where love is the way.
Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way.’
This very much resonates with me, as I have also came to believe in the awesome power of love and imagination to heal our troubled world.
Let me quote a relevant passage from a lecture I gave at the Oxford Theology Society, Keble College, University of Oxford in 2017:
‘Imagine a political system that puts the public first. Imagine the economy and markets serving people rather than the other way round. Imagine us placing values of respect, fairness, interdependence, and mutuality at the heart of our economy. Imagine an economy that gives everyone their fair share, at least an appropriate living wage, and no zero-hour contracts. Imagine where jobs are accessible and fulfilling, producing useful things rather than games of speculation and casino capitalism. Imagine where wages support lives rather than an ever expanding divisions and separations between the top 1% and the rest. Imagine a society capable of supporting everyone’s needs, and which says no to greed. Imagine unrestricted access to an excellent education, healthcare, housing and social services. Imagine hunger being eliminated, no more food banks and soup kitchens. Imagine each person having a place he/she can call home. Imagine all senior citizens living a dignified and secure life. Imagine all the youth leading their lives with ever-present hope for a better world. Imagine a planet protected from the threat of climate change now and for the generations to come. Imagine no more wars, but dialogue, conversation and non-violent resolution of conflicts.
This is the world I wish to see and I believe we have the means to build it, if we take action in the interest of the common good.
We must begin to seriously think, ponder and reflect together on Life’s Big Questions, questions of meaning, values and purpose:’ Continue to read-Oxford Theology Society Lecture: Values to Make the World Great Again
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(Martin Parker has taught at business schools since 1995, including at Warwick, Leicester and Keele Universities. He is currently Professor at the Department of Management, University of Bristol)-Photo: PLUTO PRESS
N.B. This Call is Music to my ears. That is, until such a time that all the business schools around the world, acknowledge and adopt My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students, or produce a similar document, whilst more importantly, atone for their past mistakes, repent and demonstrate how they may form their new moral and spiritual compass and find the path to values-led education in the interest of the common good.
However, sadly, given my own hard-earned experience, I firmly believe this to be highly unlikely. Thus, I am joining with Prof. Martin Parker, by endorsing his noble Call, as I am of the opinion that indeed our universities are not universities anymore.
Shut Down the Business School
What's Wrong with Management Education
‘Business schools are institutions which, a decade after the financial crash, continue to act as loudspeakers for neoliberal capitalism with all its injustices and planetary consequences. In this lively and incendiary call to action, Martin Parker offers a simple message: shut down the business school.
Parker argues that business schools are 'cash cows' for the contemporary university that have produced a generation of unreflective managers, primarily interested in their own personal rewards. If we see universities as institutions with responsibilities to the societies they inhabit, then we must challenge the common notion that 'the market' should be the primary determinant of the education they provide.
Shut Down the Business School makes a compelling case for a radical alternative, in the form of a 'School for Organising'. This institution would develop and teach on different forms of organising, instead of reproducing the dominant corporate model, enabling individuals to discover alternative responses to the pressing issues of inequality and sustainability faced by all of us today.’-PLUTO PRESS
Read more:
Why we should bulldoze the business school
By Martin Parker
Photo: chronicle.com
'There are 13,000 business schools on Earth. That’s 13,000 too many. And I should know – I’ve taught in them for 20 years.’
‘Visit the average university campus and it is likely that the newest and most ostentatious building will be occupied by the business school. The business school has the best building because it makes the biggest profits (or, euphemistically, “contribution” or “surplus”) – as you might expect, from a form of knowledge that teaches people how to make profits.
Business schools have huge influence, yet they are also widely regarded to be intellectually fraudulent places, fostering a culture of short-termism and greed. (There is a whole genre of jokes about what MBA – Master of Business Administration – really stands for: “Mediocre But Arrogant”, “Management by Accident”, “More Bad Advice”, “Master Bullshit Artist” and so on.) Critics of business schools come in many shapes and sizes: employers complain that graduates lack practical skills, conservative voices scorn the arriviste MBA, Europeans moan about Americanisation, radicals wail about the concentration of power in the hands of the running dogs of capital. Since 2008, many commentators have also suggested that business schools were complicit in producing the crash.’...Continue to read