In today's MSNBC article Beijing starts locking poor villages at night, it is being reported that Beijing's migrant communities will effectively be locked down in an effort to prevent crime. According to the article, residents entering and exiting areas will be asked to show their documents (assumed to be Hukou and/or temporary residence permits) at night in the 16 villages. Experts in the article are quoted as saying that this is a move that not only looks bad, but also will only serve to more deeply ingrain existing discrimination. Discrimination that is part of the core problem of migrant crime.

It is an action that is surely being taken with short term security goals in mind, but as the quoted experts suggest, the long term implication of the "Sealed Management" policy are likely to only exacerbate the underlying issues that exist. Which will likely do little to relieve the pressures of future instability and security within the population as the feelings of isolation and discrimination are only reinforced by policies that single them out as "the problem".

Long term the problems are more complex.

Issues of economic and physical security at the forefront of crime, long term the policies will need to be focused on offering migrants an opportunity to reap the rewards for their work to build and support cities, but also ensure that their investments be protected.

To learn more about my thoughts on creating stable communities and cities, please refer to my recent pitch from the BMW Young Leaders Forum

This is an old post that I originally had at another site, but while catching up on some reading, I was reminded by the power of the interviews we did last summer, the stories we began to tell, and the sense of respect I have for China's migrant workers

Earlier in the year while a few of my interns were inbetween assignments, I tasked them to get out of the office and do some street interviews. Now, executing street interviews was nothing new for them, but instead of taking out a video camera and asking questions to our typical targets, I wanted to push them outside their boundaries and speak to people whom they were more likely to walk right past on their way to work.

Migrants. Cooks. Sidewalk Seamstresses. DVD vendors. Pot Sticker vendors. Fruit vendors. Crane Operators. Bus Drivers.

It was a project I named Shanghai's 100 hardest jobs, which was (for the sake of full disclosure) inspired by the Discovery Channel program Dirty Jobs.

Initially, my interns were a bit skeptical, and were giving me the face of "he has gone crazy... again", but over the course of the next few weeks the first team completed about 30 interviews (2 more teams have since completed nearly 100 interviews), and were looking for more. In short, they were not only hooked, they were seeing a side of Shanghai that they never new existed.

... and they were Shanghaiese.

Reading through the interviews (we use the same questions for each), one is given a really humbling glimpse into the lives of these people and how hard they have it. People who are busting their humps day in and day out, and eating bitterness, for a common cause.

Hope and opportunity.

Cigarette Vendor - female from Henan

Q: Would you want your children to have this job?

A; No. My husband and I have this job/career because we lack of qualified education background. Letting them step on our old roads is the last thing I want to do. To my 14-year-old girl, I don’t have so many strings attached and just want her to live a happy life; as to my boy, I hope he can be a government official someday, a big name who has power (laugh).

Watermelon Vendor

Q: What do you want most right now?

A: We hope our boys can go to school in Shanghai. The education conditions are much better than we have in Linyi and we can take care of them while making a living here.

Hat Vendor

Q: If there was one thing you could change about your job, what would it be?

A: Change? It is such a luxury to me. How can I dream about changing my current status? I want to do my own business, like opening my own restaurant, but who will give me the money? I want to recruit and train my employees, but who will teach me how to manage or run my place? I dare not think of change. I guess my only hope is my son. He is the one can bring real changes.

Everything comes down to hope and opportunity

For the next generation.

As part of the 8th Europe Asia Young Leaders Forum, I was asked to present my thoughts on two questions:

• How do cities organize communal life and maintain social harmony?
• What can business contribute to these processes?

.. and I was given 15 minutes to do so.

The questions for me were ones that I regularly think about (particularly the first) as I walk through cities that I live in and travel through, but it was the first time that I had been challenged to put my thoughts into a single package.

At the heart of it, there are 5 major things that I thought cities needed to do well before they would find a "harmonious balance":

1. Good urban Planning
2. Provide Economic opportunities
3. Offer a suitable quality of life
4. Safety and Security
5. Environmental stability

How business fit into this wider picture is, and was, a bit more intangible to the presentation as I focused a lot on the role of the city, but in short, it is my belief that companies are being asked to play a stronger role in the development of community.  That, beyond providing jobs and paying taxes, it is the firms who work hard to develop internal and external communities are far more likely to find themselve in balance as well.

As news of the Yushu earthquake disappears from the world's front pages, survivors' needs increase. Those in Yushu still lack blankets and tents. Temperatures are dropping and there is insufficient fuel for cooking and heating. Yushu has no electricity and is still in darkness. People have only meager food supplies and are drinking water from unsafe sources.

    * A jacket costs 2 USD.
    * A blanket costs 2.40 USD.
    * A toothbrush costs 0.15 USD.
    * One ton of coal costs 51 USD.
    * 20 * 500ml bottled water 2.20 USD.
    * Flashlight: 2.90 USD.

If you can make even a small donation, please visit: www.yushuearthquakeresponse.org

Apart from the needs of those in Yushu, patients and their families in Xining are also suffering.

Below are the number of patients in Qinghai hospitals:

    * Qinghai Province People's Hospital: 186 patients
    * Armed Police Number Four Hospital: 83 patients
    * Qinghai Province Red Cross Hospital: 69 patients
    * Qinghai University Hospital: 172 patients
    * Qinghai Province People's Second Hospital: 127 patients
    * Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Hospital: 18 patients

This total of 655 people does not include accompanying family members.

Below are accounts written by Xining students describing the situation here and in Yushu.
 

Tashi:
I received information about the earthquake from my brother who is a teacher in Yushu. At about 5:00 a.m on the fourteenth of April a low magnitude quake woke people up, but many people then went back to sleep. Later that morning the big earthquake came. At that time many students were reciting lessons outside, by the walls of the school buildings. They were crushed when the walls fell on them. Some female students were going to the cafeteria to collect boiling water to make instant noodles, and the cafeteria collapsed and killed them. Despite all these terrible things, many people survived. They did not have any food for three days. After three days, instant noodles arrived and the people, almost starving, happily ate them. Now people are cold; they don't have enough clothes, or blankets, or anywhere to stay.

Rinchen
I went to the hospital to help earthquake victims. Although I am Tibetan I couldn't communicate very well with the patients because we speak different dialects. Nonetheless we could understand each other. People are just bringing them bread to eat and water to drink. They need some good food. The clerks at the hospital told me that many people are volunteering, but they still need qualified, professional, helpers.

Drolma
I went to the hospital to volunteer with my classmates – we spent one night there. There were many patients in the hospital. Some of the patients could not move, eat, drink, or go to the toilet by themselves. When people were awake they were nervous and when they were asleep they had nightmares. One man I helped had bruises all over his face and he couldn't move his legs. The patients in the hospital still don't have any clean clothes and what they are wearing has already become dirty and caked with blood.

Tsomo
Three of my female classmates are from Yushu. After the terrible earthquake they lost many relatives and friends, not to mention property. Luckily their parents are still alive. Now those three women are working busily in the hospital, day and night. They have been staying up all night to help the patients from their hometown and cannot attend classes as usual. When they come back to school from the hospital they just fall on the bed and sleep. Patients in the hospital have nothing now. I hope many warm-hearted people will stretch out their hands to help them.

Lumo
There is a girl from Yushu in the dorm room next to mine. She lost her mother in the earthquake. Since then she often calls out her mother's name and cries. Sometimes she stays silent for a long time. We don't know how to comfort her. Sometimes we want to talk about it with her, but maybe that will only make it worse. That girl is still going to classes, but she just sits there and we don't know if she really knows what is going on her around her.

Tsering and Tsemdo
We talked to one earthquake survivor who helped us to distribute supplies we took to Yushu from Xining. He told us, "I woke up when the earthquake occurred at around 5 a.m. I knew that an earthquake was occurring and wanted to get up but I felt very sleepy and stayed in bed. My wife also felt very sleepy and stayed in bed. We were never so sleepy in our whole life – it was very strange. When an earthquake occurred again at 7:49 a.m., our house shook and I woke up. The house continued to shake and I grabbed hold of my grandson and wife, jumped up from bed, and ran outside. Our house collapsed just as I stepped out of the door. Something heavy hit my head and I passed out. When I woke up I could barely see because my vision was blurry. As my sight came back I could only see dust. I heard the sound of houses collapsing. After the earthquake, my daughter and son-in-law were trapped in the rubble and died but the rest of the family was OK. Many other people have died.”  

Below are some photographs that local photographer Tsemdo made on April 17th, 2010, who traveled to Yushu to deliver aid supplies with local NGO Friendship Charity Association.

We have just received this report from friends at the Friendship Charity Association (Qinghai based).  In it are pictures from their first truckloads, as well as information on how to donate to further efforts.

On April 14th 2010 an earthquake measuring between 6.9 and 7.1 on the Richter scale struck thirty kilometers from Jyekundo, the capital of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Qinghai Province, China) causing widespread destruction. State media reports suggest that approximately 85% of all buildings in the city of ~100,000 people were destroyed. 1,706 people have been reported dead, 256 are missing, and thousands are injured.

Friendship Charity Association (FCA) first contacted its long-term partner organization the Huaqiao Foundation (http://www.huaqiaofoundation.org/) at 2 p.m. on April 14 2010 in order to organize the delivery of aid to the Yushu earthquake. FCA is based in Xining, about 800km from the earthquake epicenter. Shortly after contacting Huaqiao, we also contacted several other donors and friends and were thus able to collect 30,055 RMB.

Early on the morning of April 15, FCA requested its staff members and volunteers to go to local stores to purchase food, water, clothes, tents, bedding, and medical supplies. Everything was prepared by 7 p.m.

With five people guiding two trucks, the team arrived in Yushu at 6:24 p.m. on April 16.

Coordinating with local friends and NGOs in Yushu, the FCA team members distributed the supplies. The evening we arrived and complied lists of needy individuals and families. First thing next morning we distributed supplies.

FCA is now seeking further funding for disaster relief and is continuing to coordinate with our local partners in Yushu to determine their needs.

To donate, please click here http://www.friendshipcharity.org/donate/.

To see our account info and for other donation alternatives, please contact us at: nangchukja@friendshipcharity.org

 

We have just received the following letter from Tsongkha Charitable Association in Qinghai updating us on their efforts, and providing instructions for potential donors.

Dear friends,

Thank you for your concern about the Yushu earthquake.  As local NGOs are now receiving many phone callings from foundations and individuals, expressing their willingness to donate, several local NGOs in Qinghai established a “Yushu Earthquake Response” team and the team will collect all relief resources together and distribute them to those in most needs.  Some Yushu native volunteers of this team are leaving for Yushu soon to set up a relief work site for needs assessment and relief good distribution.

So if you or your organization wants to donate through Tsongkha Charitable Association (TCA) or the Response team, you can transfer the funds to either of the bank accounts below.  If your donation is large and you prefer it to be handled separately, we can arrange it as well.  Otherwise, the team will combine your donation with other resources and purchase relief aids and distribute them together.  TCA will be responsible in submitting reports to you.

In terms if needs, I talked to several people in Yushu.  All of them lost their houses.  Some people still received no aids (by 16:00, 15/April).  They need food, drinks, tents, and electricity generators.  Although CCTV is quick in propagating the swift response by troops, there still seems to be victims in unseen corners that need emergency assistance.  So if you can provide any support, we can purchase needed goods and deliver them to the hands of victims as soon as possible.

If you have any question or need further information, please let me know.

Thank you for your concern,

Kelsang Norbu
Director
Tsongkha Charitable Association
Haidong, Qinghai Province
Tel: 13519714070 / 0971-6363082
 

Last week while speaking with several of my longest supporters, I was introduced to one of the most innovative, creative, and smartest CSR programs I have seen in a while. It was the Nippon Color, Way of Love program, a program that benefited the students enrolled in Project Hope schools. A program that Nippon describes on their site as:

“Color, way of Love” is to color hopes with love. Colors materialize imaginations of kids. NIPPON PAINT, working with DuPont, initiated a program in 2009 to paint walls of 100 Hope schools in the following three years, making the schools more beautiful, improving conditions for education and hopefully contribute to better learning and unleash imagination of the kids. “Color, way of Love” supports the Project Hope, a charity program by China Youth Development Foundation. NIPPON PAINT Color Project Hope Fund, founded in 2009, will donate Nippon art classrooms in Hope schools in addition to building Hope schools. The pupils so benefited shall paint the most promising colors and be empowered to ignite their imaginations in an unlimited way.

When receiving the full introduction from their PR team, there were several things that stood out immediately to me. things, that when I saw them, I wished I would see them from CSR managers more often:

1) The program is aligns and leverages their core, and then matching that to the core of their partners. Nippon is a paint company whose goal is to improve the quality of their customers lives through the application of their product, and this program transfers that core "sell" into the CSR program by improving the educational environment of these students

2) the program engages not only the schools, but also the community at large. Leveraging a corporate minisite, Nippon has developed a platform whereby users can suggest designs for the school. An engagement tool that has resulted in 120,000 design suggestions

3) The program is multi-year and multi-faceted. Going beyond the standard one off donation that has built so many Hope schools, Nippon is committed to a long term arrangement that includes the donation of schools, painting of schools, and additional programing that will benefit Project Hope.

4) They have communicated this superbly through their site, which has received in total more than 3.5 billion hits in a single year. IT is a site that offers plenty of exposure and education to the issues that the Hope Project students face, and in a country where many are only beginning to understand the role of CSR in society, I found this to be an excellent piece that will help to develop a much higher level of engagement and understanding

Overall, it is a program that Nippon (and its partners) should be very proud of.  It is innovative and leverages their core business resources (financial, human, and product) in a way that will have a lasting impact on the communities they are working within, and at the same time, the marketing of the program is not only tastefull, but it is engaging as well.

On April 9, Ashoka Fellow Ramji Raghavan will be speaking at an event in Shanghai, and you are invited:

Venue: Shanghai No.1 Art Museum, No.1 Jianguo Zhong Road, Luwan Dist, Shanghai
Time: Morning of Apr 9, 2010 (around 1.5-2 hour) Agenda: 5 min - Short film about Ramji's work 30 min - Presentation by Ramji 60 min - Discussions with audiences
Guests: Around 40-50 social entrepreneurs, business leaders, venture philanthropists, academic experts who are interested in social entrepreneurship, and a few journalists from media Organizer: One Foundation

Brief introduction of Ramji (download complete bio here):
In 1998 Ramji left his commercial career to realize his dream: "retire early and have a school in the foothills of the Himalayas, where we will teach children to be creative leaders.” He founded Agastya, an innovative education organization in India.

Before Agastya, Ramji has worked as a senior executive in organizations in the US, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia and created and managed businesses in financial services, consulting and software. In addition to later co-founding a New York based investment bank and broker-dealer, he has also held positions at
Citibank, Cedel Group, and Morgan Stanley & Company International Limited.

As Agastya’s founder, he has written articles on education for Indian and foreign journals and spoken on creativity and leadership to audiences throughout India,  the UK and US.

China Daily has a story worth reading reviewing a recent poll of what the public think of Multinationals' CSR in China. Of note is:

• Despite many being criticised for not doing enough after the earthqauke, in hindsight the general opinion is that they did just fine.
• Because of the milk crisis, Multinationals (though some had products that were contaminated too) come out as stronger than Chinese companies.

Qifang, a Shanghai based enterprise focused on providing student loans, has just become the first Chinese enterprise to be named an World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.

According to their website, Qifang's core is one of social benefit: