A visual interlude

This painting from 1850 captivated me from the moment I first saw it in the Manchester City Art Gallery.  The painter, James Collinson, was part of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; their seven members were dedicated to the reform of art by returning to abundant detail, intense colours, and complex compositions in their depictions of realistic, contemporary life or historical events.

At first sight the artist has captured a tranquil domestic scene: a family relaxing in their cottage beside the warm fire, the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the window.  The children are huddled around the table, where a boy is writing.  The dog waits patiently for his supper while the parents engage in an earnest discussion, the ever-patient mother pulling her baby's socks on yet again... The expression on the wife's face, however, suggests that perhaps not all is well.

The title brings more understanding: "Answering the emigrant's letter."  A relative or friend is among the one million British people to have emigrated in the 1840s - some pushed by technological changes which displaced many textile and iron workers, others pulled by the prospect of a world of new opportunity.  The husband has a map of Australia on his lap, and holds the well-travelled letter in his hand. 

What is causing the tension?  Is the woman anxious that her husband is considering joining the emigrant - uprooting their family and way of life for a dangerous voyage and unknown destination?  Or is the opposite true?  The man can no longer find work but doesn't have the courage - unlike his wife - to set out for a new life in Australia?

However the letter is answered, the backdrop to Collinson's painting is the simmering tension of a rapidly changing world - technologically, socially, politically and economically - in the mid 19th century.  It is telling that the oldest child is writing the letter - probably because his parents never went to school or learned to write.  The challenge for this family is to face the challenges of emigration, mobility, redundancy, education... while maintaining their love, commitment, family values and relational support for one another.

As I reflect on this, I find the picture highly relevant even 160 years after it was painted.  The world in 2010 is changing rapidly, new opportunities and challenges appear, technology is still transforming society, old certainties are fading.  Yet what happens in the family, and the success or failure of relationships between men and women, parents and children, employers and workers, within communities and between nations, will always remain centre stage.

Absentee landlords and lessons from Cadbury and Kraft

Quote

“Corporation, n., An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.”

From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, American columnist and writer (1842-1914)

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, while the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery.”  Sir Winston Churchill 

News

On Tuesday the board of British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury recommended shareholders to accept the offer from US food giant Kraft – who need to borrow £7bn to pay for Cadburys.  Chairman Roger Carr said the board did not feel guilty about selling Cadbury. “We don't own the company - the shareholders own the company and the board has a fiduciary duty [to recommend an offer] when appropriate value has been paid." 
Union leader Jennie Formby said the Cadbury workforce was shocked and angry at having been "sold out". She added: "This is a leveraged bid and Kraft will eventually have to repay the debt, meaning a great deal of uncertainty for the workforce in the UK and Ireland."  Peter Cadbury, great-grandson of the company’s founder, stated, “I don’t think Kraft have made a very convincing case about whether they can run a business better. It’s being recommended purely on terms of price.”
 
This highlights one of the glaring failures of corporate capitalism: the gulf between the interests of the shareholders who legally own the company (most of whom seek only short term returns on their capital) and those of all the stakeholders whose livelihoods depend directly or indirectly on the business – employees and their families, suppliers, local businesses and the wider civic community. 
 
The relational business approach seeks to reform shareholding by discouraging “absentee landlords”, increasing the involvement of shareholders in operations of the company, and aligning their interests more with the “front line” stakeholders.

Read on...

The Relational Business Charter which we are promoting takes a long, hard look at the present system of corporate capitalism – especially where it ends up undermining the common good – and recommends a radical alternative, the Relational Company.  For further reading, we have prepared an excerpt from the draft document introducing the Relational Business Charter, which gives a good overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the limited liability company structure.  You can download the article from our website here http://www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=36.

Walk the talk 

If you are a shareholder in a company then find out when the AGM is this year and resolve to attend it.  Consider how well the company is doing against the ten points of the Relational Business Charter and put a question to the chairman (the ten points of the Relational Business Charter are available to download from our website at http://www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=5)

The last word

From the Bible, Luke 19:22: “His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow?  Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?' “

China’s one child policy and 24 million bachelors

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“China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.”  Charles de Gaulle.  

News

The Chinese Academy of Sciences published a report this week estimating that there will be 24 million “bare branches” – men in China unable to find a wife – by 2020.  This has its roots in the one child policy introduced 30 years ago, to curb soaring birth rates resulting from Mao’s population policy.  However, in the 1980s ultrasound technology permitted gender-specific abortion, leading to the current imbalance (120 boys were born for every 100 girls in 2006 – despite gender screening now being illegal, except for medical reasons). 

In the rural areas, only men can inherit land, and they are also responsible to care for their elderly parents; daughters become part of their husband’s family.  So customs regarding welfare and inheritance greatly favour the birth of boys.  The distortions this has caused are multiple: a couple’s only child is pampered and spoiled; one child may have to care for two parents and four grandparents; girls are frequently abducted and trafficked to areas with large gender imbalances; prostitution is soaring, to say nothing of the injustice of millions of unborn children being killed purely because of their gender.  Much of this stems from a policy decision that was made solely on economic grounds (to stem population growth), but failed to consider the relational implications of the policy.

Read on...

A set of five media releases by the Relationships Foundation for National Family Week last year give a good overview of key issues surrounding extended family relationships and their implications on family welfare.  Click on this link to read them:

http://www.relationshipsfoundation.org/resources/weblog.php?p=26&c=31&id=409

Walk the talk 

Gender based injustice is a global tragedy, manifesting itself in numerous ways.  Take some time to learn more about the specific issues, often hidden, and reflect on ways to respond – we highly recommend a balanced and moving booklet, “30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless: addressing issues of gender-based injustice,” available online at http://raisetheirvoice.wordpress.com/30-days-of-prayer-for-the-voiceless/  Reading it will undoubtedly open your eyes and raise your awareness.

The last word

From the Bible, Genesis 1:27 “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.”

Winter through a Relational lens

Quote

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”  Albert Schweitzer

News

Energy supplies to central Europe could be disrupted again this winter after Russia cut oil deliveries to neighbouring Belarus in a dispute over tariffs, reported the Guardian earlier this week.  In what is becoming an annual confrontation, negotiators from Russia and some of her neighbours battle it out over the terms of trade in oil and gas.  Ukraine and Belarus depend heavily on Russia for their energy supplies, and in turn, Russia depends on them for the safe transit of oil and gas exports to other European countries.  A year ago, the standoff led to soaring wholesale gas prices and supply cuts that left millions of households in Eastern Europe without gas for several days – leading to scores of additional deaths.

This illustrates how vulnerable third parties are to the consequences of relationship breakdown over an issue in which they are not directly involved. Often the people worst affected are low income households, far removed from the power struggles of political leaders; this additional dimension of justice further underscores the vital importance of conflict resolution. 

Read on...

The chapter entitled “Forgiveness” in The R Option (Schluter and Lee, 2003) urges us to take the costly, yet liberating, path of forgiveness when relationships go wrong – at the individual, community or even national level.  Peppered with examples from Northern Ireland, the Balkans, South Africa, and going back to the second world war, it presents some of the challenges and rewards of reconciling relationships that are frozen in a state of winter brokenness.  To read it, follow this link http://www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=35

Walk the talk 

Take one of the many opportunities that the cold snap presents to lend a helping hand – pushing the car of someone who is stuck, shovelling snow from an elderly neighbour’s path, assisting someone across an icy car park at the supermarket, or phoning a person you know who may be housebound, to see if all is well.

The last word

From the Bible, Exodus 22:26-27.  “If you take your neighbour's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body.  What else will he sleep in?  When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.”