Leave to an 11 Year Old to Save China’s Environment
April 14th, 2008 by Rich
China.org has a fantastic 3 paragraph story about a 11 year old who takes it upon himself to find out who is polluting the river, and in the end it caught the attention of reporters and government officials. This is another case of how I think China will eventually grow towards cleaning up its environment. Individuals, and collectives, will be motivated on a personal level to investigate contaminations, conduct resaerch, develop solutions, and pressure local officials and businesses. The press, NGOs like Roots & Shoots, and the central government will also play a role, but as we saw in Xiamen, Suzhou, and other parts of China last year, the public is beginning to feel empowered to participate in this process.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:58 am
Adam,
I am not biased… althought AMCHAM should start paying me!
The conference was definately the best of the three. Not becuae the previous two were bad, but each year is seeing more and more from the crowd, the speakers, and the awards. It is a show that the AMCHAM committee is quite proud of and rightly so…. so to Danny, Oliver, Murray, Victoria,and Jim who were the main drivers.. a round of applause.
Overall the presentations were very interesting as well, and I also give credit to Steve from GE who also said that more needed to be done.
Nancy’s Bottom of the Pyramid speech was quite interesting, and she carried the crowd very well. If there was something that I think was left aside it was real tangibility. she mentioned a few programs that were ongoing in China, but she did not leave me as a participant with much more than theory. With all those firms there, I would have liked to have seen her close with a pitch or challenge to the crowd to develop something she had seen.
As far as the panel goes.. arg. I was on it, and all I can say is that until an hour and a half before the show we were all under the impression it was going to be Q&A. no one was ready to give a pitch, and the lack of structure was confusing. Oh well… better luck next year.
R
October 31st, 2007 at 6:16 am
I am already looking forward to the next one, and how about a controversial panel, with some debate going?
I am sure next year will be even better than this year, and i also congratulate the organisers for the tremendous hard work. I am looking forward to the new book as well, with (presumably) useful case studies and answers to the ‘how to’.
Adam
October 31st, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Adam,
Getting controversial is not that difficult. Keeping people to task is. However, perhaps we have our schtick for Beijing and Shanghai events?
R
November 8th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Hey Rich and Adam,
Nancy Barry’s presentation is available for download here:
Thanks for all your support! ~Leslie
November 8th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Adam and Rich,
Sorry, bad link above!
Nancy’s presentation is available here:
Also, I wrote the presentation to announce the CSR Awards, and one thing that Murray didn’t mention was that we chose these bullet points from the perspective of an audience member looking for ideas for future CSR initiatives. The items mentioned did over-represent community investment, but this was only because there was more variety in that area. I didn’t think it was appropriate to list code of conduct and safety regulations on every slide.
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Leslie
November 8th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Hi Leslie,
Thanks for posting Nancy’s link. She had one of the most interesting presentations (as we said above), and I think that her points on business solving social issues are well taken (on the whole).
Again, tangibility is such an issue.
Leslie - hope you will make the Crossroads movie night on the 21st. The movie is brilliant, and I am sure the discussion is going to be very interesting.