Do Corporations Have Control over CSR in a Global Economy?

For many the answer to this question is a simple No. It makes it very easy to be able to say "corporations are businesses, their bottomline is to make profits, as much as they can, and they're not going to force anybody to do anything and risk decreasing profits, or increasing prices for the cost conscious consumers." That's the easy way out...

But not so fast anymore...
In this growing global economy, corporations who hire off-shore skills for production arent the minority. Practically anybody who can afford a plane ride to China or India is using services from the Far East for cheap labor, decreasing their costs. Then this difficult question is always brushed off with the excuse that even big corporations can rarely have a say on another country's laws. This argument is also starting to weaken. If the money that is pouring in from the Western businesses makes up the good part of the country's economy, then business owners will be more powerful than you can imagine. And not necessarily at a high cost to them.

Consider Apple. Recently there was an accusation about poor working conditions in the iPod City facilities in China. Instead of brushing this off, Apple, aware of the importance of it's social image to it's consumers, immediately began an investigation. The result? There are some changes that will take place immediately, without question, and there are others that are not against their contracts.
And Apple published a copy of the report on its website.

Why dont the other companies do this? Yes, Apple would seem to have more power than other companies because of it's size. But most importantly, Apple has educated its customers enough about CSR that it cannot afford to risk any mistake. Apple's customers are well aware of corporate responsibility and they would not be afraid to change to other companies for political reasons.
Apple handled the situation very professionally without damaging it's own image making the report publicly available on the website. They knew how to use CSR for their benefit rather than an excuse to not make changes or higher prices. They used CSR to further differentiate themselves from both their direct market competitors and their "image competitors".

At the end of the day corporations always have a choice to make. Steve Jobs did just that. Instead of staying quiet, he investigated. He answered. He published. He did his job, by strengthening the company image, and clearing any doubts from his consumers' and investors' minds.

Here's the CSR Global Investors 2nd Annual Ranking from the Globe and Mail

Seventh Anniversary of the Major Turkish Earthquake in 1999


We will never forget all those loved ones we've lost that day... the difficulties, chaos and pain that we lived through in the following days...

In reality more than 35,000 people died that day, but the official count remains at 17,000... we know all those who are gone, that's what counts.

The cost of the earthquake is over $8.5billion.

Still... the government is trying to figure out what to do...

So a ceasefire is going on. And why did all those people have to die again? Why did the environment had to be destroyed? Aside from the irreplaceable and inexcusable loss of innocent lives, what other damages did this war cause?

Here are the links:

From Bloomberg, how Israel has successfully managed to damage something that has been standing since 140 A.D..

From CBBC - UK, the clean up has finally begun following the ceasefire, however, The oil spill now covers 140 km (87 miles) of the coast in Lebanon, and is threatening sea species like bluefin tuna and sea turtles.

From the Guardian - The oil spill not only threatens many species in the Mediterranean, but has also destroyed one of the cleanest beaches of the Mediterranean! They also point that:
- Ground water will be contaminated fro many years
- Forest and brush fires caused by the bombings will destroy cedars that will not be replaced for many years to come, ruining the ecosystem
- Release of asbestos from bombed buildings causing high scale health issues

LINKS TO BLOGS ABOUT THE MEDITERRANEAN DAMAGE

I've found the following blogs that have updates about the spill in the Mediterranean:

Beirut Update
Blogging in Beirut

The beautiful sea is crying black tears.

STILL NO ACTION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN!

I cant believe that the world is SO blind! I suppose it stems from the "an eye for an eye and the world goes blind" thing. They have no eyes left.

First, they say they are not after the civilians, and they kill hundreds of them daily. Then they say they have no problem with the Lebanese government and the country and they destroy the whole country and its infrastructure.
And then... they say their only problem is with Hezbollah and nobody else in the world, and they want the world's support and they destroy one of the most beautiful seas in the world!? AND to top it off they dont allow any clean up activities to begin!!

Well the extent of this whole "conflict" has become absolutely ridiculous!! What did the Mediterranean Sea DO to you?? Is that also one of your "oops, it's a fact of war, things we really dont want to destroy gets destroyed, sorry" things?

You all have to open your eyes and realize that if you continue with this you will NOT have any livable land to fight over! It will be done, and you'll notice the land you're living on is completely poisoned, no drinkable waters no nothing, so you'll decide to take your war to some other people... it will NEVER end!

Mediterranean SEA: Greatest Casualty caused by Israel yet!

So I suppose the Mediterranean Sea was also supporting Hezbollah?

From Reuters:
"Israeli jets hit storage tanks at the Jiyyeh plant south of the Lebanese capital Beirut at the beginning of the war, spilling an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 metric tons of oil into the Mediterranean"

From the Washington Post:
"Fishermen say hundreds of oil-coated fish have been washed ashore in what is the country's worst ever environmental disaster."


From MSNBC (AP):
"Endangered turtles die shortly after hatching from their eggs. Fish float dead off the coast. Flaming oil sends waves of black smoke toward the city."

From Bloomberg:
"An oil spill seeping from a Lebanese power station that was bombed by Israeli jets threatens to pollute countries in the eastern Mediterranean such as Cyprus and Turkey,..."

And please check this satellite picture comparing the difference of the extent of the oil spill from July 21st to August 3rd. (1.4MB image)

By the time they are done with the conflict they will not have land to fight over!