Hello again,
I'm proud to announce that I have completed my Master's in Human Nutrition! I'm also pleased to announce that I have been employed as a part-time teacher at Bergen College, for a course in the nutrients and nutrition science. The course is part of a new Bachelor in public health with emphasis on nutrition and physical activity (initiated fall 2006), and I'm proud to be able to contribute to this important education. What's also great is that the job is flexible, and I can still take all of May off to visit the U.S. with my parents and wife!
I'm now in Volda with my parents and grandfather, where I will be until January 4. It's great to be relieved of the pressure, and now I'll enjoy helping prepare the house for Christmas. I'll help my dad redo the bathroom and install a new fireplace in the living room. There will be a full house for Christmas, with all the family (including Dolly my wife) plus Jacob (boyfriend of my sister Hilde) and my grandparents Ingrid and Erling.
As a trying-to-be conscientious citizen of the international community, I urge you all to listen carefully to this year's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture by Mohammad Yunus:
http://nobelprize.org/cgi-bin/asxgen.asx?id=88&type=lecture&year=2006
(especially from minute 19)
Whether Yunus or someone else coined the term "social business", this term for me summarizes my "mixed" political views. I feel that for too long political concepts and terms have been too narrowly defined, which has created an enormous wall between "capitalists" and "socialists", "conservatives" and "liberals" etc. I have not been able to identify myself with any single political party (in Norway we have at least 8). I believe in the efficiency of the free (but wisely regulated) market, while it's my underlying ideology that business must seek to promote quality of life for all people, not just a majority. However, quality of life for as many people as possible is not supported by a system in which entrepreneurs exploit human weakness such as immense consumption of health- and environment-hazardous products and ignore the threat of animal species extinction, and in which populations unknowingly over-consume stuff that has been produced as a result of slavery, child labor, and exploitation in other parts of the world in which rich nations have imperialistically laid claim on poor people's (potential) resources. Let me provide a quote from Yunus' lecture:
"I am in favor of strengthening the freedom of the market. At the same time, I am very unhappy about the conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. This originates from the assumption that entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings who are dedicated to one mission in their business life, to maximize profit. (...) By defining entrepreneur in a broader way, we can change the character of capitalism radically, and solve many of the social and economic problems within the scope of the free market. Let us suppose an entrepreneur, instead of having a single source of motivation, such as maximizing profit, now has two sources of motivation, which are mutually exclusive, but equally compelling. One, maximization of profit; another, doing good to people and to the world. Each type of motivation will lead to a separate kind of business; let us call the first type of business a profit-maximizing business, and the second type of business a social business. Social business will be a new kind of business introduced into the market place with the objective of making a difference to the world. Investors in social business could get back their investment money but will not take a dividend from the company. Profit would be ploughed back into the company to expand its outreach and to improve the quality of the product or service. A social business will be a non-loss, non-dividend company. Once social business is recognized in law, many existing companies will come forward to create social businesses in addition to their foundational activities. Many activists from the non-profit sector will also find this as an attractive option. Unlike the non-profit sector where one needs to collect donations to keep activities going, a social business will be self-sustaining and create surplus for expansion since it is a non-loss enterprise. Social business will go into a new type of capital market of its own to raise capital.
Young people all around the world, particularly in rich countries, will find the concept of social business very appealing, since it will give them a challenge to make a difference by using their creative talents. Many young people today feel frustrated, because they cannot see any worthy challenge which excites them within the present capitalist system. Socialism gave them a dream to fight for; young people dream about creating a perfect world of their own. Almost all social and economic problems of the world will be addressed through the social businesses. The challenge is to innovate business models and apply them to produce desired results cost-effectively and efficiently, such as health care for the poor could be a social business, financial services for the poor, information technology for the poor, education and training for the poor, marketing for the poor, renewable energy; these are all exciting ideas for social businesses. Social business is important because it addresses very vital concerns of mankind. It can change the lives of the bottom 60% of the world population and help them get out of poverty."
