One of the first socially responsible investment (SRI) screens excluded weapons suppliers from investors’ portfolios; today, however, publicly traded companies don’t just build weapons – they fight wars. Privatized Military Operations (PMO) have been integrated into American missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other less-visible theaters worldwide.
Researchers at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces have produced a fascinating in-depth review of PMO in modern warfare. The report, released in 2007, highlights the extent of PMO involvement in the Iraq war. For example, the ratio of private contract employees to American troops in Iraq is 1 to 1.5.
Private contractors now provide services that have traditionally been the responsibility of American soldiers. Some of these are support tasks, such as maintaining barracks and running kitchens. A more worrisome trend is PMO contractors’ performance of core combat functions: building overseas bases, maintaining weapons, and providing security details.
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Copyright © 2007 by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. All rights reserved.
One of the under-reported heroes of the environmental cause is Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The story below reflects his efforts.
Before turning to the story, I’d like to quote some words of the Patriarch from his visit to the US ten years ago:
To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation, for humans to degrade the integrity of the Earth by causing changes in its climate, stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands … for humans to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life with poisonous substances — these are sins.1
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Herewith from Fox News via London’s Sunday Telegraph the latest example of the exposure of inconsistences – at least in the eye of the beholder – between a foundation’s mission and its investments:
SHE PROVIDED the finale to yesterday’s Live Earth concerts, even writing a special song to mark the worldwide musical event. But instead of being lionised, Madonna found herself accused of hypocrisy after allegations that she has financial links to some of the world’s biggest polluters.
The Ray of Light Foundation, a charitable fund established by the star to support her favourite causes and named after one of her biggest hits, has $4.2 million … of shares in a string of companies including Alcoa, the American aluminium giant, the Ford Motor Company and Weyerhaeuser, an international forest products company. All have been criticised by environmentalists.
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Whatever the rights and wrongs of mission-related investment, the bad press of the past few weeks may mark a shift for the foundation, into an era when public opinion no longer takes for granted that giving alone is virtuous. -The Economist (2007)
By May the uproar caused by the stories in January about the inconsistencies between the Gates Foundation’s investments and its programs had subsided to a dull roar. The story then exploded again around Warren Buffett’s coming $31 billion contribution to the Foundation and his company’s investments and Darfur.
It seems, therefore, the right moment to take stock of some lessons to be drawn from the renewed furor.
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