On Monday, the six month anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, many of us working on the ground will look and think about the true heroism of the first responders, the resilience of the affected community and the utter frustration and huge hurdles that face us in the rebuilding process. Sitting in a meeting last week with Haitian architects and builders many were stunned to hear that the Haiti earthquake was no longer in the news in the United States. In the information age the oil spill has drowned Haiti out of the news cycle. It is time for BP to make amends and win back the respect of the global community. They can do it with a eight word press release.
BP will build every water well in Haiti
Instead of some meaningless multi-million dollar fine Tony Hayward and BP can do the right thing by doing what they do best - drill, baby, drill. Sure the company is financially rebounding and it is closing in on capping the disastrous spill but what is the companys' CSR strategy coming out of this.
I know BP can say Haiti is not their responsibility but that is not the point. Aren't you guys good at drilling, like the best? With waterbourne diseases spreading throughout Haiti now is your chance to;
a) Put your workers to work (and let them feel good about their job)
b) Improve the lives of hundreds of thousands
c) Gain the respect back for the 'beyond petroleum' ad campaign that has served you so well.
d) Recommit to the three pillars of your existing CSR strategy - health and safety; environment and energy; people and human rights
Last year you're global charitable giving was around $8M* inc. $744,000 to humanitarian aid yet your foundation has $78M in assets. It's time to open up the funding tap and bring fresh water to Haiti. Perhaps this project will serve as a new giving strategy especially as you've just gained access to water stressed countries, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Indonesia.
*it's hard to find your giving strategy as you don't talk about it in your annual report, let's correct that for 2010.
Follow Cameron Sinclair on Twitter: www.twitter.com/casinclair
Andy Borowitz: BP Replaces Tony Hayward with Startled Deer
"Clearly he's a little rough around the edges," said BP board chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. "But he still did better than Tony."
A company has a problem? Well, just do something good and we will pretend it never happened. And, better for us, it makes it so that we do not have to do actually do anything, but we can still have a nice sense of moral satisfaction in that we got something done. It really is a win-win situation for everyone involved. We feel good and the company atones for it sins. What is better than that?
Haiti is #38 on the birth rate list, so should the same be said for the above 37 nations. It's pretty easy for a country that floats in the 150s to say that. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_bir_rat-people-birth-rate
Sure the planet is suffering from over-population but more importantly over-consumption is the true issue
If BP wants to redeem themselves, they can start by actually paying (instead of just promising to pay) the shrimpers and crabbers and charter boat captains they've put out of work!
To make is more sustainable, B.P. can train Haitian engineers and build a series of vocational training facilities in major Haitian cities. perhaps after this, they really will be beyond petroleum.
Not everything is entitled to have a way back.
Destructive outcomes are a way of telling you that something is WRONG with this.
I don't want Bush coming back.
I don't want Chenny coming back.
Hallib0rton has done enough damage already.
I don't care if Liz Chenny gives to Charities.
Some things should NEVER EVER come back.
Grand Chemin Housing Community www.grandcheminproject.com
Rebuilding Haiti, one community at a time.