A Mile in Another's Shoes – The Value of Perspective

Developing a Global Mindset through Foreign Language and Cultural Immersion

"He who does not travel, does not know the value of men." Moorish Proverb 

An American negotiating team arrives in Riyadh.  They are sure their proposal will be a big hit with the Saudi negotiating team.  Their talking points are ready, and they feel they should have the whole thing sewn up by evening.  However, their best-laid plans begin to unravel as the Saudis refuse to act like Americans.  They just don’t seem to want to get down to business.  The meetings start with coffee and small talk without a mention of business, and continue with tours of the city and other social events.  The Americans are growing frustrated.  What did they miss?

The thing is the Saudis are not doing anything wrong.  Just as the Americans are acting like Americans, the Saudis are just being Saudis.  For them, you must show your guests hospitality and get to know your prospective partners before you start talking business – to do otherwise would be rude.  This approach to business, common in many cultures including Arab, Asian, Latin, and Slavic is often unfamiliar to Germanic and Anglo-Saxon cultures, where friendship is friendship, business is business, and the one does not necessarily have to exist for the other to happen.  For these cultures, time is precious and the thinking is, “We came on business so let’s get to it!”

This may be a fictional caricature of a common situation, but it illustrates the intricacies of cross-cultural interactions occurring daily around the world.  As the global economy continues to grow and integrate, more and more people are coming into contact with other cultures and finding that not everyone works, thinks, or acts as they do. 

Just a few decades ago, relatively few people had direct contact with people outside their own country.  Most of their acquaintances were just like them. 

Things have changed dramatically.  The Internet, social media, and modern transportation have changed the way we live and interact with the world outside our own communities.  The effects on everyday life are significant. 

In today’s globally connected virtual economy, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can find and find your business, leading to not only new customers and but also to new partners.

For example, acting on a friend’s suggestion, a farmer set up a website to help grow his feed sales.  His website succeeded beyond his expectations when a customer placed a large order from China.  This farmer found himself in a crash course on international trade.

Checkpoint Charlie and Warning Sign in Cold War Berlin

As the world continues to integrate, the exchange of ideas, capital, and goods across borders has reduced hostility and border controls between countries.  As William Shurtz, the second president of Thunderbird School of Global Management pointed out, "Borders frequented by trade seldom need soldiers."[1]    

Border posts now stand empty across Europe and free trade agreements are proliferating around the globe.  Even when conflict does arise, as it has between Russia and Ukraine, it is often moderated by economic ties and potential loss of markets. 

With all these global opportunities, what can provide a competitive advantage? 

A common characteristic of today’s most successful companies is their ability to leverage diversity and foster the free exchange of ideas.  Those brave enough to seek out and welcome ideas that challenge their own paradigms find benefits, which would be unachievable in a mono-cultural setting. 

For example, Google’s famous free lunches and recreation rooms are more than perks.  They are part of a larger strategy to facilitate contact between people from different backgrounds, specialties, and functions.  Providing settings, where their employees can exchange ideas with people outside their normal social or professional spheres allows Google to mobilize the capabilities and perspectives of different people to resolve problems, create new innovative products, and find ways to increase the customer base.    

As with any great opportunity, diversity also presents its own problems.  Working with those who think and act differently increases chances for conflict and misunderstanding.  To navigate these waters, we must take time to understand the cultures and people we will be working with, we must build an appreciation of the diversity in the world around us, and foster a spirit of adventure to explore it.  We need to build a global mindset.[2] 

Monsour Javidan, the Executive Director of Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Najafi Global Mindset Institute, describing the Global Mindset in 2010, writes:

“Leaders with a strong stock of Global Mindset know about cultures and political and economic systems in other countries and understand how their global industry works. They are passionate about diversity and are willing to push themselves. They are comfortable with being uncomfortable in uncomfortable environments. They are also better able to build trusting relationships with people who are different from them by showing respect and empathy and by being good listeners.”[3]

Empathy and trust comes through good communication.  Therefore, learning another language and its associated culture is key in building a global mindset.  In 2004 Christine Uber Gross conducted a survey of Thunderbird graduates, who must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language before graduation, on the impact of foreign language study on their professional life.  She found that 82% of graduates rated the impact of language and cultural literacy in their professional life as significant.[4]  While learning a language is only the first step in gaining a global mindset, it strengthens our ability to empathize with others.

Until we learn to express ourselves in another’s language and see the world from their perspective, we have a hard time seeing beyond our own cultural biases.  In other words, we must spend time walking in another’s shoes.  As we learn about the cultural landmarks, of their art, history, religion, and language, we find that ours are not the only way to see the world around us.  This opens our perspectives and makes us more tolerant of others, even those with whom we do not share a common language.  Language study does more than teach communication – it expands our horizons, opening our minds to new ways of seeing the world and relating to others.

In fact, research has shown that people, who learn to express themselves in another language, learn to see issues from a broader perspective.  This impacts how we learn and positively influences intellectual development.  This is especially evident in bilingual children.  Therese Sullivan Caccavale, President of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL)[5] points out that:

“Studies have shown repeatedly that foreign language learning increases critical thinking skills, creativity, and flexibility of mind in young children. Students who are learning a foreign language out-score their non-foreign language-learning peers in the verbal and, surprisingly to some, the math sections of standardized tests.” 

The way we communicate influences our view on the world and reflects our cultural norms.  However, the interaction between language and culture flow both ways – language is also a product of a society’s shared historical and cultural legacy.  For example, Russians seldom use the verb “to possess something,” but rather say that something is near them.  This is a product of a history where the only person who truly owned anything was the sovereign who could take their possessions away at will.  Conversely, this conception of ownership also influences how Russians themselves view ownership and authority.  In gaining an understanding of others’ perspectives, we can better understand them and build productive relationships.

Building this understanding requires focused study, exposure to different ways of thinking, and immersion in language and culture.  Awareness of this is not new.  Programs like the Middlebury Language Schools[6] and the American Graduate School of International Management (today Thunderbird School of Global Management) [7] pioneered education in language immersion and internationally focused business management in the first half of the 20th Century.  However, with the growth of globalism and international trade have created a greater awareness of the need for cross-cultural and global leadership skills, resulting in a growing number of programs similar to those pioneered at Middlebury and Thunderbird.

Language and international business courses abound using a wide variety of methodology.  However, not all are equally effective.  While school courses, books, and computer programs can provide a basis for cultural and language proficiency, the watershed event in one’s education involves some kind of immersion.  Whether this is formal study abroad or working in a factory with native speakers, only when one is regularly exposed and required to function in a language and navigate the culture, will true proficiency develop. 

Furthermore, higher-level proficiency requires more than grammar and vocabulary.  Whereas much of the higher-level communication takes place in using abstract ideas, cultural context, and inferred meaning, this requires complementing the mechanical aspects of language with an understanding of the target culture.  This requires an immersion, building a sound knowledge of its art, history, religions, climate, political system, values, and many other factors.

Living in another country for an extended time, where you must function not only linguistically, but in daily interpersonal and cultural interactions infuses those aspects of culture, which are impossible to learn in a classroom.  Long-term interaction with the people, their language, and culture reinforces an understanding of the locals’ worldview and norms of interpersonal behavior.  Only then do the deeper, abstract meanings of their conversation begin to make sense.

We live in a world where global trade is no longer the undisputed domain large multinational firms with their substantial war chests of capital allowing them to leverage global markets.  Today, the Internet and cheap and efficient global delivery services allow even small businesses to export their goods around the world, requiring these much smaller companies to work with partners, clients, and legal systems around the world whose native cultures, laws and regulations, and languages are different from their own.

In the modern globalized world of business and mass communication, the ability to understand not only what people say, but also how they feel, their values and desires is vital in maximizing the synergistic potential of our multicultural world. When we can accept others’ way of thinking and living not as wrong, but simply as different from our own, we begin to understand that we can learn and benefit from looking at the world from their perspective. We are then on our way to a richer more fulfilling life as we are better equipped to succeed in business, resolve thorny political issues, to appreciate the wonderful diversity of our world, and build lasting relationships based not on coercion and threats, but on mutual respect. 

While we will not always agree and our interests will not always mesh, when we understand how others see the world and accept their right to do so, we can then find ways to make it a place we all can live in.  Studying not just foreign languages, but various cultural perspectives allows us to enter another’s soul – to walk in their shoes.  This helps us gain a deeper understanding of not only other cultures but our own as well.  The first step to true emotional intelligence is self-awareness.  This is impossible without the reflecting pool of our multicultural world.  When we see our culture and views juxtaposed against others, we can better understand ourselves.  This new understanding will lay the foundation for a truly global mindset and unlock the potential the diversity of our world has to offer.

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[1]  Thunderbird School of Global Management. About Us. 2 April 2012. 7 April 2012 www.thunderbird.edu/about_thunderbird/thunderbird_good/about/index.htm.

[2] For more information on what a global mindset is and how it influences our ability to interact with the diversity in today’s world, see Thunderbird’s Najafi Global Mindset Institute at http://globalmindset.thunderbird.edu/

[3]  Javidan, Mansour. "Bringing the Global Mindset to Leadership." Harvard Business Review (May 19, 2010): https://hbr.org/2010/05/bringing-the-global-mindset-to.html#.

[4]  Grosse, Christine Uber. "The Competitive Advantage of Foreign Languages and Cultural Knowledge." The Modern Language Journal (Vol. 88, No. 3 (Autumn, 2004)): 351-373.

[5] Duke University. "American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)." Fall 2007. Cognitive Benfits of Learning Language, Vol 8, Issue 1. http://www.actfl.org/advocacy/discover-languages/for-parents/cognitive#sthash.gk6l0BzU.dpufIf. 1 November 2015.

[6]  Middlebury Language Schools. The Language Schools' Mission Statement. http://www.middlebury.edu/ls/academics/language-schools-mission-statement. 1 November 2015.

[7] Thunderbird School of Global Management.  Thunderbird History.  http://www.thunderbird.edu/thunderbird-history.  1 November 2015.

Who's Guarding the Flock? Higher Islamic Education in Russia



 

Читайте на русском здесь.

“I…feel that a priority in the activities of Islamic organizations themselves should be placed on the positive image of traditional Islam as an important spiritual component in the common identity of the peoples of the Russian Federation…this significantly impacts the nurturing of our youth.  This is extremely important for young Muslims, who have, unfortunately, become the target audience of those who wish us harm.”  (Vladimir Putin)[1]

Qolşärif Mosque in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation

by Leonid Kruzhkov (https://www.flickr.com/photos/cust/)

One of the most important function of any church or religion is the education of its clergy.  An educated clergy preserves not only the traditions, beliefs, and ordinances of a religion; it also protects it against radicalism.

Islam’s history in Russia has ancient roots.  The first Islamic missionaries arrived in the seventh century and three hundred years later, around the Tenth Century, the Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state.  Then, in the Thirteenth Century, the Mongol Golden Horde conquered Kievian Rus’.  This occurred at about the same time that the Mongols began converting to Islam and Berke became the first Islamic Khan.  From this time onward, the Islamic presence on modern-day Russian territory expanded under Mongol rule.

In the Sixteenth Century, the Russian Empire began the conquest of Muslim lands in the Northern Caucasus, along the Volga River, and eastward.  Russian Islam dates from this period.  Widespread state repression characterized the first years of Russian rule over Muslims. However, in order to strengthen her hand against the Ottomans, Catherine the Great revoked restrictions on building stone mosques and other public Islamic buildings in 1767 and issued the decree entitled On the Tolerance of All Religious Confessions in 1773.  This gave Muslims freedom of worship, officially making Russia a multi-confessional state.   

At the time of the 1918 Revolution, thousands of madrassas and other Islamic centers of learning dotted the Russian Empire. In the city of Orenburg alone, there were two specialized secondary theological madrassas, 122 regular madrassas, and 222 maktabs (Islamic elementary schools).[2] The city encompassed a vibrant Islamic community, supported by a cadre of educated imams and other religious personnel.  

Bukhara Kalyan Mosque and Al-Arab Madrassa 
by Patrickringgenberg - Own work.

Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 viaWikimedia Commons

Religious higher education of all confessions suffered under the antireligious policies of the Soviet Government. Islam was no exception. While some Christian educational institutions continued to operate, all Muslim institutions on the territory of present-day Russia were liquidated. Only in 1945 did the USSR Council of Muftis succeed in re-opening the Mir-Arab Madrassa in Bukhar, Uzbekistan. This institute built in the 16th Century, together with the Al-Bukhari Islamic Institute re-opened in 1971 in Tashkent, were the only institutions of higher Islamic education in the USSR. This is why the majority of today’s leading muftis are graduates of Mir-Arab.   

Therefore, until 1988, when the Ismailiya Medrassa was opened as part of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, there was nowhere on the territory of Russia for students of Islam to study. This meant that many imams did not have a formal education. The lack of institutions of learning meant that during Glasnost, when it became possible open madrassas and institutes, there was a deficit of qualified teachers to staff them.

With Glasnost and the fall of the Soviet Union, not only Christian, but also foreign Muslim missionaries and preachers arrived in significant numbers. Although many of them played a key role in restoring Islam and establishing a new system of theological education in Russia and the former Soviet states, some also advocated a more radical version of Islam historically foreign to Russia. 

To add fuel to the fire, the conflicts in the Northern Caucasus attracted militarized representatives of radical Islamic movements. Militants like the Jordanian Khattab were not only field commanders, but also proponents of radical Islam. Moreover, several of the fighters from the Russian Federation underwent training in Afghanistan and other places, where they learned not only partisan tactics but also the radical teachings of the Islamists there. These Russian Islamist militants have fought in the wars in the Northern Caucasus and other hotspots in the world including Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq supporting Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS. As part of or influenced by these domestic and multinational organizations, they and/or their proselytes have organized terrorist acts in Russia and around the world.  

The rich Arabic states and wealthy private Muslims who sponsored former Soviet students to study abroad were another factor. While this helped rebuild a qualified Islamic clergy in Russia and the other republics, these students often came under the influence of people with radical views or studied at institutions, which taught a more radical interpretation of Islam than was practiced in their homeland. As they returned, they began to teach these ideas to their fellow Muslims. Furthermore, the lack of official recognition of their degrees from these foreign theological programs complicated their ability to integrate into the establishment. This problem has still not been resolved.[3] This left these educated Muslims outside the official system where their education could have been used and adapted to the needs of Russia’s Islamic community.  

Vladimir Putin with the Council of Muftis in Ufa (Kremlin.ru)

Since many Soviet imams could not obtain a formal theological education, they did not have the ability and knowledge to counter these radicals. Therefore these philosophies spread among the lay members. The influence of these people, the spread of imported interpretations of Islam, and the inability of the imams to counter these ideas worried (and continues to worry) the leaders of the traditional Islamic confessions and state authorities. Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with leading Russian Muftis in Ufa, said:

“Some political forces use Islam, or more specifically its radical movements; which by the way, are not historically representative of Russian Muslims, for the purpose of weakening our state; to establish a zone of conflicts on Russian territory but controlled from outside to cause schisms between the various ethnic groups and within the Muslim community itself and to fan regional separatist tendencies.”[4]

As stated above, there is concern that domestic imams are not adequately prepared to stand up to these radical movements. Maksim Shevchenko, Journalist and Director of the Center of Strategic Religious and Political Studies of the Modern World explained: 



“There is reason to believe that a large portion of imams are entirely not prepared to polemicize with extremists or with people who have fallen under the influence of extremist ideologies. If we make people imams, then we need to select people who can preach, who can engage in intellectual discourse, who are scholars.”[5]

One no less problematic issue is that in the modern world, when Muslims, especially the young, meet with various interpretations of Islam on the Internet, in their travels abroad, or at home; they turn to their spiritual leaders for explanation. If the imam cannot compete with these sources, his disciples will fall under the influence of the more eloquent people or movements. As Mukaddas Bibarsov, Mufti of the Saratov Region explained in April 2014: 

“We live in an age of information technologies, when topics, which formerly were discussed in narrow circles among academics, have become accessible to all. However, not everywhere, including in the Caucasus have we been able to use [these technologies] appropriately. Discussions, quarrels, and dissentions have sprung up leading to the tragic events we see in the region.”[6] 

In order to understand the impact of these new ideas and of the imams’ inability to compete with them, one must also understand the imam’s role in Muslim society. Since Islam is hierarchically decentralized, the imams play a central role in the lives of the congregational members. Some of their main responsibilities include:

• Leading prayers;
• Performing religious ordinances;  
• Mediating family relations;
• Dividing up inheritance;
• Clarifying the fundamentals of Islam and the dictates of Islamic law;
• Counseling the members of the congregation with important life questions.[7]  

In order to fulfill these tasks, especially the latter, the imam must have more than an understanding of the Koran and religious doctrine. He must have a broad general education. During the International Scholarly Applications Conference on the Formation of a Theological Space in Modern Russia held May 31 through June 1, 2012, the Rector of the Moscow Islamic University Damir Khajhetdinov said:

“Today Russian Muslims need not only madrassas but also elite universities, which cultivate better qualified academic cadres and give them a ticket to a successful career…for our overriding goal to create a highly professional Russian Muslim elite possessing both a religious and secular education!”[8]

Furthermore, President Vladimir Putin said:

“One of our most important tasks is the creation of our own Islamic theological school providing sovereignty in the Russian spiritual space and most importantly, being recognized by most of the world’s Islamic scholars. This school must give answers to the most pressing issues in Russia and the world in general, giving opinions that will be understood and authoritative for the believers.”[9] 

The State and the Russian Council of Muftis have invested resources and effort in establishing and improving the Russian Islamic educational system. A large number of madrassas and more than eight Islamic universities are operating in Russia today.[10]  

These institutions teach and graduate a large number of students educated in religious and secular professions. However, as President Putin and Damir Khajretdinov insist, the level of instruction still does not meet international standards and therefore is not yet competitive with foreign institutions. In fact, Damir Khajretdinov suggests that despite financial investments, the quality of theological education has declined since the 1990s. He explains:

“The number of graduates from the institutes during that period [1990s] who became imams was over 50%. However, this indicator has fallen with each passing year. We no longer see students with fire in their eyes, ready to move to distant regions to begin their ministry from nothing: to enlighten, to establish relationships, establish congregations, build mosques, to give sermons.”[11]

In establishing a quality and internationally competitive system of higher Islamic education, Russia comes up against several problems. As long as these problems remain unresolved, Russia will be reliant on other countries to fulfill its obligations to support its own Islamic population religiously.   

First, the education system must answer the needs of life in modern Russian society and at the same time preserve its Islamic spirituality and identity.[12] The complicating factor in this is balance. The imams and educated Muslims must combine a deep spiritual foundation with a broad secular education. This requires close cooperation between the government and religious leaders. Russia has still not found this balance and some, including Damir Khajretdinov; feel that because of Islam’s movement toward decentralization in Russia, the situation has worsened. He explains that this is the result of the diminished role of the Islamic religious leadership in the faith’s universities and their falling under the influence of “third-party external organizations often beholden to local requirements.”[13] The problem is that the Islamic education system remains decentralized and unstandardized.  



Islamic school for orphans (Sasitli, Dagestan)
by АбуУбайда - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 viaWikimedia Commons -

The second problem touches on the fruits of an effective education system – research and literature. One of the main functions of a healthy educational system is the dissemination of knowledge beyond the walls of the institution through academic publications. In a developed theological-academic community, the scholars study not only the history, traditions, scriptures, and the teachings of their religious fathers but also study the problems and questions that are relevant to their fellow citizens. They publish their research in journals, books, textbooks, and the Internet in articles and video clips. Unfortunately, in Russian Islam the spiritual-academic community is still in the developmental stages, therefore, Russia still imports the majority of its Islamic literature from abroad. Indigenous Russian literature is rare. Consequently, Russians, and Russian Muslims in particular, searching for literature with Islamic answers to questions on life or simply desiring information on Islam frequently cannot find materials that meet their needs and the realities of their life. 

In March 2012, during a meeting of the rectors of the Islamic universities in Moscow, the Chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis Sheik Ravil Gajnutdin described the third and main issue. He “expressed his concern that after years of labor, a unified concept for Islamic education in Russia has still not been created.”[14]   

Although the Committee on Islamic Education has been established and is functioning, this body has yet to establish a standardized system of Islamic education. Furthermore, it has not been able to establish effective cooperation between its member institutions.    

One of the main ingredients of an effective higher education system is an open and interconnected academic and administrative space, which nurtures the effective use of resources and the exchange of ideas and knowledge. Whereas no one institution has all the resources it needs, cooperation can, and in the author’s opinion, should include institutions of other confessions in areas of common interest to all. This will not only conserve resources of individual universities, but can also increase understanding and tolerance between the future spiritual leaders of the various sects.   

Throughout history, religion has played a role in instigating and resolving conflicts. Since they are especially susceptible to radical ideas, the poorly educated often become pawns in these struggles. Their first line of defense is a competent spiritual leader. A well-informed priest, educated not only in church doctrines and ceremonies but also in secular intellectual disciplines, is the best defense against radical religious ideas. Mufti Mukaddas Bibarsov clearly described this concept. He said, “I would like to urge my readers to obtain knowledge because without knowledge, there is no way forward. Life shows that it is not quantity, but quality that counts. Muslims must be educated in all spheres, becoming an example for those around them.”[15] Education is the most important investment a country can make is in its rising generation. In order to become a prosperous country, Russia must resolve these issues, which impact the rising generation of its most vulnerable ethnic communities. As recent events in Russia and around the world involving Islamists from Russia show, her future and indeed the future of our world depend on it.  

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[1] Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich.  Official Page of the President of the President of Russia (Официальная страница Президента России).  Opening Address of the Meeting with the Muftis of the Spiritual Confessions of the Muslims of Russia (Начало встречи с муфтиями духовных управлений мусульман России). 22 October 2013.  Accessed 10 August 2014 <http://www.kremlin.ru/transcripts/19474>. Translation by author.

[2] The Slavic Legal Center. “The Repressed Madrassa: Interview with Ismail-Khazarat Shangareev, the Mufti of the Orenburg Oblast.” (Славянский правовой центр. Репрессированное медресе. Интервью с Исмагил-хазратом Шангареевым, муфтием Оренбургской области). Issue 1-2 (39) 2006.  Accessed 11 August 2014. In Russian. <http://www.sclj.ru/analytics/magazine/arch/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=1265>.  Translation by author.

[3] Khajretdinov, Damir.  “The Problem of the Development of an Islamic Professional Education Carries a Cross-Functional Education Character” (“Проблема развития мусульманского профессионального образования носит общеобразовательный характер”). 4 June 2012. Accessed 11 August 2014 <http://www.muslim.ru/articles/110/1100/>. Translated by author.

[4] (Putin, Opening Address)

[5] Bejlin, Boris.  VestiFM.  27 September 2013. Accessed 10 August 2014. <http://radiovesti.ru/article/show/article_id/107732>. Translation by author

[6] Tikaeva, Fatima.  Mufti Mukaddas Bibarsov Says That the System of Islamic Education in Russia Must Prepare World Class Muslim Theologians (Система исламского образования в России должна готовить мусульманских богословов мирового масштаба - муфтий Мукаддас Бибарсов). 16 April 2014.  Accessed 11 August 2014 <http://www.muslim.ru/articles/96/5397/>. Translation by author

[7] Islam Today. Muslim Clergy, the Head of the Muslim Congregation (Мусульманское духовенство, глава мусульманской общины). 2014. Accessed 10 августа 2014 <http://islam-today.ru/muslim-clergy/>.  Translated by author.

[8] (Khajretdinov, Damir.  The Problem of the Development of an Islamic Professional Education)

[9] (Putin)

[10] The Intercollegiate Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for Religious Education Portal (Портал межвузовского совета СНГ по духовному образованию). The History and Culture of Islam:  Institutions of Higher Education of the CIS Member States (История и культура ислама - Высшие учебные заведения государств-участников СНГ). Accessed 11 August 2014.  <http://duhobr.ru/Islam/institutions.php?PAGEN_1=2>.  Translation by author.

[11] (Khajretdinov, Damir.  The Problem of the Development of an Islamic Professional Education)

[12] Khajretdinov, Damir.  Innovative Processes in Islamic Education (Инновационные процессы в исламском образовании). 1 December 2013. Accessed 9 August 2014 <http://islameducation.net/article/innovation.html>.

[13] (Khajretdinov, Damir.  The Problem of the Development of an Islamic Professional Education)

[14] ДУМРФ (Spiritual Directorate of Russian Federation Muslims). The Meeting of Russian Islamic University Rectors in Moscow (Встреча ректоров российских исламских вузов в Москве). 23 March 2012. Accessed 10 August 2014 <http://www.dumrf.ru/dumer/event/2931>.  Translation by author.

[15] (Tikaeva)

Corporate Citizens - Investing in Prosperity

Photos from UNESCO and NTPC

The old adage states, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.”  One of the great obstacles to world prosperity is a lack of basic education and vocational training among the disadvantaged of the world.   In its pamphlet The Right to Education UNESCO states:

“Education is an inalienable human right.  It is also unique in that it empowers the individual to exercise other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, attaining a life of dignity, while ensuring a brighter future for all, free from want and fear.” [1] 

While education is not a silver bullet against all the ills of the world, providing the disadvantaged of the world with that lifeline enables them to more effectively overcome the conditions that bind them to their life of ignorance and poverty.

Due to the economic incentive and the self-respect that gainful employment provides, businesses are in a unique position to influence the populations of the countries in which they operate for good.  There are three basic areas where this influence can be manifest.  First, as an employer, the company can provide vocational training.  Second, it can provide incentive and money for education in job-related fields.  And finally, the business can invest in the local school system, enabling a new generation of quality employees and creating a good public image.  The responsible corporate citizen doesn’t strive to merely extract all possible profit from their host country, but to improve the lot of its citizens as well and build lasting prosperity that will benefit them and the people for years to come.

In reality, these economic relationships are symbiotic relationships in which firms provide income, training, education, economic development, and humanitarian aid to the community and the host society provides motivated employees who are ever more capable of contributing to the profitability of the company.

While much of the world’s humanitarian aid merely applies a bandage to the symptoms of poverty by supplying basic provisions, businesses have the will and incentive to treat poverty’s root causes by providing economic incentives to work, go to school, and challenge the political, social, and institutional barriers to personal prosperity.  The first step is giving employees on-the-job and formal vocational training and then paying them for the use of those skills.  A person values what he has earned more than what is merely given to them.  Similarly, a villager in a developing country will take more pride in the bread he has earned than that, which was given to him with no effort on his part.  Although direct humanitarian aid is important, the hand that lifts him out of the cycle of poverty not only fills the belly, but builds pride in oneself by making them a self sufficient provider for their family.

The second area of influence involves programs to provide and encourage formal education.  By encouraging unskilled employees to seek formal and vocational education in a company related field, businesses can build a cadre of well trained employees, who know and understand the local culture and can therefore more effectively lead their coworkers.  Meanwhile, the employee increases his earning power and ability to influence his society by bettering themselves and improving the prospects for their posterity.

The final task, while long term in nature, is arguably the most important.  A company that exploits the workers and resources without contributing to the wellbeing of the community is often resented and does earn the loyalty of its employees or the host populace.  By investing in the local school system, a company improves the lives of the students, while also building a more capable generation of prospective employees.  Additionally, a father that sees his employer making his child’s life better will often be more devoted than one who only sees the monthly paycheck.  The UNESCO’s 2002 report on its “Education for All” initiative states, “…education is important for at least three reasons.  First, the skills provided by basic education, such as being able to read and write, are valuable in their own right...Second, education can help to displace other more negative features of life…Third, education has a powerful role in empowering those who suffer from multiple disadvantages. Thus women who have benefited from education may simply survive better and longer than they would otherwise.”[2]

While humanitarian aid in the classic sense of providing for the immediate needs of the less fortunate is vital, the underlying goal of any aid program should be to remove the underlying causes of suffering.  Responsible businesses can effectively fill this role.  A great example is Western Union’s Our World, Our Family program.  In addition to providing direct humanitarian aid, Western Union also funds education and mentoring programs to help build self sufficiency in migrant communities.  Western Union has provided educational benefits to over 500,000 migrant youth in the United States over the past 26 years resulting in a 94 percent graduation rate.[3] Western Union’s program and similar initiatives of numerous other corporations are making differences in the lives of those otherwise condemned to poverty.[4]  By giving the gift of education these corporate philanthropists are providing the proverbial fishing hole that will likely feed the man and his loved ones for generations to come.[5]

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[1] UNESCO.  The Right to Education (pamphlet).  September 26, 2005.  Paris, France.  <www.unesco.org/education>.  Accessed March 12, 2008.

[2] UNESCO.  Education for All:  Is the World on Track?  2002 EFA Global Monitoring Report.  Paris, France.  <www.unesco.org/education> .  Accessed March 12, 2008.

[3] Western Union.  “Our World, Our Family Program.”  Copyright 2001-2008.  <http://corporate.westernunion.com/ourworld.html> .  Accessed March 12, 2008.

[4] Also see the Indian company NTPC’s corporate responsibility website at https://www.ntpc.co.in/en/corporate-citizenship/empowering-people for another example of how corporations can build sustainable development by investing in the local population.

[5] Other Sources used in this article include: 

-          Bernstein, Jason.  “Is Education the Cure for Poverty?”  The American Prospect.  April 22, 2007. < http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=is education the cure for poverty >.  Accessed March 12,2008.

-          Lodge, George C.  “Using Business to Fight Poverty.”  Working Knowledge for Business Leaders.  Harvard Business School.  August 12, 2002.  <http://hbswk.hbs.edu/cgi-bin/print> .  Accessed March 12, 2008.

-          UNESCO.  “Right to Education.”  <http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php>.   Accessed March 12, 2008.

-          University of Maryland.  Poverty Rates By Education (graph).  <http://bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy441/trends/poveduc.jpg>.  Accessed March 12, 2008.

-          World Bank Group.  “Education and the World Bank, What is the World Bank Doing to Support Education.”  2008.  <http:web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION>. Accessed March 12, 2008.

-          World Bank Group.  “FAQ.”  Updated April 2006.  <http:web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION>.  Accessed March 12, 2008.

-          World Bank Group.  “Education and Development, Why is Education Important to Development?.”  Copyright 2008.  <http:web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION>.  Accessed March 12, 2008.