A Call for Social Justice

The United Nations, which marked a "World Day of Social Justice" on Sunday is calling for a "new era" in which all the people of the world have access to basic services and "decently" paying jobs.

According to the U.N., 80 percent of the world’s people lack “adequate social protection.”

To eliminate the problem, the U.N. is trying to establish what it calls a global "social protection floor." Such a “floor” would guarantee food security, health services for all, and old-age pensions for the 80 percent of the world’s people believed to lack such protections.

In his message urging “social justice for all,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “No one should live below a certain income level, and everyone should have access to essential public services such as water and sanitation, health and education.”

Juan Somavia, the U.N.’s International Labour Organization (ILO) director-general, said the recent protests in the Middle East show the linkage between social justice and national stability. “What happens in the future will very much depend on whether the connections are recognized and acted upon.”

Involve Your Kids in Charitable Giving

The habits of future charity givers depend on what they see their parents and grandparents give.

Northwestern Mutual Senior Vice President Meridee Maynard has some helpful pointers that can get families pointed in a more altruistic direction.

• Involve kids in conversations about your charitable giving.

• Develop giving goals as a family.

• Choose a charity to financially support as a family. Model—and explain—how the family will budget to meet that giving goal.

• Show kids that money isn’t just for spending. Use a four-bank system for saving, spending, investing and giving.

• Encourage kids to develop realistic personal giving goals to support a cause they believe in.

• Explain to teens the concept of tax benefits related to charitable contributions.

If kids see, talk and hear about their parents’ charitable giving, they'll be more likely to follow suit. If they remain in the dark, the spigot can tragically run dry when those kids grow up.

—Brian O'Connell, thestreet.com

US lawmaker: International Aid recipients face sacrifices

Countries that get US aid, such as Pakistan, will have to shoulder more of the burden for their own growth as Washington eyes deep cuts in overseas assistance, a top US lawmaker warns. ”Greater sacrifice by aid recipients is required to sustain the generosity of the American people," said Representative Nita Lowey, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Subcommittee that manages US aid flows.

"For example, Pakistan, which receives $1.5 billion per year in civilian aid alone, has one of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. Fewer than 3 million of the 175 million Pakistanis pay any taxes, and tax evasion is particularly high among the wealthy, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace," said Lowey.

Her message echoed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call in September 2010 for the US ally to increase taxes on its wealthiest earners. "It's one of my pet peeves: Countries that will not tax their elite, who expect us to come in and help them serve their people, are just not going to get the kind of help from us that historically they may have," said Clinton.

[AFP]

It all comes down to having a sense of purpose

Angelina Jolie is to blame, really. Because of something she said to me in India four years ago, I have quit my 13-year career as an entertainment journalist, have given away almost everything I own, and at 43, have joined the Peace Corps.

I was seeking something authentic when I arrived in India, and I got more than I bargained for. A reported 43 percent of Mumbai’s 18 million people live in slums, and the depth of poverty is soul-sickening.

By the time I met with Angelina Jolie, I felt raw and rattled, and I was eager to learn how she coped with this kind of suffering in her role as a U.N. ambassador. She said it was painful, yes, but it wasn’t debilitating because she was active. Her work was bringing attention to crises in the world.

“If I couldn’t do that, I don’t know how I’d be around it, because I’d feel helpless,” she told me as we drove through the city. “You know, we all go through stages in our life where we feel lost, and I think it all comes down to having a sense of purpose.

“When I was famous for just being an actress, my life felt very shallow. Then when I became a mom and started working with the U.N., I was happy. I could die and feel that I’d done the right things with my life. It’s as simple as that.”

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Making money and doing good should go hand-in-hand

“Only 3 percent of the world's assets/funds are engaged in what's often referred to as ‘social innovation’ or ‘impact investing.’ It's known as the ‘97 vs. 3’ dilemma.

“Why are micro finance funds, NGOs and foundations the only ones playing big in this space? How will we ever get enough of these great ideas and programs to scale if we only approach them as philanthropic endeavors? Despite the good intentions and great work, the truth is that philanthropy -- in the broadest sense -- can rarely make the long-term impact business can.

“I think of it this way -- as the president of the Kraft Foods Foundation, I have about $100 million in cash and in-kind we can invest each year. But as Kraft Foods Inc, my company has literally billions to invest in the things we need to buy.”

--Perry Yeatman, Kraft Foods SVP, and President of the Kraft Foods Foundation

Business and philanthropy can go hand in hand

The Australian of the Year for 2011 is Simon McKeon, a high-flying investment banker who decided to work part-time to dedicate himself to social causes at home and abroad.

The Victorian businessman is a leading social entrepreneur who showed business and philanthropy could go hand in hand. “His lifelong efforts to support Australian and international charities have earned him great admiration and respect in the community,” the Australia Day Council said.

Mr McKeon hopes to spend the year inspiring others to help out the not-for-profit sector, particularly corporations which, he said, needed to do more to help the community. "There are many ways in which corporates nowadays can actually share their facilities, their expertise, their people and, of course, their people. Of course, they can do more."

McKeon is director of the Global Poverty Project, chairman of Business for Millennium Development and is involved with Red Dust Role Models, which works with remote indigenous communities.

A multiple sclerosis sufferer, he was the founding chairman of MS Research Australia. At one stage, he was paralyzed from the hip down and endured blindness for a period of time. He said it gave him the inspiration to keep fighting for what mattered.