In Wal-Mart we Trust

[BigDaddy44]

This won't be popular, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due


In Wal-Mart We Trust

Who did the most to help victims of Hurricane Katrina? According to a new study, it was the company everyone loves to hate

Shortly before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, gathered his subordinates and ordered a memorandum sent to every single regional and store manager in the imperiled area. His words were not especially exalted, but they ought to be mounted and framed on the wall of every chain retailer -- and remembered as American business's answer to the pre-battle oratory of George S. Patton or Henry V.

"A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level," was Scott's message to his people. "Make the best decision that you can with the information that's available to you at the time, and above all, do the right thing."

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=b65bd77e-511f-4e00-88a7-a53a2a5ea4ca&k=68939

[selador]

1. great article

thanx for posting

i am not of the group that demonizes walmart. i certainly disagree with some of their corporate policies, and am admirous of others.

fwiw, i have a relative who was a nurse who went down to the gulf to help out

her universal complaint was the govt. - feds and state being overly concerned with immense amounts of paperwork, red tape, etc (which i guess is part of their job. CYA and we want everything in triplicate) and she commented on several businesses that were just outstanding in bringing aid

[JackintheGreen]

4. Indeed, it warms the heart that corporate allowed its employees to act humanely

and I say that with only moderate cynicism. I do demonize Wal-Mart, for a lot of reasons, but this was a good read. What worries me is the following, from p. 2:

"Aside from the public vs. private issue, Horwitz suggests, decentralized disaster relief is likely to be more timely and appropriate than the centralized kind, which explains why the U.S. Coast Guard performed so much better during the disaster than FEMA."

This opens the possibility of not simple de-centralized disaster relief, but privatized relief. I'm not suggesting that this is the best, or only, way to read this, but given the ideology of the current administration and its media arm it's not too hard a row to hoe. The last thing we need as a nation is to privatize humanitarianism.

[selador]

5. in general

decentralized is better. i certainly agree with that.

we already DO privatize humanitarianism and charity, to a large extent. i see nothing wrong with that as long as there is ALSO a govt. safety net. catholic charities for example do immense amounts of humanitarian and charity. i am not catholic btw, but i totally respect what they do.

as somebody who works FOR govt. i am the first to admit govt in general is INCREDIBLY inefficient - far far far far far moreso than private industry. and i don't work for a detached federal agency. they can be metric assloads worse, ime.

don't get me wrong. FEMA was a major cluster of incompetence, as was the state govt. , and mayor nagin's. so, it was govt. incompetence even at the local level, and there is NO excuse for it.

but when disaster strikes, the FIRST line of defense should be the individual. i have several months of food and water in my house, for instance. at all times. i also have firearms. not predicting disaster. but prepared for it.

then comes one's family, neighborhood, social institutions, then private business, then govt.

in order of responsiveness and ability to give direct help

[JackintheGreen]

7. I don't disagree

Decentralized is best. I do anthropology of disaster and the one thing I can say for sure is that local needs are best met by local competencies. All too often the (any!) govt. comes flying in with new ideas for relief/development without making any effort to understand the pre-existing local coping mechanisms. Immediate relief requires these, but long range planning and mitigation is often better accomplished with the help (not the insistence) of exterior planners/donors. Look at the World Bank's development program in Kalimantan, Indonesia for example of how to use local knowledges.

[Subdivisions]

2. We are the Corporation. We will take care of you. n/t

[Lennon]

3. Al Gore praises Wal-Mart on environment

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13840755

Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday praised Wal-Mart for a newfound focus on environmental sustainability, saying the retailer showed there is no conflict between the environment and the economy.

“I believe that this kind of commitment is so important that the rest of the world is likely to be listening and learning,” Gore told an auditorium of more than 800 Wal-Mart employees, suppliers and outside experts who are advising the company.

Chief Executive Lee Scott last October said Wal-Mart would become a leader in sustainability, with three goals: reducing waste to zero, moving toward using only renewable energy and offering more products made in a way that preserves the environment.

[selador]

6. good for him

like it or not, walmart is not going away (it's not enron or worldcom) and they got where they are because they are smart and they have a good business model.

walmart should be, and hopefully will be , aleader in environmental sustainability, especially if they show it CAN be done *and* still make a profit.

[brentspeak]

8. Did Wal-Mart's PR firm just spam DU with pro-Wal-Mart propaganda?

Complete with "yeah, I like Wal-Mart, too" planted posts.

BTW, the "study" this pro-Wal-Mart article refers to was conducted by a pro-corporate "Austrian economics" shill. Take a look at Steven Horwitz' page, where he attempts to rewrite economics history by relying on pop-economics pro-globalization books as his source material: http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz/Good/myths.htm

[BigDaddy44]

9. And evidently Al Gore is in on it too