Corpobligation: In an age of Blackwater and Haliburton, CSR may discourage the worst abuses of the military industrial complex

• Professor Michael Hopkins outlines the links between industry and military leaders and groups in the US and many other countries
• CSR may play a role in reducing environmental or other abuses - or at least set a standard to which contractors can be held

• BAE states in its CR report that ‘Human nature creates conflict, not the defence industry.’ ,,,

• Can green bullets or strict rules of procurement and contracting make military suppliers socially and environmentally responsible?
  

Corpobligation: Micro credit, micro finance, small holder lending, micro creditos...whatever you call it...micro finance is a big deal and ACCION International is one of the biggest organizations:

• Micro credit organizations have moved past a donor-charity system to a sustainable financial model of helping the poorest of the poor
• Accion International is a pioneer and strong example of the micro credit model's potential
• Micro lending has been more successful in the "developing" world than the "developed" world, but social lending by individuals to other individuals has blossomed on the internet
• Corporate social responsibility stumbling blocks claimed by mainstream banks are challenged by the success of micro finance...

Images of humans and the environment...funny, tragic and poignant

• Whether using photographs, cartoons or video - images can bring home a message better than words

Corpobligation: PMCs (private military corporations) present one model of rapid security/military response in international crises situations, but accountability is difficult

• "Security contracts do not allow them to shoot people randomly. They are here to protect personnel, not shoot people without reason." - Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry. The U.S. embassy's security provider, Blackwater USA, is alleged to have killed civilians in Baghdad, outraging the populace (Globe and Mail, 22/9/2007)
• The PMC industry is organized (International Peace Operations Association (IPOA)) but there are insufficient international legal measures to hold PMCs accountable
• Can a PMC ever even pretend to be environmentally responsible or have good labour practices or respect human rights? In an age of terrorism and governments fearing the loss of their soldiers, are PMCs a necessary measure to create stability and prevent crimes against humanity?
• Corporate Obligation: PMCs are obliged at the minimum to meet standards of conduct of the governments that hire them, but these standards are in flux based on the perceived urgency of the security crisis and the degree of media oversight.

Corpobligation: What if information is not enough to motivate action and activism?

• Of course to be fair, it is impossible for every individual to stop every crisis or human rights abuse.
  
• However, what is the obligation of individual citizens and a university when police are beating, holding down and then actually tasering a student?
• Youtube's most viewed videos of the last few days were full of student recordings of a University of Florida student being tasered, during a John Kerry speech, for apparently asking too many questions.
• Stephen Colbert has coined the word to describe the lack of solidarity illustrated in the lecture hall: "Solitarity". Solitarity, roughly defined, means the opposite of solidarity. While the student was tasered fellow students did nothing.
  
• What were the obligations of those around him? What are the obligations of citizens when other human rights abuses are happening around us? Is blogging enough?

• Zara, a Spanish owned fashion retailer, withdrew a bag with a swastika symbol on it. The bag was externally sourced, according to Zara's spokesperson.
• This emphasizes the importance of supervising suppliers and quick responses to customers
  

• The customer, Rachel Hatton, said, "I was quite shocked - I took it back to the shop."
• "Then obviously the shop assistants were quite shocked as well to find out this symbol was on there - it was not something that they'd noticed either straight away," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.