I had another blog almost prepared for this month. A snappily titled little number, “Dear Costa, Starbucks, Philip Morris, Imperial Tobacco… can we have our money back please?” It was to be a piece about a subject dear to my heart – hidden costs…but, the monumental events in Japan last weekend made it seem rather trite, almost indecent to be talking about corporate costs, profitability, etc. So, I’ll keep that one for later…
Instead, I thought I would reflect upon a different kind of ‘cost’ – the unimaginable human ‘loss’, of lives cut short by a force greater than mankind can ever contemplate mustering.
Until last weekend, the big international attention grabber was the middle east uprisings, the overthrow of alleged ‘pariah’ states, and, probably more importantly for the fossil fuel reliant developed world, the likely impact on oil prices – whether it would mean the trip to Tesco or Sainbury’s was going to hit our pockets – both in terms of getting us there and the knock-on effect on shelf prices. ..
Tell that to the people of Sendai, Fukushima, Naton, Shiogama, Kamaishi et al… Places that, until last weekend (be honest) most of us have never heard of or cared about. In a sense, however, both events are inextricably linked. A kind of yin yang or, as my accountant’s brain would put it, Mother Nature’s balance sheet. On the one hand (the ‘plus’ or ‘yang’ side if you like) the developed world has reaped (or perhaps we should drop the first ‘e’ from that word?) nature’s bounty over the centuries whether that be coal, gas, oil, nuclear power… On the other hand (the negative or ‘yin’ side) there are earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, volcanic ash clouds, nuclear meltdowns, asteroid impacts, total extinction events.
So where do we think we are? Do the books balance? Not easy questions to answer. If we look at the yin yang philosophy a little further we might see glimpses of the truth – a belief that there exist two complementary forces in the universe. One is Yang which represents everything positive or masculine and the other is Yin which is characterized as negative or feminine. One is not better than the other. Instead they are both necessary and a balance of both is highly desirable. So is ‘Mother’ Nature yin or yang? Or is ‘she’ a genuine androgyne?
For all of the great advances mankind has made on Mother Nature’s shoulders (easily quantifiable in revenue and profit terms), it all boils down to one (almost unquantifiable) question – how do we place a value on a human life? In a corporate world where people have been reduced to ‘human capital’ we arrogantly think we have the measure of it. How wrong can we be? Is a single human life worth one, one hundred, or one hundred billion barrels of oil?
And so my thoughts go out to everyone directly affected by nature’s balancing act and especially to those trying to come to terms with what has happened on some far away shorelines in a remote corner of Japan. I may not have heard of you ‘til now but I share your pain. And I think I speak for the rest of my colleagues here at Percepta when I recall these words, famously penned by a human being of the 17th century:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”
– John Donne