Books

Acceptable face of capitalism

Giving by Bill Clinton; Alfred A. Knopf; Rs.900; 240 pp

One of the great lies spread around the world by communist propaganda and swallowed by the great majority of naïve liberals, is that America is a selfish, exploitative nation because it has consistently failed to donate one percent of its GDP by way of foreign aid to developing countries as stipulated by a United Nations resolution passed way back in the 1960s. For decades, self-righteous commies and fellow-travelling academics have been peddling UN data highlighting that the Netherlands, which contributes about 0.75 percent of its GDP, is the world’s most generous and caring nation.

Yet although it’s true that as a percentage of its massive $10 trillion economy the US government dishes out less of its GDP as foreign aid to third world countries than several other European nations, in absolute amounts official US foreign aid is much greater than of other countries because its GDP is the largest worldwide. Moreover UN statistics don’t report that private charities of America — especially its much maligned capitalists and lay, non-official citizens — give more to global charitable causes than the rest of the world combined. For instance last year American businessmen, housewives and boy scouts and girl guides collected and donated a humungous $300 billion (Rs.1200,000 crore) — a sum equivalent to 30 percent of India’s GDP — to good causes around the world.

That’s why every sentient Indian — especially post-liberalisation India’s business community which is prospering like never before — needs to read Giving, a compelling account of how America’s huge and extraordinarily efficient charity and philanthropy industry works. Indeed the greatness of America is not its massive arms stockpile or productivity of its world-beating business corporations, but in the millions of acts of intelligent caring, sharing and effective charity that American voluntary organisations practise on a daily basis around the world. If America has survived the worst efforts of nazis, communists, anarchists and jihadists for over 200 years, and is still the most attractive emigration destination of people around the world, the enlightened capitalism that hard-headed American businessmen, voluntary organisations and community leaders practise on an everyday basis is the prime cause.

In particular this lucidly penned account of American philanthropy in action recounted by former two-term US president, Bill Clinton, needs to be read by captains of Indian industry and leaders of the trading community who even as they prosper mightily in the fast-growth Indian economy, are incrementally revealing the ugly face of uncaring Indian capitalism.

Yet this marvellous book written by Clinton after he served the maximum permitted two terms in the White House, and later "narrowly escaped what could have been a fatal heart attack", is not just fixated upon the magnanimity of the great and the good such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have constituted huge charitable foundations with corpuses of $28 billion (Rs.112,000 crore) and $35 billion (Rs.140,000 crore) respectively. "In this book you’ll encounter givers old, young, and in between, rich, poor and in between, highly educated, virtually illiterate and in between. You’ll read about innovative organisations, about new ways of giving time and money, and about old-fashioned acts of individual generosity and kindness," writes Clinton.

It’s impossible within the space allotted for this review to elaborate even a few of the case histories of altruism and social entrepreneurship included in this valuable book, which is certain to melt the stoniest of hearts and stir up emotions of kindness and compassion for the great majority shortchanged by fate or politics. However some extraordinary givers and their laudable projects deserve mention. Among them: Oseola McCarty, a househelper who took in washing donated $150,000 saved in pennies for 75 years, to the University of Mississippi to establish a scholarship fund for black American students; Bob Harrison quit a Wall Street job to start an anti-obesity Healthy Foods Program for schools in America; Sheri and Mark Saltzberg who after witnessing the utter deprivation of primary schools in Zimbabwe promoted the US-Africa Children’s Fellowship which ships out books, sports equipment, clothing etc to schools in Zimbabwe; skills-giver Gary Kosman founded America Learns in 2001 to "provide guidance and support to tutors and mentors, to help them improve, evaluate, and report on the performance of their students in the least costly and time-consuming ways available"; Young Arab Leaders, a network of young men and women committed to making the opportunities of the new global economy available to young people in the embattled Middle East; the late author-journalist John Wallach who in the mid 1990s started Seeds of Peace, an annual summer camp for 450 teenagers from trouble spots around the world (Arabs, Israelis, Indians, Pakistanis, Turks, etc).

Although Clinton is of the firm belief that every individual has the capability to be a giver of money, time, skills, things, "gifts of reconciliation and new beginnings" (such as Seeds of Peace), gifts that keep on giving (with "pass on" conditions), gifts of good ideas etc, he concedes that governments around the world have to create conducive conditions by way of "laws, regulations, programmes and grants". Hence "the importance of citizen activism in securing good government". By way of example he cites the activism of former U2 rock star Bono who has been in the forefront of a campaign to persuade the rich G-8 nations to forgive the huge debts of poor African countries and also of former US vice president Al Gore’s crusade to convince America to lead the fight against climate change and global warming.

For post-liberalisation India’s business icons and the country’s insensitive middle class engaged in primitive capital accumulation and uncaring conspicuous consumption, Giving offers important insights. It not only highlights that everyone can be a giver of money or time, expertise, ideas or organisation skills, but also conveys the subliminal message that the prosperous new middle class would be well advised to show the kinder, gentler face of capitalism to the great majority of the poor. This gift of a great American president to the world explains how and why.

Beating procrastination

Eat that Frog! by Brian Tracy; Tata McGraw Hill; Price: Rs.150; 117 pp

Procrastination or the habit of putting off difficult decisions until they can’t be put off any longer is no stranger to people in all walks of life. Psychologists attribute the tendency to procrastinate as a response to cope with anxiety associated with starting or completing a complex, difficult or unpleasant task. This malaise is said to be particularly prevalent within school and college students required to meet deadlines for assignments and tests in an academic calender packed with events and activities which place demands on their time. Procrastinators, both in academic environments and workplaces let tasks pile up leading to feelings of guilt, stress and anxiety, not to speak of punitive retribution from teachers or employers for not meeting job completion deadlines.

In Eat that Frog, best-selling author Brian Tracy offers valuable, action-oriented personal effectiveness advice which can help counter the natural tendency to procrastinate. "Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that it is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate if you don’t do something about it," writes Tracy, a celebrated American author-counsellor on developing human potential and personal effectiveness who addresses over 250,000 people each year on the subject. The promoter-chairman of Brian Tracy International, a training and consulting firm registered in California, Tracy has authored more than 40 books including bestsellers Maximum Achievement Goals and The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, apart from designing numerous programmes on leadership and personality development.

Written in a deceptively simple and typically American style, and liberally interspersed with interesting anecdotes, Eat that Frog is a welcome companion for students, salespeople, company executives and others with a vested interest in improving performance. Moreover, it’s a handy book for teachers, principals and student counsellors looking for ways and means to advise students. Without dwelling on the psychological or emotional explanations for procrastination, Tracy offers readers 21 tried and tested best practices to confront this bugbear and act immediately.

Among the measures he proposes are deciding what you want to achieve and writing out your goals; planning every day in advance by making lists of tasks; applying the 80/20 rule to all decision-making, i.e concentrating your efforts on top 20 percent high value activities that will deliver 80 percent of desirable outcomes and placing low value tasks on the back burner. A seasoned trainer, Tracy garnishes his advice with anecdotes to provide useful ‘how to’ guidelines for identifying top priority tasks and working on them until completed.

Further, Tracy offers some useful guidelines for removing the fear and anxiety provoked by big ticket decision making. "A major reason for procrastinating on important tasks is that they appear so large and formidable when you first approach them. Slice and dice the task into bite-sized pieces and do just one part of the task at a time," he advises. According to him it’s useful also to focus on outcomes to visualise the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. "When you work at a high and continuous level of activity, you can actually enter into a state of ‘flow’ or the highest human state of performance when you feel elated, clear, energised and come up with brilliant ideas," he says.

Although Eat that Frog is clear, concise and readable, there is nothing particularly original or innovative about Tracy’s advice which is repeated through the book. However, since chronic procrastinators seek constant motivation for engaging with tasks and decisions they dislike, repetition is useful. Moreover, for freshmen and management trainees seemingly swamped with multitudinous tasks, this handy volume offers practical suggestions for drawing up priorities. While the book is written with working people in mind, it’s equally useful for students burdened with sprawling curriculums and project assignments.