Dabbawala

The Economist is impressed by the success of the Dabbawala (also see Wikipedia article) in The cult of the dabbawala as a new management trend.

As usual, the capitalist press fails to realise that the free association of independent worker-owners is greatly superior to an organisation divided between owners and workers.

AS THE warrior king who defeated the Mughals and founded the Maratha empire of Western India in the 17th century, Shivaji Bhosle is remembered as a tactical genius as well as a benevolent ruler. The direct descendants of his Malva-caste soldiers are also developing a reputation for organisational excellence. Using an elaborate system of colour-coded boxes to convey over 170,000 meals to their destinations each day, the 5,000-strong dabbawala collective has built up an extraordinary reputation for the speed and accuracy of its deliveries. Word of their legendary efficiency and almost flawless logistics is now spreading through the rarefied world of management consulting. Impressed by the dabbawalas’ “six-sigma” certified error rate—reportedly on the order of one mistake per 6m deliveries—management gurus and bosses are queuing up to find out how they do it.

Emphasis Mine

The capitalists are impressed by the Dabbawala's efficiency and want to study it. They will be blind to the key features of the success:

• Decentralised management
• Four (4) levels of organisation: (Ramasastry:2004A, p.4)
1. Workers
2. Team Leaders
3. Group Leaders
4. Central Committee
• Equal pay for all workers

References:

Ramasastry, C.S. (2004A), DABBAWALLAHS OF MUMBAI (A), Publication #904D11, Ivey Management Services, Ontario, Canada (Not available online)

Ramasastry, C.S. (2004B), DABBAWALLAHS OF MUMBAI (B), Publication #904D13, Ivey Management Services, Ontario, Canada (Not available online)

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Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man (2)

I have finished reading Chloe Hooper's latest book, The Tall Man.

I had posted my reactions to a radio interview with Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man

Hooper leaves out one word from her story: occupation. The State of Queensland is engaged in an occupation of Aboriginal lands in North Queensland for the benefit of white settlers.

The Wild Time was the invasion of whites into this area, and the Stolen Generations was the ethnic cleansing undertaken to consolidate white control of the area's resources. Palm Island is part of the gulag of the occupation.

And in enforcing this occupation, Senior Sgt Chris Hurley became brutalised by the frontier justice. Even though he acknowledged his own racism and worked hard for Aboriginal betterment, he could not escape the racism of the State of Queensland. In putting on his uniform, he was putting on a history of genocide, racism, and brutality.

Hurley's struggle against institutional racism showed the limits of individual change. He had to choose between his soul and his uniform. Palm Island made that choice very stark.

Cameron Doomadgee's taunt of "Fucking cunts" and his punch to Hurley's face caused Hurley to explode into a rage that killed Doomadgee. Doomadgee saw a blue uniform. Hurley saw an insolent, ungrateful blackfellow. They could not see each other as human beings.

Hurley may have been coerced into pleading not guilty to the charge of manslaughter in order to protect the honour of the Queensland Police. Hooper seems to imply that Catholicism guides Hurley's career in the Police Service as a mixture of duty and using power for social justice. He could have been persauded to cover up to protect the progress being made by the reforms in the Police.

My reading of Hooper's story is that the cases when Hurley was brutal towards Aboriginals, he was either enforcing frontier justice or he was under stress in a dangerous situation. One case could even have been an accident when he backed over a woman's foot. The failure to acknowledge the incident or to apologise made the situation worse. These cases became easy to cover up and Hurley was drawn into this world of half-truths and denials.

The problem is not with the Police nor with the Government, it is with the white people of North Queensland. This was shown by the quick verdict of not guilty returned by the jury.

The wealth of North Queensland depends on the secure title of land there: mining, agriculture, tourism. Racism justifies the theft of land from the Aboriginals and the exploitation of those stolen resources. If the Police and Government did not support this racism, they would be replaced by those who would.

Hurley was wrong to attempt to change the racism of the Police from the inside. The economic forces that depend on racism are just too strong for individuals to overcome. And now he has to live with the blood of an innocent man on his hands. Hurley would have done better to plead guilty and accepted his punishment. Even better would have been to control his temper and not killed Doomadgee.

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The Only Diet for a Peacemaker Is a Vegetarian Diet

Picked up The Only Diet for a Peacemaker Is a Vegetarian Diet from DrumBeat: July 12, 2008 at the The Oil Drum.

John Dear argues that:

But for me being vegetarian boils down to peacemaking. If you want to be a peacemaker, Bruce said, reflecting the sentiments of Leo Tolstoy, you will want to eat as peaceful a diet as possible. "Vegetarianism," Tolstoy wrote, "is the taproot of humanitarianism." Other great humanitarians like Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer and Thich Nhat Hanh agree. The only diet for a peacemaker is a vegetarian diet.

Emphasis Mine

He states his vegetarianism began with reading Diet for a small planet by Frances Moore Lappe:

In it, Lappe, the great advocate for the hungry, makes an unassailable case that vegetarianism is the best way to eliminate world hunger and to sustain the environment.

The key points are:

1. The amount of plant food consumed by farm animals for human consumption is staggering (70% of US grain);
2. The amount of grain used for bio-fuels is not as bad but has an impact (10% of US grain);
3. The amount of greenhouse gas produced by farm animals is large (40% of methane - farts);
4. And there is the ancilliary impacts on water and land usage. (90% of water use in an industrialised country goes on agriculture)

In summary, vegetarianism reduces resource consumption and therefore the need for competition over resources.

However, vegetarianism goes beyond this to broaden our humanity through a connection with nature. Dear expresses this as a religious experience:

"Not to hurt our humble brethren, the animals," St. Francis of Assisi said, "is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it. If you have people who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity," he continued, "you will have people who will deal likewise with other people."

And yet there are people who see meat-eating as an expression of their personhood. My being a vegetarian threatens their self-worth. Some become quite vocal and passionate about eating meat. It is as if my mere existence dimminishes their self-worth in some way. It is equivalent to being a teetotaler among beer drinkers, or a non-smoker among smokers.

But a change in personal dietary habits is only a small part in the need to fix the world so that humans can survive. We also need to change how the system works. This cannot be done by individuals - only by the people united.

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