If Scrooge did social enterprise (RE: Marshall Plan for Ukraine)

"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?" said Scrooge.

The Spirit answered not, but pointed downward with its hand.

"You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us," Scrooge pursued. "Is that so, Spirit?"

As with the clever inversion Frank Capra delivered in the character of George Bailey, the protagonist is offered a vision of how things might have been. I offer a story of how social enterprise might have been.  Imagine a real life Pottersville, where people live day today under the influence of corrupt polticians and the insane greed of oligarchs, where life has little value and the vulnerable are disposable.

You are in Ukraine writing about a better way of doing things for those in need.       

Thanks to Senscot I have read the British Council's vision of Social Enterprise in 2020 which offers the dystopian outlook of a corporate branded future. At the same time it envisions the kind of replication and franchising which has been described in many of our proposals.      

With a long term and personal investment in international social enterprise, I speak from experience.    

I've often seen the opportunity for parody in a Christmas Carol. After all I have the basic ingredients. A dead partner, with a present day story of Ignorance and Want. It was this allegory from A Christmas Carol which drew us together online in 1999 when he first introduced me to his work in international development.

Christmas present is a people's uprising in Ukraine where he died two years ago, in his social enterprise efforts. As an Ukrainian native put it yesterday "It's not about the EU, It's about freedom from Ukrainian mafia' .She goes on to describe how oligarchs have destroyed her motherland.  

In 2008, we'd approached USAID and others in US goverrment with this contemporary story of Ignorance and Want.- organised crime and above all the widespread abuse of insitutionalised children. Many had died in primitive conditions simply through lack of care. It was accompanied with our proposals for social enterprise development which included a franchising approach for transition to foster and group care homes. .

A proposal also introduced to the British Council with our application for partnership in 2010. 

 

'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. 'And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.'

Working alongside Maidan civic activists and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group since 2004, Terry Hallman had  developed his proposals for grassroots social enterprise development at Kharkiv National University. 

What we were up against were the oligarchs dubbed Ukraine's Scooges by Kyiv Post. They had allies in our own government at the time, Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson  Ironically both part of making social enterprise UK government policy. Terry had been very direct about their greed:

“Excuses won’t work, particularly in light of a handful of oligarchs in Ukraine having been allowed to loot Ukraine’s economy for tens of billions of dollars. I point specifically to Akhmetov, Pinchuk, Poroshenko, and Kuchma, and this is certainly not an exhaustive list. These people can single-handedly finance 100% of all that will ever be needed to save Ukraine’s orphans. None of them evidently bother to think past their bank accounts, and seem to have at least tacit blessings at this point from the new regime to keep their loot while no one wants to consider Ukraine’s death camps, and the widespread poverty that produced them..”

USAID and the British Council got together in 2011 to create a social enterprise initiative under their own banner and as one may see by examining the list of donor and partners, Ukraine's Scrooges were among them  

These include Erste Bank who had also been introduced to our strategy paper in their 2010 social business ideas competition  

We'd also introduced these efforts to the APPG on Ukraine, the FCO and the British Ukrainian Society, They now stand in Westminster Hall with their hand wringing concern of brutality to peaceful protesters 

The British Council did not respond to our application. It was only after taking the issue up with my MP that I learned that only those able to make a financial contributution were considered. In other words, this was a corporate show.  

In describing a development centre for social enterprise we'd argued the case that capitalism should be applied to create social benefit. Over the next 7 years, the argument would re be regurgitated by others, including the Chief Exec of Business in the Community, Stephen Howard, as if his own thinking who now says 'business must be a force for good' 

Not content with project hijack, even the ideas are borrowed without attribution or irony, when pointing out distrust of business leaders  

It's pretty well know by now that Tony Blair has Viktor Pinchuk as a sponsor for his faith foundation. The story of Lord Mandelson's visit to Ukraine was removed from the Daily Mail but What's On in Kyiv has not been silenced in describing his relationship with Akhmetov    

Mandelson was EU Trade Commisioner when our project was introduced to the 2008 EU Citizens Consultation,

In contrast with Jacob Marley, it's unlikely that my deceased colleague will be obliged to roam the earth, having been one who did go forth in life, while Lord Mandelson, according  to journalist John Helmer, strides this world to find friends in low places.  

In 2009 he became UK Business Secretary pledging to help firms who help others.

'Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. 'Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!'