He alluded to changing the regulations to keep smaller retail operations for Samoan business people only.

He acknowledged there was growing resentment among local business owners over overseas operators, but he encouraged them to learn from the Chinese about operating profitable businesses.

Earlier in the month Moata'a village had joined a growing list of Samoan villages that have banned Asian-owned businesses from opening.

James Zhuang has been in Samoa for more than five years and working at his father's store in Apia.

He planned to expand his business by opening a shop in Moata'a.

"However, the day the store was supposed to open, the Moata'a village council stepped in and that's when everything changed," said Zhuang.

Zhuang claims he is the victim of racism. "I know I am a Chinese man, and that is why the village does not allow me to open my store, yet other Samoans have opened up new shop in Moata'a."

"I will bring no harm to the village; I will abide by the rules and regulations of the village council."

Paramount chief, Asi Blakelock told the Sunday Samoan the landlord is one of his chiefs.

He said the landlord should have consulted the Village Council first before he made a deal with Zhuang.

"The Village Council was informed the night before the store was to open.'

"This new business came as a shock to us when we were informed that it would be operated by an Asian man."

Asi said a long standing rule in Moata'a bans Asians from opening a business there.

"It's not just Asians, the village also bans the selling of alcohol in the village stores."

Source

• Samoa Observer
• RNZ
• RNZ
• Image: Amau Appartments

But as David Gelles observes in his new book, that contrast is dissolving, perhaps for the better.

In Mindful Work, Gelles, a business reporter for The New York Times, catalogues the nascent trend of establishing employee well-being programs that promote mindfulness, an activity that is perhaps best described as doing nothing.

More precisely, mindfulness means drawing one's attention to the sensations of the present moment, and noting, without frustration or judgment, any mental wanderings that get in the way.

It can be done anywhere—at your desk, on the subway platform—and at any time. Decades of research suggest that setting aside time for mindfulness can improve concentration and reduce stress.

Gelles first reported on the rise of corporate mindfulness programs in 2012 for The Financial Times, when he described a rare but promising initiative at General Mills. In the years since, similar programs have popped up at Ford, Google, Target, Adobe—and even Goldman Sachs and Davos.

This adoption has been rapid, perhaps due to its potential to help the bottom line: Aetna estimates that since instituting its mindfulness program, it has saved about $2,000 per employee in healthcare costs, and gained about $3,000 per employee in productivity.

Mindful employees, the thinking goes, are healthier and more focused.

I recently talked to Gelles about why mindfulness programs are sprouting up and what happens when you expose a practice unconcerned with materialism to the forces of capitalism. The interview that follows has been edited and condensed for the sake of clarity. Continue reading

Sources

• The Atlantic
• Image: Psychology Today

Frs Sean Heaney and Shane Crombie, with Tom Whelan, from Tullamore, have been writing to parishes in the United States.

Fr Crombie said the Church is a ready-made network.

The trio's motivation is not money; it's just the latest manifestation of the Church helping out local communities, he said.

"It's kind of a networking event in a parish setting.

"We have been making contact with parishes and asking them if they are aware of business people over there who are interested in setting up in Ireland."

So far, the three have sent out more than 100 letters, setting up links with 12 parishes in Boston and 16 across California, as well as others in Arizona and Chicago.

Continue reading

The first Seminarian Leadership Institute is being run at Villanova University in Philadelphia.

By the end of the course in mid-July, the 11 students will have heard talks on finances, human resources, facilities maintenance and security as well as a crash course in civil law.

New US clergy are likely to be running a parish within two or three years of being ordained.

The course happens in conjunction with pastoral experience the seminarians undertake in parishes.

St Charles Borromeo Seminary rector Bishop Timothy Senior said the main reason experienced priests in Philadelphia asked for a new assignment was the administrative burden in parishes.

He wants to help new priests avoid that pitfall.

"It's not that you have to be able to do everything," Bishop Senior said.

"But you certainly have to be able to recognise what needs to be done, and how to get the right people to do it."

Continue reading

Easton, who's recently published a user's guide to economic inequality, says inequality is difficult to measure.

One indicator might show it going up while another has it coming down or staying the same, 'so it's easy to choose the indicator you want'.

But, he says, all the indicators are that New Zealand suffered a sharp rise in inequality as a result of policy changes to tax rates and benefits 30 years ago and is now in the company of those OECD countries with the biggest gap between rich and poor.

'The simple way to put this is that in the 1980s we were in the bottom half of the OECD as far as inequality was concerned. Those above us had greater inequality.

'By the mid-1990s we were in the top half — among the most unequal parts of the OECD — and it's still like that.' Continue reading.

Cecily McNeill has edited Wel-Com, the newspaper for the Wellington and Palmerston North dioceses, for the past eight years, and worked as a radio journalist for 20 years.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: mimosaplanet.com

Mounting work schedules are straining quality family time, with parents missing dinnertime and working through the weekend.

Almost 60 per cent of parents said their work commitments had a real impact on their family life.

John Cowan, writer and presenter from The Parenting Place, said the figures did not sound as bad as he expected they would actually be.

"For those that don't have internet access, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the lowest earners, working two or more jobs a week, and so it's probably even worse than these figures suggest," he said.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Hyundai.co.nz

With a background in strategic planning and the experience of serving as dean of a major Catholic business school—the University of Notre Dame's acclaimed Mendoza College of Business—Woo also brings a sharp business acumen to running an agency dependent upon the support of others to carry out its work.

In these excerpts from the interview we conducted with her for our May 2013 issue, Woo discusses business ethics, funding challenges, and passing on the faith.

How did you become interested in studying business?

My academic training was in strategy. There are very few people who specialize in strategy and strategic planning. I was 21 years old when I decided that I wanted to get a Ph.D. in strategy, although I don't know why I did it. It was a new field, people didn't know much about it and neither did I.

But it was the opposite of my undergraduate major, which was economics. I wanted something really broad, but it might not have been the best major for a person without experience. I grew to love it though. And now my role and my contribution to CRS is to make sure that we are strategically on track and that we are organizationally healthy in fulfilling our mission.

Having worked at a Catholic business school, how important do you think it is to teach ethics and values to business leaders in today's world?

Development cannot take place without business, because in the end, business is there to create jobs. They don't only create a market for products, but behind the products are people and talent. If there's no market, there's no place for exchange, and we will be tending to our own little plot somewhere. Continue reading

Sources

• U.S. Catholic
• Image: Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand

Humans share a common nature and possess common ways of acting. This comes about because our minds function according to a similar mechanism, and because we have comparable needs. The mechanism is this: where we have discretion, we make choices based on our values. This is called subjective valuation.

If I had a nickel for every time a person argued that this means that economics does not accept the idea of objective values, I could buy a candy bar (since the currency is so inflated). While it may be true that some economists do not believe in objective values, the existence of objective values has little bearing on the analysis of choices. People make choices based on the values that they subjectivize, whether they are objectively better or not.

Take the case of Michelangelo's statue of Moses. Very few people would deny that this statue is, objectively speaking, a powerful and impressive sculpture. Yet some tourists in Rome have no understanding of art, and if asked would not want to spend their time admiring that statue; based on their subjective valuation of art, it isn't on their list of priorities. This in no way undercuts the objective power of Michelangelo's work.

And this is just one of countless possible examples. When you eat cereal for breakfast and are confronted with a number of different brands, you choose the one you like best, based on what you value. If you are trying to live a healthful life, you might choose the box whose contents look like rabbit pellets. If taste is more important to you, that will be the basis of your choice, and you may opt for the sugary, chocolate cereal.

Economics is a science about persons and their actions, not about whether they should or should not make certain specific choices — that task belongs to ethics or moral theology. Nor does economics focus on the interior workings of the mind; that is for psychology. As individual persons, and as believers, economists are concerned about all of these things, of course. But as economists, the study of moral theology, ethics, and psychology falls outside their discipline.

Continue reading the article on Economics not being a business science.

Source

• Image: Blog - Journey of a social entrepreneur