|
|
Just when I thought the Fan Meizhong story had wound down to a simmering
denouement, the curtain has been raised again to feature Act II. The teacher who
left his pupils behind in a notorious sprint from an earthquake-shaken classroom
has made his television debut.
More surprisingly, he came out the good guy - or more accurately, the
better guy. Phoenix TV pitched him against a "morality fighter" who condemned
Fan outright. And netizens basically voted that between cowardice and hypocrisy
they deemed the former a lesser sin.
If we see the earthquake response as a big picture, China's netizens have
been playing the role of morality fighter. It is their favorite role.
Their dominant strategy is to shame celebrities into donating "an
appropriate amount". Sports superstar Yao Ming originally doled out 2 million
yuan, creating an endless ripple of negative comments. Now, Yao has followed up
with $2 million. But the damage is done.
A few days after the quake, someone compiled an online list of
"parsimonious" multinational corporations whose donations were not commensurate
with their earnings in China. The digital world whipped up a backlash: See how
these people are making money from us and now turn a blind eye to our
suffering?
It turned out the list was erroneous on many counts. These companies had
given huge sums to the earthquake relief, said the Ministry of Commerce, who
belatedly publicized a correct and complete list.
The online morality army does not seem to realize that charity is not like
tax. It is something you do - not because you have to, but because you want to.
A business may have cash flow constraints; a public company may have a limit as
to how much it can donate. Charity should not be a burden on the financial
health of a business.
The last sentence is a paraphrase of what a real estate developer said. The
real estate tycoon before the May 12 quake, has essentially destroyed his aura
with one blog post. But I agree with him that we should not pressure businesses
into giving more than what they are comfortable with. Only when they make good
profits can they keep paying taxes and possibly give back to the society in ways
and amounts they see fit.
A businessman's remark that natural disasters happen in a vast country like
China. That is true, too. But a natural disaster of this enormity happened only
once in 30 years. To brush it aside in such an imperial manner is not showing
proper respect to the victims. Besides, he did not have the right to limit his
employees' donation to the ridiculous and almost insulting 10 yuan per person.
How much they gave was their business.
But when people stop to do business with his company, his board has made a
decision to donate 100 million yuan.
Obviously, this was not from their hearts, but a business move at damage
control. It mars our corporate culture to turn a beautiful feeling of
humanitarianism into competition (how much your rival is pledging) and a
publicity stunt (using donation as corporate promotion).
Charity is about doing good. It is not about giving the largest amount when
the media spotlight is on you. It is about sincerity and it should be
long-lasting.
Back to "Run Fan Run". It was what he said more than what he did that was
offensive. But from the aggressiveness with which he justified his act, I
somehow felt that he was not comfortable with his "bolting act". The right to
free expression does not preclude stupidity of expression from destroying your
image. |
|
发表于 2016-7-9 23:49:40