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Nathan_Chau
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Name: Nathan
Location: United States
Birthday: 8/28/1979
Gender: Male
Interests: music, theology, science, philosophy, cooking, eating, photography, hanging out, art, movies, etc...
Expertise: being busy but unproduoctive, procrastination, late in (or even not) replying emails...(I'm sorry)
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/17/2004
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| I have been browsing a lot about the topic of social enterprise / sustainable business. New to the idea? Take a look at this wonderful 30min videocast (needs windows media player and some time to load) and also:
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/hkcc/20070813.html
http://www.shokay.com
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/programs/mpaid/careers.htm
What a wonderful representation of the biblical view regarding
people-empowering, wealth stewardship and ownership. I am convinced that the Christian church, mission agencies, business owners and NPOs
should seriously
rethink the meaning of the gospel and the living out of it. What good
is it to say to the poor "God loves you and have a purpose in your
life" while doing little or nothing to
empower people to get out of the survival crisis and the real
oppressions in life? (c.f. Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-8, James 2:15-16) What good is it to teach "be in the world but not of
the world" while the church's teaching and discipleship program focus
primarily on the "spiritual stuff" but continue to ignore the eco-economic responsibility --- the
biblical mandate of managing the world's resources with wisdom and servanthood?
(c.f. Genesis 1:26ff, Matthew 25:14-46, etc.)
Church!
I challenge you to go beyond the traditional way of evangelism, to break away from the
customary of speech and dead piety. Christian business owners!
College Christians! Leaders and servants of the world! I challenge
you to be bold to be creative and step out of your personal financial
insecurity! Christian cynics! I challenge you to stop complaining and
start working! Christian theologians! I challege you to stop speaking of God in conventional esoteric terms up in the ivory tower, and start dialoging with other discplines, realms of knowledge and pressing social issues from below!
In case the links expire, I have attached part of them below:
鏗 鏘 集: 創 富 濟 貧
社 會 企 業 的 定 義 ， 是 以 協 助 弱 勢 社 群 等 作 為 目 標 ， 以 商 業 運 作 的 企 業 。
ｍ ａ ｒ ｉ ｅ 與 ｃ ａ ｒ ｏ ｌ ， 一
個 香 港 人 ， 一 個 台 灣 人 ， 在 美 國 讀 書 時 認 識 , 還 有 一 個 社 會 企 業 夢 , 她 們 的 概 念 在
哈 佛 大 學 一 年 一 度 的 商 業 企 劃 比 賽 中 脫 穎 而 出 ， 不 但 獲 得 校 方 頒 發 的 1.5 萬 美 元 獎
金 ， 還 得 到 不 少 創 投 基 金 垂 青 ， 成 立 了 公 司 ， 現 時 在 中 國 雲 南 和 青 海 地 區 ， 進 行 兩
個 社 會 企 業 項 目 ， 包 括 建 設 犛 牛 奶 酪 廠 ， 研 製 犛 牛 毛 製 品 等 項 目 ， 幫 助 牧 民 脫 貧 。
事 實 上 ， 中 國 西 部 雖 然 有 豐
富 的 資 源 ， 但 卻 缺 乏 市 場 資 訊 和 銷 售 渠 道 ， 蘇 芷 君 希 望 可 以 擔 當 起 橋 樑 的 角 色 ， 好
似 將 收 購 自 牧 民 的 牛 毛 製 成 圍 巾 ， 質 量 可 以 媲 美 茄 士 咩 ， 而 引 進 海 外 的 牛 奶 加 工 技
術 所 製 成 的 奶 酪 ， 更 受 大 型 酒 店 和 餐 館 的 歡 迎 ， 直 接 增 加 牧 民 收 入 是 短 期 目 標 ， 長
遠 而 言 ， 希 望 能 增 加 受 助 的 牧 民 家 庭 ， 並 把 盈 利 盡 量 投 放 在 當 地 的 社 區 建 設 上 ...... 編 導 : 李 君 萍
CAREER SPOTLIGHT:
Carol Chyau
(Taiwan) and
Marie So (Hong Kong)
MPA/ID Class of 2006
Ventures in Development
Yak wool and
cheese
Carol Chyau (center left) and
Marie So (center right) in Shangrila, Yunnan,
in January 2006
with staff from the China Exploration Research Society, the NGO
with whom they would partner on their development enterprise
for yak cheese.
During the January 2006 break of their second year in the MPA/ID
program, Carol and Marie travelled to China's western Yunnan
province to seek out sustainable economic opportunities for
local communities. They found an abundant untapped resource: 13
million yaks that could provide wool and milk.
They won the Harvard
Business School
Business Plan Contest in spring 2006 among over 50 teams for
their plan to market yak wool. Subsequently, they started "Ventures in Development," a social enterprise organization, with
two pilot yak projects -- "Yashmere" and "Cheese for Change."
Ventures in Development has grown steadily, and
incubated its first for-profit social enterprise in December
2006: the pilot project "Yashmere" became
Shokay
International, which sells luxury throws, scarves, and yarn
on the global market ("shokay" is the Tibetan word for yak
down).
Their projects have been featured
in the media, including
Time Magazine and the
BBC. They participated in the
Business in Development (BiD) Network 2006 challenge, an
international network based in Amsterdam for poverty reduction business projects,
and won the top prize. More recently, they were featured in a
Boston Herald article on August 17, 2007......
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| I am done with finals. but I am getting sick. Just a little bit of sore throat. Hope it will be under control. I am glad I can finally have some time for myself. Seminary life is so busy that we rarely have time to connect to our self, to deal with personal issues. We are in a super fast pace 10-week quarter system. They teach about self-care, but it's ironic that they give so much work to students. Sometimes I wonder if this is a good way to train ministers. Maybe it is and I am just not tough enough. But part of me do think this is the way. The other day I was talking to other seminarians about how I think seminary training is not hard enough these days. Many professors are not holding the standard to the level it should be. This thought was inspired by "the Guardian". It's not a great movie, but I could identify with those in the movie who want to become a rescue swimmer and the traniner. The academy has already had a high attrition rate, but this new head training officer is even harsher. He breaks the conventional old school way of training, asking students to do the impossible: iced pool, extremely long hours of water treading while lifting heavy weight. Failing and dropping students in the 1st week...some students are getting bitter; other offices begin to worry. Why? Because he'd experienced the real ocean. When those 20ft waves roaring over and devouing the shattered body of those gigantic carries, he's been there. When the Holy LORD reaches down from heaven destroying his own creation, he's been there. When situations are so hostile that even other rescue swimmers decide to let go of the lives out there, he goes out there. I think there should be some seminaries out there that train ministers like the way the coast guard academy does. because out there is a dying world, full of storms, chaos, danger, accusations, slander, evil and sufferings. Along the way there will be losses and unwilling sarifices... It's not a game. There is no room for heroism. If self-glorification is what drives a person, that person is doom to give up and fail those who need rescue.... Some fellow students think that I am intense. militant? crazy? maybe I am intense. LORD, may you absorb the bitterness and adversary that I am not able to absorb. we can't save ourselves. Come and rescue us. | | |
| Dr. Bolger talked about gift economy vs. market economy.
I can really identify that what I've experience in the Chinese churches. Often times churches love people with an agenda, to attract people to come to church, to join the program.
Honest, I think it is hard to be absoutely agenda free and be truly completely generous. but perhaps we can change to love with hope and expectation, to hope that in our giving and caring of others, the receiver and the giver both experience small reflections of divine generosity.
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| Today we got our 2nd papers back. The discussion with very helpful. As expected, my paper is considered to be a little too theological and abstract. I really need to find ways to ground those thoughts to reality. one way to do that is to be more clear in identifing the forces that are currently at work in my context.
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| Last class we talked about space. The notion is that because of scientific and technology advancement, today we have social spaces, or social interactions that are detached and independent of the physical spaces. We can be in touch with all sorts of people and cultures without being there physically.
I am always skeptical of this claim. Say... how can we say we are in touch with Indian cultures when all we have done is talking on skype about a company project with a co-worker who happens to work in out-sourced department of the same fortune 500 corporate firm. One can get some idea of the Indian culture, but it's nothing like eating BJ's Indian curry chicken and swallowing it into your stomach. But even with BJ chicken, we are only getting a tiny glimpse of what it's like to be in India. The real physical subjective part of the human bond and sharing is irreplaceable.
I think this technological change in society affects us not on the deep, subjective experiential level. It affects us more on the perception level. Because of the notion that there is always more information out there, it changes the way we look at reality and truth. We are so much more aware of our epistemological finitude. It slows us down to believe in something. It keeps us remain skeptical. We engaged in online interactions, useful as they are, yet deep down we are so lonely and isolated. It's like the more we have to rely on email, myspace and Xanga to keep in touch with friends, the more we are subsconsciously reminded of the physical seperation.
We are talking about the idea of presence, "being there", being totally immersed in a culture, an environment, an active interaction. I think people these days are no less lonely than before. The internet has not solved the human desire for union with another.
The presence of God, the Emmanuel that Christianity promise seems to feed right into that longing... I believe that there is something very prescious about the aspect of "physical presence" and "incarnation" in Christain ministry.
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