Big business strikes again! I am too shocked to be angry and too agonized to be coherent.

Anita Roddick, has sold the Body Shop to cosmetics giant L’Oreal for £650 million. The Body Shop was the standard-bearer for ethics and values in business, and campaigned endlessly for an end to the testing of cosmetics on animals. The company’s fundamental values of ‘No Animal Testing’, ‘Support Community Trade’, ‘Protect the Environment’, ‘Protect Human Rights’ will supposedly remain the same despite the takeover/sellout.

Meeting Anita Roddick two years ago at the Edinburgh Book Festival was a dream come true. What a woman! For years, she has provided hope and inspiration to small, alternative, non-mainstream businesses. She made us believe in the true power of one, gave us the strength to plug along, and fight for what we believe in. I think she was the only activist who truly “got it”. A keen business sense, serious smarts, heart, soul, and no ordinary amount of passion – the lady is a legend. Hmmm, nothing like hyperbole to numb the senses. For a moment there, I forgot about the subject of this post.

Anita claims nothing will change. She says she is truly flattered that L’Oreal wants to alter the way they do business and wants Anita/ Body Shop to show them the way. In response to campaigners, employees, franchisees and all the millions who are horrified to hear the news, she says, “the campaigning, the being maverick, changing the rules of business, it’s all there, protected. And it’s not going to change. That’s part of our DNA.” And I think with all the franchisees and clients, they know me. They know I’m a maverick. They know I’m loud-mouthed on certain issues. They know I challenge The Body Shop in many ways. I am not and Gordon (her husband) is not going to do this relationship, this deal, if we didn’t think and believe from our real heart that this was the best next stage for The Body Shop.

Anita, you’re too smart to throw it all away but seriously, why couldn’t you have taught L’Oreal about animal testing, fair trade, and ethics, without selling them the Body Shop? If they care that much about all this “stuff”, why didn’t they just hire you as a consultant? Why did it have to be an all or nothing deal?

I don’t want to be a cynic or pass judgement without giving this deal a chance – but really, mega corporations do not give a flying fuck about anything other than Wall Street and winning. Will L’Oreal risk the “numbers” when Dame Anita tells them to stop testing on animals and to incorporate “fair trade” into their strategy? Companies don’t become corporate giants by being nice and fair and just. This is just sickening.

Shattered

UPDATE: A Day In The Life Of … Dame Anita Roddick

Reading an interview of Billy Bragg in the April issue of Utne, I came across the perfect word to describe 21st century society: POST-IDEOLOGICAL.

Now I can live/die in peace knowing that there exists a single, pithy word to describe the depraved wasteland we call life.

Utne is an independent media company and totally rocks. Their mission: We believe that personal evolution is the key to social change. Our mission is to seek out and illuminate the essential information, people, and trends that will inspire our audience to take action to make the world kinder and greener.

Peace Out!

Talk about language evolution! Just got this by e-mail …

hey hru n hwos life
sorry for mailing u like that
i got ur id frm forwarded mail so thaught to mail u hp u dnt mind
im “name withheld by beanz” wt do u do?
i wont ask for frndship ur reply will gonna gimme da ans

In an unprecedented act of kindness, Google has released a Blogger widget for Mac OS X. This is a non-post to test whether this thing actually works!

Update: It works

I am told that everyone does it and that there’s nothing wrong with it. Apparently, “dropping” a CV in response to an ad or just for the heck of it is totally acceptable despite the fact that you are employed elsewhere. Hmmm – either you get it or you don’t and I guess this is one of those things that I just don’t or rather, won’t get.

If CV dropping is acceptable, why is it always done on the sly? How come the people who will be most affected by someone’s departure are always the last to know? Why can’t people come clean and say, “I am looking around because I need more money, or I am bored here, or whatever? Because, they want to keep their options open!

I was informed recently, by a “trusted” employee, that he, like everyone else, has been sending his CV all over the place and has even gone to interviews, but NOT because he wanted to leave. Pray, why then? “Oh, just to see where I stand”. Right! Self-esteem booster potion, at other people’s expense. What crap. And what of the poor HR sod who has to sift through all these CVs, many belonging to people who are just checking out the scene and want to know what they are worth? Is his time and effort worth nothing? We all know how difficult it is to find the right people. So, when people who are happily employed go on these CV dropping trysts, just to gauge what someone else might pay them, an HR team is shortlisting candidates, conducting interviews, evaluating potential, discussing remuneration packages, etc. for losers who aren’t even interested. And what about other potential candidates who may lose out? Is this decent, ethical behaviour?

Oh, and what of the “I respect you immensely and would never do anything to hurt you; you’ve always been like family” types? The ones who decide to move on (which is A-OK!), but don’t tell you that they are planning some major changes until the day everything’s done? Values, ethics, and business principles have been reduced to trite forms of nonsense that are found in annual reports and corporate corridors. Perhaps 1 in 6 million people “live” the values that they supposedly prescribe to. I guess I will be accused of being too sensitive and will be told “yay to hota hai”. Haan, haan, of course hota hai bhai, I’ve been working since I was 15 and have encountered and dealt with every kind of wannabe, sleazeball, dumbass, and, it must be said, a bunch of absolutely stellar and wonderful people too. And I am in no way suggesting that people should not look for “better opportunities” but I do believe, with intensity, that there is a way to go about these activities. I guess this deceit-ridden world isn’t for me, and like Microsoft Windows, I feel it should never have come out of beta testing.