From watching the documentary on the Zambian mining industry and its relationship
with multinational corporation Glencore, there are several stakeholders involved in this ethical
process of copper mining. The documentary showed that despite having the third largest
copper reserves in the world, 60% of Zambian were living on less than $1 a day and 80% of the
total population were out of a job. This is largely due to corporate greed, government
mismanagement and corruption. The three biggest stakeholders in this situation are
Glencore/Mopani Mines, the Zambian government, and the Zambian locals.
As a multinational corporation that specialize in commodity trading, Glencore acts as a
holding company to multiple subsidiaries all around the globe, with one of them being Mopani
Mines in Zambia. Glencore had a scandalous past, as its former founder and CEO Mark Rich was
once on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list for tax evasion and tax fraud. However, he was
eventually granted a presidential pardon by former President Bill Clinton, an action that caused
huge controversy as Mark Rich got away with the biggest tax fraud in U.S. history at the time
with zero punishment. As the company running the biggest copper mining field in Zambia,
Glencore are responsible for the ethical processes in this situation. Unfortunately, there is
hardly any evidence in the documentary that shows that Glencore’s operation is ethical. The
Zambian economy is extremely dependent on its copper production and the government is
desperate to attract foreign investment to boost the nation’s employment rate and overall
economy. However, large corporations like Glencore are always looking for ways to take
advantage of the situation. For example, they can internally manipulate the price of copper so
that the mineral is exported cheaply out of the country and sold for a much higher price on the
commodity market later on. Glencore also seek for ways to avoid paying taxes in the country
and move their earnings to other places with favourable tax treatments such as Switzerland. As
a result, the Zambian economy was only able to retrieve a small portion of income from tax
revenue, and the economy ended up losing money from foreign investments. Furthermore,
Glencore’s operation was causing significant damage to the Zambian environment as the toxins
they emitted from the Mopani Mine was 1000 times higher than the UN standard. However,
since the emission was in accordance with the ZEMA standard, the company was able to
continue its unethical practices.
The Zambian government is also responsible for ethical processes in this situation, and
the current government is actively seeking for ways to turn things around. The government was
in a bad negotiating position at the time primarily due to a corrupt former government
leadership who took bribes from the mining corporations and signed unequal treaties that only
benefitted foreign companies but damaged Zambian economy and environment. The current
government, led by Vice President Guy Scott, is working towards increasing the tax revenue
from the mines, which is revenue badly needed to pay for education, healthcare, and to reduce
poverty.
The third party responsible for ethical processes in this situation is the Zambian people.
These people need to take actions to defend the environmental and economic well-being of
their nation. However, there is not much they can do in this situation, as most of them are
living in poverty and need a job from companies like Glencore to provide for their families. And
despite their effort to protest the environmental damage Glencore had caused over the year,
no sound solution has been proposed as of the time of the documentary.
Even though the church cannot necessarily provide economic support to the Zambian
people (foreign aid to Zambia only equaled one-tenth of Zambian natural resource output),
there are many other ways the church can help out with the issue described in this film. Firstly,
Christians can engage in missionary work in Zambian community such as providing essential
education to Zambian children and teaching them biblical lessons. Secondly, the church can
seek out help from the medical professionals and provide essential medical services to the
Zambian community. Lastly, the church can advocate for ways to reduce the environmental
impact these big firms are causing in Zambia and raise awareness of the issue in the Christian
community.
Next week’s preparation:
Personally, I do think missionaries and pastors would make good entrepreneurs in certain
businesses such as restaurants, consulting firms, and etc. as the biblical values implemented
into the business would leave a positive impression with the customers and benefit the
business. However, for businesses that require a high return on equity such as a wealth
management firm, missionaries and pastors would not make good entrepreneurs as their
priority would often times be in conflict with the goal of maximizing returns.