Being on Top

Businesses magazine Expansión (mexican edition) has made public a list of the best companies to work in Mexico (March 23th), from the point of view of the applied policies to Human Resources, and based on an evaluation made for the Great Place to Work Institute.

This is the list of the companies (more than 500 employees) with better atmosphere and labor policies:

1 Danone
2 Federal Express
3 McDonald’s
4 British American Tobacco
5 Jansenn-Cilag México
6 American Express
7 Boehringer Ingelheim Promeco
8 Wyeth
9 Eli Lilly
10 Grupo Gamesa
11 Unilever
12 Procter & Gamble
13 Parque Xel-Ha
14 Monex Grupo Financiero
15 Dupont
16 Mancera Ernst & Young
17 Scotiabank Inverlat
18 IBM
19 Parque Ecoarquelógico Xcaret
20 Owens Corning
21 Servicios Afore Banamex
22 Desarrolladora Homex
23 Banamex (Citigroup)
24 Maxcom Telecomunicaciones
25 Novartis


I found interesting that 44% of companies of previous list also appears on another list less favorable: Some have been mentioned in the worst companies list by the Multinational Monitor and the Black Book on Brand Companies.

Multinational Monitor is an organism that "... tracks corporate activity, especially in the Third World, focusing on the export of hazardous substances, to worker health and safety, work union issues and the environment."

On the other hand, Black Book on Brand Companies is a work of investigation about corporative practices; it names the companies who are responsible for unscrupulous business practices and human rights violations.

I reproduce the list; in bold the companies named by Multinational Monitor (MM) or the Black Book (BB):

1 Danone (BB)
2 Federal Express
3 McDonald’s (BB)
4 British American Tobacco (MM)
5 Jansenn-Cilag México
6 American Express (BB)
7 Boehringer Ingelheim Promeco (BB)
8 Wyeth (MM)
9 Eli Lilly
10 Grupo Gamesa
11 Unilever (BB)
12 Procter & Gamble (MM)
13 Parque Xel-Ha
14 Monex Grupo Financiero
15 Dupont (BB)
16 Mancera Ernst & Young
17 Scotiabank Inverlat
18 IBM
19 Parque Ecoarquelógico Xcaret
20 Owens Corning
21 Servicios Afore Banamex
22 Desarrolladora Homex
23 Banamex (Citigroup) (MM)
24 Maxcom Telecomunicaciones
25 Novartis (BB)

If we focuse on Top Ten, 60% of the companies described with excellent labor policies are at the same time accused of environmental damage, dishonest polices and/or violation of human rights, among other things.

Being on top could be good or bad, or both at same time; that depends who is doing the list.

John Paul II lost chance

Like so many people in this country, I was baptized according to catholic tradition. I grew up with a strong commitment to catholic faith and its rituals. But years later I refused to take the confirmation sacrament. As many teenagers my beliefs toward the Catholic Church as Institution became weak.

Today is the hour in which the virtues of the Polish Pope are proclaimed: His fight against the Comunism, his contrition by the historical church mistakes, his habilities like a statesman. But there was something he had opportunity to do and he did not: To help to improve the life’s conditions of million people in Latin America being a Liberation Theology supporter. His position about this issue were in a certain way comprehensible due his Comunism personal phobia. Although at the end of his administration he made strongs critics towards wild Capitalism, at the very precise moment he did not use his influence on million people in order to stop it. His anti-comunism blinded to him and restrained at the same time, and not only that: He took action against the idea that the Church could improve the life in this earth. For the poor people of the world, the best consolation is still the hope of an eternal life in another place called "paradise".

This lost opportunity, as well as his positions about women, contraceptive methods and homosexuals, are the dark side of his history like the supreme guide of Catholic Church. Those facts must be remembered besides his virtues, and put in the balance.

Personally, when I go out to the street and I still see the fanaticism of people (adoring divine appearances in a fruit, for example) and the terrible submission and poverty, I just feel a big reproach towards Catholic Church. They are able to improve the world and they don’t use their influence. I live in a country where is very hard for me to feel any admiration by John Paul II.