For this week's Global Pulse episode, Iran’s Power Players, host Erin Coker asks the question: Are Khamenei and Ahmadinejad playing "good cop, bad cop"? Share your thoughts below!

In the nearly three months since Iran's disputed election and the massive street protests that followed, global media have turned their attention to the internal factional bickering within Iran's ruling party. Allegations of detainee abuse have created further fissures within Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conservative government, with the country's leadership offering conflicting responses to the allegations.

Reacting to claims made by opposition candidate Mehdi Karroubi of detainee torture and sexual abuse, Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani vehemently dismissed the allegations as "sheer lies," according to a CNN report. Larijani's remarks contradicted police and judiciary officials who acknowledged detainee abuse at the now-shuttered Kahrizak prison and promised to investigate the claims. According to The Guardian, an unnamed Iranian MP said he had proof of the abuse, further contradicting Larijani.

As this week's episode points out, Ahmadinejad and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have also appeared at odds over abuse allegations. According to a report that ran on the state-controlled Press TV website on August 28th, Ahmadinejad blamed the abuse on an enemy plot, saying that he had evidence which "exonerated revolutionary, military, security and intelligence forces." But three days later, following a report that the detained son of a conservative political advisor had died as a result of abuse, the BBC reported that Ayatollah Khamenei promised the young man's father that those responsible would be brought to justice.

The confusing signals reflect factional struggles at the highest levels of government, which can only be aggravated by the Iranian blogosphere's relentless pursuit of allegations of torture, sexual abuse and killings of detained protesters, often through chilling personal accounts. On September 2, the independent Radio Zamanah’s website reported that a rape victim and key witness in the case had disappeared. Mentions of the story surfaced several times throughout the day on the microblogging site Twitter, alongside posts like "Regime, No matter how many you execute, torture, or rape. We will never stop. We will never give up on our right to freedom," and, "Saeedeh's body was burned & almost unrecognizable (note that she was arrested from her house, so burning was deliberate)."

Even after the dust has settled on the present internal political struggle, it may take more than damage control to bridge the divisions between the Iranian government and its people.

Iran is slipping off the media radar, finding itself replaced by the global mourning rituals for Michael Jackson, Wall Street's continued decline, and the latest Republican career-ending train wreck. But there is still a story in Tehran, and it's not a happy one.
 
As Nobel laureates call for the release of prisoners and a full investigation into Iran's human rights violations, the Guardian UK has developed an amazing interactive tool to track those killed or arrested in the unrest. And our own Michal Shapiro's World Music blog has unearthed a music video dedicated to Neda Agha Soltan, whose disturbing killing, broadcast on YouTube, made her an unwitting symbol of the crisis.

Iran's youth are at the center of this stalled revolution, and their discontent was apparent well before the first protests began in Tehran. Six months ago, this prescient video was posted to YouTube, proclaiming Iran as a "nation of bloggers":


Of course, technology - and the micro-blogging service Twitter in particular - played a critical role in organizing June's mass street demonstrations. An op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor has even nominated Twitter for a Nobel Peace Prize, as the "megaphone" of Iran's new youth movement. While Mosaic's own Jalal Ghazi is skeptical, arguing well that Iran "cannot be explained in a Twitter feed", Twitter is proving its mettle in the crowded world of news distribution, and is a service that Link TV is using more and more. It remains to be seen whether Twitter can successfully foment true revolution, but we'll continue to keep an eye on Iran's young twittering generation.

An Interview from the Sustainable Brands Conference ’09 with Kellie A. McElhaney, PhD, UC Berkeley

PART FOUR: Teach Them Well  & Let Them Lead The Way

Now, if you’ve read the other three parts of this blogpost, you already can see why I’m a huge fan of Kellie McElhaney. Yet, perhaps the biggest reason Kellie is a superstar to me is because she is the rockstar mother of two impressive little girls, who are both part of the same generation I am proud to consider myself a part of – the Millenials. Also know as Generation Y, the Millennials are the largest generation in American history. Born between 1978 and 2000, we are 95 million strong, compared to the 78 million Baby Boomers. A new book, Generation We, explains the emerging power of our Millennial Generation, and shows how WE (and older people who think the way WE do) are poised to change our nation and our world for the better. Take a look at this video or visit www.gen-we.org to see how WE are “politically, socially, and philosophically independent, and are spearheading a period of sweeping change in America and around the world”.

Kellie’s older daughter Isabel (who is nine years old, but Kellie says if you ask her she will tell you she is 9 & 7/8ths, ha ha) is quickly becoming Lioness material, in her own efforts to lead the charge of Gen-We. Little Miss Isabel was very disturbed when a tank-top that her mother had ordered from J. Crew arrived in two large cardboard boxes!!!  She decided to take a picture of the thoughtless packaging and include it with her perturbed letter to the CEO of J. Crew, Mickey Drexler.  Get excited for this one ladies and gentleman.  Little Miss Izzy is a sock-knocker-offer!

(Send this to Mickey Drexler, Okay mama?)

Dear Mr.Drexler,

I have something to tell you about J-Crew. Sorry, it's not the best thing about your company. But, your company is great.

Do you know the story called " The Giving Tree"? Well, in the story, that one tree gives up everything to the boy. Everything. Apples, wood, branches, and even the tree stump. Trees' are very valuable, and if we use them like the boy did, we won't have any. None. Zip. Nada. You probably don't get my point yet, but that's what I'm about to explain.

Packaging isn't the hardest thing. As a matter of fact, it's pretty easy. But sometimes you have to give the easier things more thought. And packaging, is an example. When you are packaging your products, what do you think about?  Do you just do it, and get it done? Or do you stop and think how you can make it even better? A big company like J-Crew affects the world in many ways.

My mom got a tiny shirt, in two big boxes. A way to make that issue better, is this: when you package your next products, think about this: Instead of giving her two, give her one. Or you can find a box that is big enough the product fits, but small enough it doesn't have enough room to get up and walk around.

I think if you try this, you will end up not spending as much money on boxes, as well as gas for your trucks, not killing as many trees and getting better feedback from customers, kids, mail men, anybody.

Sincerely,

Kellie's* daughter, Isabel

P.S. I am nine, please respond and, don't take this personally, because it's not only you.

* Kellie McElhaney, author of JUST GOOD BUSINESS

***

This is the photo Isabel took of the J. Crew packaging that the clothing company used to send one tank top to her mother.  She included it in the letter that she sent to J. Crew’s CEO, Mickey Drexler.

Isabel (right, age 9) and her little sister Juliana McElhaney (age 7).

Now, first of all, I’d like to comment on how impressed I am by the fact that this little girl knows the difference between affect and effect! You can tell she’s a real smarty. And secondly, how about that letter?! I wish we could get her in front of Mr. Drexler personally so she could put him on the spot and ask, “Do you get it yet?” Haha!

When Kellie found out that I wanted to post a whole separate piece on her daughter, she asked me to be sure to not give her too much credit for Isabel. “She really is just a product of her generation. She learns a lot just from growing up in today’s world” said Kelly. A true Millenial, and truly one to follow. I’ll be sure to loop you in as I do.

Having said that, Isabel has still not received any response from Mickey, though she did get two standardized and faceless responses from J. Crew telling her to let “them” know if there is anything else “they” can help her with – to which she responded verbally to her mother, “Yeah! Can you help get me a real response and improve your packaging, hello!?!?!”.

They decided to send Mickey a copy of The Giving Tree, and a copy of Kellie’s book, Just Good Business, The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility & Brand. Sounds like J. Crew isn’t ready to engage, but hopefully one day… they will. Until then, it’s our job to keep inviting them into the dialogue. I’m so razzled by Isabel’s work, and am making it my goal to do something of similar value this week. However, I might let myself consider this blog enough for now! Time to catch a few Z’s.  Let me know what you decide to take on. I can’t wait to hear about it!

Part One: A Force of Nature

Part Two: Being Effective Is More Important Than Being Right

Part Three: The Rules of Engagement

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An Interview from the Sustainable Brands Conference ’09 with Kellie A. McElhaney, PhD, UC Berkeley

PART THREE: The Rules of Engagement

Kellie could tell that just like everyone else at Link TV, I am very nervous about how we are going to start accepting corporate sponsorship. I mean, what drew me to want to work for Link TV in the first place was the boundless freedom that our network shelters. No allegiances means no obligations. At Link TV our only obligation has been to tell the truth. 

Similarly, working in academia, Kellie has created a situation for herself where even though she just received a ten million dollar grant from Dow Chemical (which she admits a lot of people really freaked out about), she is protected by academic freedom. So Dow, according to Kellie, in no way can tell her what kind of research Berkeley can publish even if it’s negative towards the company! She suggested that when we start to work with corporations, Link TV must also write in some sort of journalistic freedom clauses, “Something that states clearly to the sponsor what it means for Link TV to accept money from them– here’s how it’s going to be used, here’s the disclaimers, and if we come across some negative information about you (the sponsor), we are going to have to run it, and hopefully you would be responsive.” According to Kellie, a company like Nike would want to respond, because they don’t want to see a chill in the debate, “They know that is how fallacies get spun into realities.”

That last comment prompted me to tell Kellie that I’ve heard that the more money a corporation has, the more they are able to "greenwash" themselves. I explained that it has been difficult for Link TV to really trust even the most reputable rating systems for CSR in our research. Kellie’s response took me by surprise: “You know, I just read a really interesting statistic that greenwashing is more of a phenomenom that media has construed and less of a reality. There are very few companies who are lying, it’s just a stupid strategy. You could lie on your product and there will be one hundred Youtube videos within a minute, or seven thousands tweets, within a MINUTE that will get the truth out! So even though there are bad people in the world, there are very few who will lie or spend money on branding that is a lie, because if they do it they are going to get caught.”

One of Kellie’s rules, which she is pretty adamant about, is to never work with the corporate handlers, whose jobs she says are to often times obscure the truth. She advises going straight to the company itself, ideally the head of CSR, illuminating that PR agencies and the branding people typically don’t know what the company’s CSR strategy is. 

This lack of holisticity made me wonder if I personally have mistaken corporate ignorance for corporate greed, which reminded me to tell Kellie that KoAnn Skrzyniarz, creator of the Sustainable Brands Conference, had told me that she truly believes there are just as many good people in the corporate world as there are bad ones. Kellie said she actually thinks there is more good than bad to corporations, “They have probably just become a little passive in assertive their goodness. Good people don’t get press.”

She reminded me again of the Cisco example, and how she believes Cisco of course would not want to be seen as bad just because they laid off janitors. “They probably have really good numbers on why they had to lay them off, but mainstream media now only provides one sided exposés about why companies do what they do. I’ve always thought media has been part of the problem, so I’m glad you want to be part of the solution.”

As Kellie said, “There is definitely an element of fear, and definitely an element of risk, but it’s going to be different from company to company.” She explained how Walmart tends to be pretty risk-averse, but how even they are changing. “I mean they are in their shareholder meeting this week and it’s all on Youtube and Twitter— It’s amazing how much they are opening up.” 

So we’ve got to be brave and open up too. Trust me, it wasn’t easy to write this!  It didn’t necessarily feel right, but it does feel effective— and that’s the empowering, self-sustaining energy that delivers us down from our towers and onto the grounds where a foundation needs to be built for a better future. Our mission here at Link TV has always been to create cross-cultural understanding.  We cannot stop tearing down fences when it comes to corporate culture. With corporations becoming larger than countries and part of all countries, this type of dialogue is perhaps the most powerful one we will ever have on Link TV.

Part Four: Teach Them Well  & Let Them Lead The Way

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