The World We Want: A Note on Ukraine

Dear Friends of GlobeScan,

I wanted to share a note (below) that I wrote to our GlobeScan team over the weekend trying to make sense of how our company’s purpose requires us to respond to the shifting global context and especially to the barbaric invasion of Ukraine.

Like many of us working in the sustainable development space, recent events have shaken me to my core. While we try to create momentum and progress on the transition to sustainability in the face of existential crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and inequality, we are equally burdened with the growing threat of authoritarianism. Anti-democratic forces have become intolerable not only in Eastern Europe but around the world. We will never achieve that transition without also addressing these dark forces spreading in all of our societies, but manifested so acutely in Putin’s regime.

We are committed to working together with our colleagues from the corporate, NGO, governmental and academic sectors to create a better world for all. A world that is best expressed in the magnificent Sustainable Development Goals. Much of our work has been focused on helping our clients better know their world so they have the confidence needed to lead a more sustainable and equitable future. It is clear now that we need to broaden our work and help better make even stronger connections between governance, liberal democracy, and sustainable development. We don’t know exactly how to do this yet but are keen to work with others to find ways to accelerate progress.

One idea is to apply our expertise in societal trends and global public opinion research and to more deeply understand the undercurrents that are causing such polarization, negative populism and support for authoritarian ideals. What are the valued drivers of support for democratic ideals and how does this connect to the role of business, NGOs, multi-lateral agencies and the transition to sustainability? In these dark and disruptive times, we need to listen more deeply and understand more fully what is transpiring around us. Context is everything and we have a role to play in helping to bring this context to life and to equip decision makers with clearer insights and confidence to drive change for the world we all want.

Sincerely,

Chris Coulter, CEO, GlobeScan

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A Message to The GlobeScan Team,

Like all of you, I have been deeply saddened about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. More than that, I am distraught and livid. I am naively asking myself: How is something like this possible in 2022? But then again, we humans are capable of acute mendacity and stupidity. Why are we still drilling for oil and coal during a climate crisis when the science tells us we can’t? Why do we consume endangered species when we know it isn’t right? Why do we continue to divide and judge people because of their gender, ethnicity, colour of their skin, sexual orientation, physical ability, or religion when we know we are all brothers and sisters?

At GlobeScan our purpose is to co-create a sustainable and equitable future. It is ambitious and noble. To activate it means we need to understand what the obstacles are and unlocks to a more sustainable and equitable future. Who do we support to best bring about our mission and how do we do so most effectively?

Not only do we have existential crises of climate, biodiversity, and inequality in all its forms, but we also have a deep crisis of governance. Authoritarianism is an increasingly dominant force in our world (we now have 16 consecutive years of declines in democracy across the world and the rise of regional autocratic players like Russia and China means this trend is likely to continue). These dark forces are everywhere in all countries, partly stoked by malicious players but also arising organically in reaction to the disruptive times we are living through. Many people across the world are feeling left behind and lost as our world transforms at a heightened pace. Inequalities rage, the world order under a unipolar hegemon is breaking down, and anxieties are acute; this has created space for anti-democratic and quasi fascist ideas to flourish. In addition, the current COVID-19 pandemic, like all pandemics in history, has changed society profoundly. We are in critical inflection point.

I know liberal democracies are not perfect. Far from it. The West is full of hypocrisy and is responsible for so much of what is wrong in the world including climate change (the industrial revolution) and entrenched poverty and trauma in developing countries (colonialism). However, the United Nations and its Charters are enlightened roadmaps for a better future. They are liberal democratic in orientation and are built upon centuries of progress through the enlightenment and during decolonization phases in the post-World War II era. I believe they follow what Martin Luther King Jr. said about progress: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Nothing is perfect. Nothing is beyond reproach. No system is fully ethical. Yet, we increasingly have clear choices ahead. What system of governance allows for a more sustainable and equitable world?

I am wondering what our role in is supporting a humanist governance system that is based on the UN principles and in helping to bring about the SDGs. How does democracy and sustainable development connect? How do we help governmental agencies to help develop policies that are needed to respond to the relentless clock that keeps ticking on our carbon budget and on the mass extinction underway?

These dynamics mean we need to think even more broadly about our work. Progress on sustainable development can’t occur without progress on small “d” democracy. I think these are intertwined and I believe we have a contribution to make here. I am very open to ideas and brainstorms on how we fulfill our purpose more effectively going forward and what types of services and support we might offer our current and future clients.

The events in Ukraine this week are very personal for me. My grandparents were Ukrainian. My grandmother was born in a village in Western Ukraine and was orphaned under tragic circumstances. She began working in servitude at a very young age and had no formal education whatsoever. My grandfather was born in a Ukrainian village in Eastern Poland and received a grade 5 education before having to work. Both of them experienced the aftershocks of Stalin’s genocidal policy of collectivization which starved the Ukrainian peasantry killing millions of Ukrainians (Ukrainians call this period in the 1930s the Holodomor – the terror famine). When the Russians moved into western Ukraine and eastern Poland in 1941 (part of the Hitler-Stalin pact), they both became “displaced people” and were taken to labour camps in Germany. My grandmother worked in a bomb factory in northern Germany; my grandfather worked in the coal mines in southern Germany where he quickly realized he wouldn’t survive long because of allied bombing of the mines. He heard there was another displaced persons’ camp up north full of Ukrainians, so he bravely fled his camp and landed on the doorstep of my grandmother’s shack (where he claimed: “she made me good soup, so I married her”). My mother was born in that camp and my grandparents immigrated to Canada in 1949 where they were able, without any education, resources or support, to build a life for their three children and eventually their six grandchildren. My grandfather always reminded me “This is the greatest country in the world. Never forget it.” I don’t. My Baba would tell me “Never forget your roots but live for the future. And study hard.” I try.

I am sharing this story with you because my grandparents are in many ways my heroes. They had nothing except each other, love for their family and hope for a better life. It is a north star for me. Their story tells me how lives can be saved and how the world can change. My grandparents had terrible beginnings with little prospects, lived through catastrophic times and yet were able to find a new life and create so much good out of it. We too, as a world community, can do the same. It is possible. We see it every day in innovations, movements, and leadership from all parts of the world and society. There is hope for a better world – the arc of history does bend toward justice, but it isn’t a straight line. But this requires hard work, focus and courage. If we are to create that better world and live our purpose, we need to be strong and clear about our highest contributions.

I am also sharing my Ukrainian connection because I am here, working at GlobeScan, because of time I spent in Kyiv working for a non-profit called Democratic Initiatives Foundation, founded by a remarkable democratic reformer, Ilko Kucheriv (who has since passed away). I was there in the mid-90s to write help them conduct public opinion research in Ukraine just a few years after independence from the Soviet Union on topics like support for NATO, views of Russia, democracy, environmental issues, etc. (plus ?a change…). It was my entry into public opinion research and ultimately brought me to GlobeScan. It breaks my heart and angers me that Kyiv, a beautiful city filled with wonderful people, is now under attack.

I am so thankful for all we do together as a team. I know we have impact, and our purpose gives us direction and inspiration.

As Viktor Frankl, the holocaust survivor, said: “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.

- Chris