Category: business ethics

Massachusetts Police Form Private Corporations

On By southwerkIn business ethics4 Comments

Massachusetts SWAT Teams Insist They’re Private Corporations With No Public Accountability

At a time where our police force is better armed than the actual armies of small countries, the idea of a “corporate” police force that has the ability to arrest, detain or kill American citizens with no oversight is absolutely horrifying.

via – Massachusetts SWAT Teams Insist They’re Private Corporations With No Public Accountability.

Massachusetts Police Form Private Corporation

SWAT teams in Massachusetts are claiming that because they are incorporated, they’re immune to the state’s open records law. “The state’s residents aren’t permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what they’re used for, what sort of training they get or who they’re primarily used against.”
Some departments in Massachusetts are not able to form their own SWAT teams so several departments would get together and organize a “law enforcement council.” These can be incorporated as a non-profit.
One such organization is NEMLEC, the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, it claim 3975 members: 3275 sworn officers and 700+ Sheriff’s officers. According to their web site, they cover 930 square miles and a population of 1.6 million people.

These organizations have existed for many years. Their original purpose was to promote cooperation among police and sheriff’s departments. That role has expanded significantly. They now apply for government grans, maintain military vehicles, run SWAT teams and other kinds of rapid response units.

Let’s be clear. These are public agencies, government employees, and clearly by the current rules, any LEC acts under color of state law.

Is this a Business Ethics Issue?

Yes, by organizing supra- corporations over their individual law enforcement agencies have clearly moved from the public to the private. By denying access to their records on the ground of their incorporation, they are exerting corporate rights.

As a 501C’s, they are incorporated non-profits. This transforms these law enforcement agencies into hybrid public/private organizations able to act as public agencies, for instance, in exerting their immunities while acting under state authority and as a private corporation when wishing to evade their responsibilities as servants of the public interest. For the agencies, it is an ideal situation. For a democratic society, it has definite downsides. A large organization composed of thousands of armed personnel, equipped with armored cars, automatic weapons and secure bases are claiming the right to escape state supervision.

And if their claim to immunity from the state open meetings law is upheld, what other rights can they claim? What keeps them from making policy both formal and informal? What stops them from collecting revenue or “encouraging” the cooperation of public officials, other state agencies or the citizens? What about shared information, Internet, city and municipal surveillance cameras as well as license plate scanners?

There is nothing inherently wrong with police departments sharing information, building common resources or perform civic activities like annual golf tournaments. But we expect in a government by the people that public organizations be subject to the rule of law. A private police force has a different set of goals than a public one.

It is to be hoped in this country that those who serve in the defense of the public have the interest of the public in mind.

James Pilant

Luis Guillermo Solis Gives Up Vanity

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Luis Guillermo Solis Gives Up Vanity

Costa Rica president ends ‘worship’ of his office | Al Jazeera America

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, a month into his first tem in office, doesn’t want his name on plaques at public works or his portrait hung in public offices.

In a decree, Solis prohibited his name from being used on plaques inaugurating bridges, roads and buildings, as had been the custom in previous administrations. From now on, plaques will carry only the year the project was inaugurated, according to the BBC.

via Costa Rica president ends ‘worship’ of his office | Al Jazeera America.

They are everywhere, in public buildings, state offices and any other public edifice. The pictures and the plaques of the men and women “responsible” for their construction and continuation. They are a muted form of immortality, at least as long as our civilization continues.

And yet, Luis Guillermo Solis, the President of Costa Rico, has dispensed with this. He says, “The works are from the country and not from a government or a particular official.” In this he is very much correct, yet his stand against such things is very much the exception.

Vanity or vainglory or self-idolatry has been recognized as a fault for much of history. However, we in the United States are very much taken with it. We like to think of ourselves in grandiose ways. We tell ourselves that our electronic devices make us more than human and many look forward to cyborgs and trans-humanity.

Is vanity a business ethics problem?

Absolutely. The CEO who buys with company money a $6,000 dollar shower curtain or a one million dollar birthday party for his wife, has got a problem with vanity. How many billions of dollars are spent each year out of money invested by or due others in every kind of business on frivolities, on bizarre perks or just spent because they can?

The Greeks believed that hubris or overweening pride was a major fault but not us. We put chief executive officers on magazine covers and lionize them as “job creators.” I have watched in astonishment as disgraced CEO’s are showered with attention and allowed to recover their reputations. Jordan Belfort is now a motivational speaker. After a disastrous tenure at Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina has been appointed to numerous corporate boards and travels the country dispensing advice. Corporate predators who destroyed thousands of jobs are consulted about issues of public important, as if their very notoriety meant expertise.

We would do better in this nation and practice virtue ethics and exalt in public the characteristics that make for good and great citizens, leaders and Americans. And not just exalt the good but diminish the bad, we should be cruel to the corrupt and incompetent. They be publicly shamed for their crimes whether prosecuted or not. How much virtue can you have if wickedness is not punished?

James Pilant

On The Same Subject

http://blog.startupiceland.com/2014/05/21/hubris-and-learning/

Hubris according to Merriam Webster is a great or foolish amount of pride or confidence. I meet and talk to a number of entrepreneurs and investors, I am always on the lookout for characteristics of Hubris. I am not being judgemental, but what hubris does is it gets in the way of learning.

http://professorianrobertson.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/hubris-power-and-the-correct-way-to-topple-dictators-an-interview-with-david-owen/

Owen, who trained as a neurologist/psychiatrist before going into politics, coined the term “Hubris Syndrome” to describe how power can change the personality of power-holders, not just in politics, but in every realm of life ranging from business to the media.

Are Students Idiots?

On By southwerkIn business ethics4 Comments

!!@@#dddddd444lotr_18thAre Students Idiots?

There is a new article in Slate written by Rebecca Schuman.

She discusses (the article is linked below) a famous college professor named Slavoj Zizek who is important in his field, loved by his students but considers those same students to be idiots. Zisek also hates office hours and gets upset whenever a student shares a personal story or wants to be friends.

Let’s be clear, I do not regard my students as idiots. I like my students and want them to succeed. Mr. Zizek’s opinion of his students is offensive to me.

However is this a business ethics problem?

On the surface, there would seem to be no problem at all. He is popular with his students and important in his field. We can safely conclude that he is teaching his classes successfully, so where’s the problem? I want to find a problem because I don’t like his attitude but he fulfills the requirements of his position and his students find him lovable. I would like to think I can probe beneath his success at his job and find some moral lack but by the rules of business ethics, I don’t see one.

I view teaching as a calling, more an art than a science. So when someone finds his students in a sense, unworthy, my personal values seemed to be attacked. I would rather every professor cared about their students as much as I do. I would rather that every professor would willingly do his office hours. And I would rather that professors feel honored that a student would confide in them.

I don’t know if you remember Wesley’s line from the movie, The Princess Bride, when he says to Montoya, “Learn to live with disappointment.” Apparently, I have to learn that too.

James Pilant

Slavoj Zizek calls students stupid and boring. Stop worshiping this man! (VIDEO.)

He is also a grade-A, number-one, world-class jerk, who brings to life the worst caricature of the humanities eminence: someone who loves subjecting other people to his talks, but who loathes contact with students—who, being “like other people,” are mostly “boring idiots.”

via Slavoj Zizek calls students stupid and boring. Stop worshiping this man! (VIDEO.).

I have my big girl pants on – but am I a “real” adult? (via Ashley Cray)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

It’s a very gradual process as you mature. By maturity I mean developing your reasoning, intelligence, learning from experience, – getting a little wisdom.

You will discover if you haven’t already that men often have difficulty transitioning and, of course, some women. They will remain forever children in a very real sense – they learn nothing and the years of high school are the greatest years of their lives.

You don’t have anything to worry about. It’s obvious you’re thinking, that means you are still developing. Thinking people do quite well when it comes to maturing and developing their adult persona.

Of course, there is always going to be one problem.

Let me tell you a story. — I was at a home for the elderly. There was a man there about 75, very conservatively dressed. I actually seem to recall him wearing a Homburg. He was not a resident. He was a visitor. He was pushing his mother in a wheel chair. She was berating him for his shortcomings like he was ten years old. I remember sitting there thinking, “It’s nevery going to stop. There are going to be people who will never see me as an adult.”

You’ll have the same problem. There will always be people who don’t want to let that child transform into an adult. Indulge them a little. Old age is rough. If you have ever seen a fifty year old business man wearing leathers and riding a Harley, you have some idea of how rough it is for many people to adapt.

But once again, you’re not someone that I need to worry about.

Best wishes,

James Alan Pilant

I have my big girl pants on - but am I a "real" adult? The other day I stumbled upon a blog post from All Groan Up called “Ill feel like an Adult When…” This realllllly  got me thinking about being a “real” adult.  I dont look like an adult.  I dont act like an adult.  But my age deems me as being a “Young Adult.” I pay my bills. I have a mortgage. I have a car payment. I vote. I go to the Doctors office alone. My insurance is in my name. I do my own grocery shopping. I have a career-type job. … Read More

via Ashley Cray

New Zealand playing offside? (via Integrity Talking Points)

On By southwerkIn business ethics
Courtesy of KNOL Google

The problem of tax havens has worsened each year with more and more countries making relatively small sums of money protecting enormous sums from taxation in their home nations. It is hardcore unethical both for the nations doing it and for the people and corporations taking advantage of it.

The author here worries whether or not New Zealand will choose the ethical or the profitable path. It’s a good article.

By the way, I have read several entries from this blog. I am impressed and I added the site to my favorites.

James Pilant

15 April 2011 Is New Zealand a tax haven?   By opposing the conversion of the United Nations Tax Committee into a specialist enforcement body, New Zealand is seen as a supporter of tax havens and those who move illicit funds into such jurisdictions.  Nicholas Shaxson, a campaigner and author of books about tax avoidance claims New Zealand is “letting down the developed world” and within a few years will join rogue nations listed on the Financial … Read More

via Integrity Talking Points

Bible College a Scam?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

01Bible College a Scam?

One of the chief problems is business ethics today is the seizure of public resources by private interests. Hospitals, schools, public parks, etc. are all considered fair game for private ownership. Here we also have a conversion, public trust into private profit. It is not unusual for a minister or other church authority to misuse their authority, their standing in the community for profit. The story is not new but this episode is particularly cruel. This was not a case of embezzlement or working the elderly for a place in their will, this was a form of slavery using the power of the federal government as an enforcement mechanism to avoid compliance with the law.

Students from foreign countries came to the United States in the belief that they would receive a Christian education, instead they were given hours and hours of work each week while being denied decent housing and an education.

It is the understanding in this country that both churches and religions are not for-profit organizations. This is not always the case but it is the expectation. This “Christian” organization appears to have been a money making bonanza utilizing foreign labor at a small fraction of the minimum wage under the threat of expulsion from the United States for non-compliance.

This is a business ethics problem pure and simple. A Christian College was used as a cover for a racket. Religion was used as a cover for crime. Public respect and status were converted into cash. This college, if the testimony of these students is accurate, was as much about religion as Bernie Madoff was about legitimate investments. The scam played it from two angles, a reliance on the cover provided by both American respect for religion and college education.

This does little for the American image overseas that we treat visitors to our country so brutally. It is embarrassing but I am even more worried about the outcome of the case. This has become increasingly a nation with two tiers of justice, one for the majority of us and another for the well placed and influential. Our villain here is in the influential group. What will it be, probation and community service? Will they stall the sentencing until the public outrage subsides and something appropriate for an upper class member of society can be worked out?

I am not hopeful. I have seen who gets prosecuted and what sentences are given for a good number of years now.

We only get a little justice.

James Pilant

South Carolina Bible College President Busted For Slavery, Forced Labor | Crooks and Liars

The president of a South Carolina Bible college was charged last week with essentially treating foreign students as slaves by forcing them to perform work for little or no pay.

According to The Sun News, federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Cathedral Bible College President Reginald Wayne Miller, accusing him of forced labor.

An affidavit included with the complaint said that students “described a pervasive climate of fear in which their legal status as non-immigrant students was in constant jeopardy, at the sole discretion of Dr. Miller, who threatened expulsion and therefore termination of their legal presence in the United States for noncompliance with his demands.”

Students told investigators that classes at the school “were not real,” and that the real purpose of the school was to force them to work over the maximum of 20 hours per week that federal law allows for student visas. The students alleged that Miller often forced them to live in substandard conditions without hot water, heat or air-conditioning.

via South Carolina Bible College President Busted For Slavery, Forced Labor | Crooks and Liars.

Some Additional Information: The Raw Story.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/25/sc-pastor-accused-of-turning-bible-college-into-forced-labor-camp-for-foreign-students/

Miller was arrested in 2006 on charges of lewdness and prostitution after he exposed himself to an undercover officer in a bathhouse at Myrtle Beach State Park. Records indicated that Miller participated in a pre-trial intervention program, allowing his record to be expunged.

During a Friday appearance at Florence Federal Court House, a federal judge set bail at $250,000. He was also ordered to stay away from Cathedral Bible College, and its students. The former pastor could spend 20 years in jail if convicted.

From Around the Web.

From the web site, World.Time.Com.

http://world.time.com/2013/02/20/irish-prime-minister-apologizes-for-forced-labor-in-magdalene-laundries/

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny made a historic apology on Tuesday to the survivors of the notorious Magdalene Laundries and the families of more than 10,000 women who were forced into unpaid labor from 1922 to 1996. In an emotional speech to the Irish Parliament, Kenny told the surviving women and their families “this is a national shame for which I say again I am deeply sorry and offer my full and heartfelt apologies.”

For more than seven decades in the 20th century, thousands of unmarried mothers, women who had been sexually abused and young girls who had grown up in the care of the state lived and worked in the Irish Magdalene Laundries operated by four orders of Catholic nuns. Ignored by Irish society, 26.5% of these “fallen women” were sent there by the Irish state to work without pay for an average of six months. The Irish government had previously denied playing a role in sending young women to work in laundries.

The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal (via The Council on Foreign Relations)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

 This article explains and summarizes the nuclear treaty between the two countries.

This treaty is the flashpoint for the controversy and public outcry over corruption in the Indian government. More than two years after the agreement was ratified by both nations, diplomatic cables from the American State Department detailed vote buying in the Indian legislature to get the treaty passed. Wikileaks published the cables and their impact in India has been major. It has been so important that it has pushed much of the coverage of the nuclear meltdown in Japan off the front pages.

Please read the summary.

James Pilant

The U.S. Congress on October 1, 2008, gave final approval to an agreement facilitating nuclear cooperation between the United States and India. The deal is seen as a watershed in U.S.-India relations and introduces a new aspect to international nonproliferation efforts. First introduced in the joint statement released by President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18, 2005, the deal lifts a three-decade U.S. moratorium on nuclear trade with India. It provides U.S. assistance to India’s civilian nuclear energy program, and expands U.S.-India cooperation in energy and satellite technology. But critics in the United States say the deal fundamentally reverses half a century of U.S. nonproliferation efforts, undermines attempts to prevent states like Iran and North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons, and potentially contributes to a nuclear arms race in Asia. “It’s an unprecedented deal for India,” says Charles D. Ferguson, science and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If you look at the three countries outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)-Israel, India, and Pakistan-this stands to be a unique deal.”

Barry Lynn at INET, Decoupling our Corporations (via Rortybomb)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have been assigning some of my students the mission of discovering how the Japanese disasters are effecting the United States. This would be a good place for them to start.

The invaluable web site, Rortybomb, talks about the problem of specific parts made largely or only in Japan and what that lack is doing here in the United States.

Unfortunately it is likely we are only seeing the beginning of the dislocations caused by the loss of Japanese manufacturing.

James Pilant

If you are not subscribing to Rortybomb, you should be.

As you may know, Toyota has many plants in the United States. This kind of regional diversification has to be good for the company in the wake of the Japanese earthquake, right? Even though the Japanese plants are in trouble the US ones can up production, hopefully making as many cars as the Japanese-based plants cant, balancing out what is a scary time for the company. Well, no. The US ones cant run without specific parts from Japan, and since … Read More

via Rortybomb

Forbes on firing your bad boss

On By southwerkIn business ethics

!!@@#dddddd444hmlbr35Forbes on firing your bad boss.

SEC is now considering a rule that would require public companies to disclose to their shareholders how they are using corporate resources to fund political activities.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Everyone reading one of my blogs should go to the SEC site linked in this post and write in support of a rule that would require public companies to disclose to their shareholders how they are using corporate resources to fund political activities. In the wake of Citizen’s United, it is a critical step for our country and shareholder democracy. jp

eslkevin's avatarTeachers, Peacemakers, Witnesses for Justice and Learning Societies. Let´s Get Smart. Let´s Get Active. Let´s Be United. Improve the Planet NOW!!!

Dear Kevin –

 

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has the authority to counteract the flood of special interest, corporate money into our elections that was unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The agency is now considering a rule that would require public companies to disclose to their shareholders how they are using corporate resources to fund political activities. But the SEC won’t act without public pressure, and it is taking public comments now – click here to submit yours. 

This particular rule has been in the works for several years, but was quietly dropped from the agenda sometime after the agency’s chairman, Mary Jo White, was pressured by Republican lawmakers to abandon it. In the hearing, Republicans warned White not to drag her agency into the political fray by tackling such a partisan issue… Pressing White to remove the rule from the agency’s annual agenda…

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