Category: business ethics

Netherlands becomes second country to make net neutrality a law (via VentureBeat)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I would like to see the United States do this. I would like to point out that the time to get to my site after hitting a link has increased by a third. I believe that is due to other services being given priority. I wonder how many people will bother to read my stuff when the wait becomes double or triple.

James Pilant

Netherlands becomes second country to make net neutrality a law The Dutch Parliament on Wednesday passed a law that prohibits Internet service providers from slowing down any kind of Internet traffic unless it's to ease congestion, preserve security, or block spam. The practice of treating all Internet traffic equally—whether it's text, e-mail, audio, or video—is commonly referred to as net neutrality. This move makes the Netherlands the second country in the world to put net neutrality into law, after Chile. … Read More

via VentureBeat

Greeks Enraged as the Parliament is set to approve Austerity plan (via )

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I believe Greece should default. I would rather live on a planet where investors have to make intelligent investment decisions than one where their investment decisions are protected by United States, the EU, the World Bank and the IMF.

I would love to hear more in the media about Goldman Sachs involvement in this debacle.

For instance, here, here, here, and here.

James Pilant

Greeks Enraged as the Parliament is set to approve Austerity plan Thousands of Greeks arrive at the Parliament’s building to press their representatives to reject the new austerity package. Reuters June 28, 2011 Anti-austerity protests turned violent in Athens on Tuesday as the European Union warned Greek lawmakers the country faces immediate default unless they back an unpopular economic plan this week. Hooded youths throwing stones and wielding sticks set fire to garbage bins and a telecoms truck outside parl … Read More

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Is the PNG government also a puppet for the Chinese? (via Papua New Guinea Mine Watch)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Here we see the Chinese government acting through “independent” corporations to forward its foreign policy aims. We are going to see a lot more of this.

James Pilant

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare's astonishing admission that foreign multinational companies are able to use their powerful positions to dictate the actions of the PNG government raises again concerns about the influence of the Chinese government and its controversial the Ramu nickel mine. Speaking about the Panguna mine on Bougainville, at a time when he was Foreign Minister, Somare has admitted mining company Rio Tinto "exerted a … Read More

via Papua New Guinea Mine Watch

This Nebraska Nuclear Power Plant Is Surrounded by Floodwaters (via Jewish Nerd)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

There is something about a nuclear plant surrounded by flood waters that is more disturbing that a coal fired plant or any other kind of energy producing facility. What makes it more disturbing is that knowledge in the back of our skull that if things go wrong, the investors aren’t just out an investment, we all will pay a price for such a calamity.

May we live in a world where reason and knowledge are used to make energy decisions.

James Pilant

This Nebraska Nuclear Power Plant Is Surrounded by Floodwaters The good news: Nebraska's Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station is staying dry despite being surrounded by tremendous Midwestern flooding. The bad news: Nebraska's Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station is surrounded by tremendous Midwestern flooding, and a history of safety mistakes. Also unsettling, as Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker points out, is the fact that all our information on the plant's condition is coming from the plant's owner. Very, ver … Read More

via Jewish Nerd

Time for a Corporate Death Penalty (via AntiCorruption Society)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have advocated for the corporate death penalty before. I continue to believe it is a vital idea whose time has come.

Now that corporations have full political rights in terms of money and political advocacy, they are more and more like human beings.

So, killing one for its crimes makes more and more sense. A corporation whose crimes have risen to a certain level is seized by the government, sold off piece by piece until nothing remains. The stockholders lose everything for their failure to oversee their investment.

Justice.

James Pilant

Time for a Corporate Death Penalty June 9, 2011 By Bruce A. Dixon, Managing Editor for Black Agenda Radio commentary There are more than 40 federal offenses for which the death penalty can be applied to human beings, most of them connected to homicide of one kind or another. But countless homicides committed by the artificial persons we call corporations go unpunished every day. Apparently “personal responsibility” applies only to humans who are not operating behind the legal shie … Read More

via AntiCorruption Society

Your Rune For June 23 is Laguz/Flow (via Witches of the Craft’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have a rune?

James Pialnt

Your Rune For June 23 is Laguz/Flow Laguz/Flow You wish for unity and fusion, consolation and satisfaction of all your emotional needs. This is a time of cleansing and reorientation, a time of contacting your intuitive wisdom, where you find all the answers. Immerse yourself in that inner knowledge, for you will find there, whatever it is you need. … Read More

via Witches of the Craft's Blog

Holding Nuclear Power Plants to Strict Standards (via U.S. NRC Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I hope the NRC is serious about that. The willingness here to refer to earlier enforcement efforts I find encouraging.

Since, nuclear power seems to be beyond any effect of public opinion, in fact, immune to all expressions of human intelligence and judgment, the NRC is our major line of defense.

Nuclear plants are built in America because the industry pays out a lot of money in political contributions and has superb lobbyists. No public concerns can carry such weight. All other issues are not worth consideration.

James Pilant

It’s not uncommon for regulatory agencies to be accused of being too cozy with whatever industry they regulate. It happens to the FDA, the SEC, the FAA and other federal regulators. And it’s happening to the NRC with some vigor recently, especially since the public’s attention to the Japanese nuclear emergency. As an independent regulatory agency, the NRC has a robust and comprehensive approach to holding U.S. nuclear power plants to strict safet … Read More

via U.S. NRC Blog

Book Review: The Ethical Executive (via Fair For All)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’ll have to have a look at this. Maybe, they’ll give me a free copy?

James Pilant

Book Review: The Ethical Executive This book is somewhat brief but still fills a niche and might be helpful to teachers and workplace educators. Robert Hoyk and Paul Hersey's book The Ethical Executive: Becoming Aware of the Root Causes of Unethical Behaviour is a compilation of 45 drivers of unethical behavior. Some are psychological and some are situational. It's quite a long list so quite handy for anyone who teaches in this area to draw on for role-plays or case studies. Some  … Read More

via Fair For All

The Seduction of Power (via Only Ed)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Battle. That’s a very strange word to use in the context of media in conflict but I don’t doubt its importance or relevance.

I believe the battle for the print, broadcast and cable media has been lost. The kind of news that was in the paper and on the television 35 years ago is gone. We now live in an age of “distraction” news, content free news and outright deception. It is a great pity.

A free people cannot defend itself without information, facts and leadership, we have none of that. We have celebrity scandals, fake facts that our sniveling media decline to describe as a lies and a jello spined leadership so beholden to financial interests they contest among themselves for who is the most slavish in their devotion. They throw their offering on the altars of these demigods like the food offerings thrown before the wooden carvings of Odin in Pre Medieval Scandinavia.

Read on and discover nations and cultures where the media is still up for grabs.

James Pilant

  The Seduction of Power   Posted 24 June 2011, by Raúl Pierri, Inter Press  Service (IPS), ips.org MONTEVIDEO, Jun 24, 2011 (IPS) – The governments and big private media groups in Latin America are waging a war to win over public opinion, the ultimate arbiter of legitimacy, and the only solution would appear to be to strike up an alliance. "Battle" was the most oft-repeated term in the seminar on "Communication, pluralism and the role … Read More

via Only Ed

Books I Want to Write Before I Die (via ‘Trick Slattery’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Let us raise a glass to ambition and glory!
James Pilant

Books I Want to Write Before I Die There are a number of books that I want to write before I die. As someone that has pessimistic tendancies, I do not think I will accomplish them all. I hold a full time job and have to write my books in my spare time, either on my lunch hour, or time that I make available to write after work. There really is only one book that I know for sure that I will finish(unless I get hit by a car or something of that sort), and that is the one I am current … Read More

via 'Trick Slattery's Blog