Category: business ethics

Should we be concerned, too? (via Keating’s Desk)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

It should come as no surprise that I am with the “we should be concerned” group.

However, I went to the web site, “Keating’s Desk,” read the post and almost went on. But I paused and looked at the article before and then I looked at the next one and the one after that. You just don’t want to stop. This is great stuff. A good writer who can think and has important issues in mind when he does.

I’ve added the web site to the favorites and intend to keep up with the writing there.

James Pilant

Should we be concerned, too? Keeping in mind what I wrote here about the safety of nuclear power plants, negligent oversight, and Alabama, this report from Yahoo news should be filed under Scary, too. Officials say that floodwater seeping into the turbine building at a nuclear power plant near Omaha on the banks of the Missouri River is not a safety risk. . . An 8-foot-tall, water-filled temporary berm collapsed at the plant early Sunday. Vendor workers are at the site to de … Read More

via Keating's Desk

Russia finds nuclear safety faults after Fukushima (via Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is the state of affairs we can expect in every part of the world. The upkeep and safety precautions necessary for the use of nuclear power are expensive, time-consuming and require technical expertise and competence. In a world where corporate profit is the number one concern and where government secrecy is a primary defense against catching wrong doing ahead of time, we can expect these expensive, high maintenance, time bombs to be under protected, under maintained and overly dangerous.

It is likely that nuclear plants can be made safe and that nuclear power can be part of a nation’s energy plan. But can we trust the industry and the government after so many lies, so many deceptions and so many disasters that were not supposed to be possible? Nuclear energy is surrounded not by science but by a shield of lies.

James Pilant

From Radio Netherlands Worldwide –

Russia’s nuclear power plants are dangerously under-prepared for earthquakes and other disasters, said a state review conducted after Japan’s Fukushima accident and obtained Thursday by AFP.

The unusually candid survey was presented to a council chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev on June 9 and initially reported on its website by the Oslo-based Bellona environmental organisation.

Russia has until now steadfastly defended its 10 nuclear power plants and 32 reactors against criticism.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on April 30 pronounced the country’s nuclear safety system “the best in the world”.

But the State Council review revealed more than 30 weaknesses including reduced disaster safety standards and a lack of a clear strategy for securing spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste at many plants.

Pakistani Student Score 23 A’s Out of 24 Subjects on the Cambridge O Level Exams – A World Record

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Ibrahim Shahid, a student of Beaconhouse School System, Boys Branch, Margallah Campus set a new world record by scoring 23 As in Cambridge O level exams.

 

Shahid sat for 24 subjects and scored 23 As.Attributing his success to his parents, Shahid recalled an incident where his teacher in Australia had written him off, stating that he would “never excel”. He added that every child is special and everyone has their own capabilities.

 

Earlier, Ali Moeen Nawazish, also a Pakistani student, had set a world record by securing 23 As in A level Cambridge exams.
There is a much larger article here. It is entitled – Proud Pakistanis: Ibrahim Shahid

PNS Babur Rescue Crew of MV Suez (from Dawn.com)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Apparently when you are in trouble on the high seas you can count on the Pakistan Navy to come in and help.

James Pilant

From Dawn.com –

The Pakastani Warship, PNS Babur

The crew of the ill-fated MV Suez has been shifted to PNS Babur on the orders of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir.

A press release issued by the Public Relations Directorate of Pakistan Navy here on Sunday said the evacuation of MV Suez crew had been completed and all 22 members, 11 Egyptians, six Indians, four Pakistanis and one Sri Lankan, were safely onboard PNS Babur.

The Egyptian owner of the ship abandoned the crew and the ship and Admiral Bashir ordered the transfer of the crew to the naval ship on humanitarian grounds.

Which face to slap first? (via Static)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

We live in a new age.

Often when someone says those words, they are ranting or exaggerating. I am doing neither. For the first time, a citizen with a common appliance, a desktop computer, can read material from every part of the earth. We can watch their videos, read about their politics and communicate with the citizens through writing and commentary. Directly. No governments between us. No media filter.

There will be enormous changes coming from this, but it is going to take a while. It took a long time for television to change the political landscape to what it is today, this will be faster.

Here we have an obviously skilled and intelligent writer from Pakistan discussing the intellectual bankruptcy of the media. His complaints while illustrated by news examples from Pakistan are not different in kind from those in this country.

What we will find talking and listening to people from all over this planet is that we are brothers and sisters. We share many of the same concerns.

And we all have accomplishments to be proud of and problems to be solved.

Read the article. I assure you will find the author’s examples to be fascinating even though they take place on the far side of the globe.

James Pilant

by Rohaan Ahsen The issue I am about to talk about now is a very major issue, in the sense that it has crept into the very essence of an overwhelming majority of our population. Be it an extremely famous (or infamous) personality, or some run-off-the-mill average Joe, hypocrisy is inherent in people from just about every faction in our country. The names I take are those everyone repeats, I will not point fingers on any specific person or group, … Read More

via Static

What’s Hot on the Web! (as far as I’m concerned)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Debt talks collapse, Republicans walk out over taxes

From CRISISJONES (who I hope considers me a friend)

 

NEXT – From American politics to the sublime world of philosophy – JP

Proving an Argument Is Logically Valid

From the web site Ethical Realism. This post is by James Grey.

 

Dark Side of Chinese Capitalism

Reverse Mergers, Improper Accounting, a Lack of Transparency and Poor Governance Threaten the Recent Success of Capitalism Chinese Style

From my associate, The Ethics Sage.  (You should subscribe!!)

 

Radioactive Dust From Japan Hit North America Days After Disaster … But Governments “Lied” About Meltdowns and Radiation

 I started warning the day after the Japanese earthquake that radiation from Fukushima could reach North America. See this, this and this.

Mainichi Daily reports today:

Radioactive materials spewed out from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant reached North America soon after the meltdown and were carried all the way to Europe, according to a simulation by university researchers.

The computer simulation by researchers at Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo, among other institutions, calculated dispersal of radioactive dust from the Fukushima plant beginning at 9 p.m. on March 14, when radiation levels around the plant spiked.

The team found that radioactive dust was likely caught by the jet stream and carried across the Pacific Ocean, its concentration dropping as it spread. According to the computer model, radioactive materials at a concentration just one-one hundred millionth of that found around the Fukushima plant hit the west coast of North America three days later, and reached the skies over much of Europe about a week later.

According to the research team, updrafts in a low-pressure system passing over the disaster-stricken Tohoku region on March 14-15 carried some of the radioactive dust that had collected about 1.5 kilometers above the plant to an altitude of about 5 kilometers. The jet stream then caught the dust and diffused it over the Pacific Ocean and beyond.
In the article above I am including the first part of a quite long and well written article. As I have written many times the crisis at the Fukushima plants does not stop no matter how little coverage it gets in the media of the United States.  James Pilant

This next article is from a writer who I very much admire. He writes from the web site: Rogue Columnist, A Pen Warmed Up In Hell. I like it. Please read it. James Pilant (P.S. If you are wondering why this is indented like the article above. It just is. WordPress offers me no button to fix it but it will let me indent it some more!)

Rules of engagement

Last night, I finished the late Alan Bullock’s magnificent book, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives. It’s a reminder that no matter how much one has studied a topic, he or she can have vast new landscapes opened by the best historians as tour-guides. The book was completed just as the Soviet empire that Stalin built was falling apart, and the moment was marked by the greatest hope. Yet Bullock also reminded us of the bloody paths that contingency can create, particularly when broad social, economic and cultural forces and destabilization (“history from below”) are harnessed by evil genius (“history from above”). The book ends with a deeply moving coda of promise. But that comes after a thousand pages examining the two greatest mass murderers in history; worse, men who could move nations to do their killing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew comments on my earlier post – Why I do not believe in busiess ethics? (via Abqur)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

From Andrew –

“There is no religion and no moral philosophy with Milton Friedman’s dicta that corporations exist only to maximize profit anymore than we exist to maximize our bank account or our stock portfolio”

Except that a corporation is not a person. It is an organization designed and built around the sole idea of delivering a product or service to make a profit. Its business. If its not competitve, then it will die. How socially responsible is it for a company to allow itself to go under and risk the livlihoods of its employees just for the sake of doing whats “socially responsible”? Self interest creates jobs. Entrepreneurs, in the search for greater profits, will build bigger manufacturing plants, bigger offices, bigger everything. That creates jobs. How is that inconsistant with being “socially responsible”?

I dont understand the bipolar nature of this country sometimes. People expect for a corporation to act morally in the same way you’d expect a person to act morally, yet the very same people freak out when corporations are given rights the same as a person would (i.e. campaign contributions).

G R Putland comments on the post – “War on drugs” is a failure in many ways (via Eideard)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

G.R. Putland comments on an earlier post of mine.

Submitted on 2011/06/22 at 2:52 am

The reversal of the presumption of innocence in drug-possession cases is incompatible with the rule of law and is therefore unconstitutional in ALL jurisdictions. Moreover, the ECONOMICS of the drug trade dictate that criminal sanctions are self-defeating unless concentrated on RETAIL SALES.

See “The universally unconstitutional war on drugs”: http://is.gd/ccxry6 .

More hidden and ugly truth about the Marcoses revealed (via Quierosaber’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

I share the author’s concerns. After their wanton looting of the Philippines, they should not be welcome in any civilized society.

James Pilant

More hidden and ugly truth about the Marcoses revealed The family of the notorious Filipino strongman, Ferdinand Marcos, has been back in the country for sometime now, accepted and forgiven. As if they were the ones wronged and not the entire nation and its people physically subjugated, oppressed and robbed by them during the despot’s 20-year rule, the short-lived m … Read More

via Quierosaber's Blog

Worries Over Two Nuclear Plants (via )

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I think there is definitely some grounds for concern. If you buy the idea that corporations are only in business to make money and have no other responsibilities, the idea that they might skimp on protections becomes very viable.

Nuclear plants are indemnified by the federal government if they cause more than a certain amount of damage. Off the top of my head, I believe that amount is fifty million dollars. That’s not a lot of incentive to protect the public. For many corporations, fifty million dollars is small change.

TEPCO, the Japanese utility that runs the nuclear plants that have melted down would have loved to have a deal like the American government gives out to our nuclear utilities.

It should be obvious that indemnification destroys a lot of corporate rationale for safety. If the money damages aren’t that big a deal, why not cut corners?

James Pilant

Worries Over Two Nuclear Plants As record floodwaters along the Missouri River drench homes and businesses, concerns have grown about keeping a couple of notable structures dry: two riverside nuclear power plants in Nebraska. Though the plants have declared “unusual events,” the lowest level in the emergency taxonomy used by federal nuclear regulators, both were designed to withstand this level of flooding, and neither is viewed as being at risk for a disaster, said a spokesman … Read More

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