Dutch unease about society “understandable” (via Radio Netherlands International)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

So it is not just us.

From the article –

“Cohesion in towns and villages has disappeared with the advent of individualisation, immigrants from around the world and an increasingly complex society,” said Mr Verhagen, leader of the Christian Democrats, junior partners in the Dutch coalition government. “It is no longer taken for granted that our children will have it better than we did.”

Cohesion is disappearing. I have been noticing for some years now that things as simple as common experiences are disappearing. When I try to use a movie as an example in class, only the biggest blockbusters will have been seen and, even then, often by less than half the class. Our culture seems to be fragmenting into individual units almost all of them focused on the personal and the trivial.

James Pilant

Saudi bans domestic workers from Indonesia, Philippines (via Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

It appears the Saudi government is attempting to set a record for mindless greed.

This is incredible. Read this little piece –

Earlier this year the Philippines asked Saudi Arabia to guarantee higher pay for Filipina housemaids but the request was turned down.

The Philippines demanded $400 in monthly wages for for housemaids but Saudi authorities offered a base monthly salary of $210, Filipino labour official Carlos Cao had told AFP in Manila in May.

So, let me get this straight, one of the richest nations on earth is unwilling to pay its maids almost $2 an hour but is willing to pay less than one dollar an hour?  (This is assuming a forty hour week which I find totally implausible. I figure 12 – 16 hour days with no weekends off.)

I’m sure this is great publicity for one of America’s closest allies and apparent beneficiary of the neo-liberal school of economics – which is a basic philosophy of unregulated capitalism. Well, here it is, unregulated capitalism in all it glory. Here we have not just greed but sexual harassment and physical violence, not to mention the occasional execution.

Read the article, you’ll find it interesting.

James Pilant

KPMG Study Shows Company Bosses Increasingly Commit Fraud (vis Ethics Sage)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

The invaluable Ethics Sage has a new article.

I, in particular, like this paragraph –

I find it astonishing that corporate fraud continues to increase and top management is leading the way. The increase in the FRP statistic seems to bear out the spread of the cancer that has been attacking the capitalistic system during the past 20 years or so. Remember the “Greed is Good” mantra in Wall Street? Well it’s instructive to look at the entire quote by Gordon Gekko: “The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated…The  point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the            essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the uoward surge of mankind.”

I won’t spoil the article by revealing more. But I promise you if you subscribe and favorite the Ethics Sage, you will have little cause for regret and many reasons to be pleased with your good judgment.

James Pilant

What is Really Happening in the Foreclosure / REO Real Estate Process / Market? One Agent’s Point of View (via East Bay Real Estate: Caldecott Properties )

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I like this.

He asks, “When will we do the right thing for all Americans?”

I would like the answer to that question myself.

James Pilant

This is a great article and it sums up the mortgage crisis brilliantly. JP

What is Really Happening in the Foreclosure / REO Real Estate Process / Market? One Agent's Point of View Is it possible there is a corrupted process at the very top (wall street executives, wall street investors, bank executives, hedge funds, etc.) Here is a thought: We know banks are not willing to reduce the principle loan amount for owners under water. That can easily be measured by the number of completed loan modification that include a principal reduction. Very (very) few: About 49,000 of all the proprietary modifications completed reduced bot … Read More

via East Bay Real Estate: Caldecott Properties

stand strong (via lazywednesdays)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Some poetry for you day and mine.

James Pilant

close the door stand strong don't give in to their chants and songs noisy excessive din be bold take control you have a job to do You won't be moved to their weakness no surrender stand up tall give your all their cries and pleas contagious disease look at them down there pathetic we are united you and I together we will make history we will change history Listen to me their fears and concerns will soon pass with them they'll forget what you did … Read More

via lazywednesdays

Nuclear Plant, Left for Dead, Shows a Pulse (via Energy)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

You cannot kill these things.

Christopher Lee as Dracula in a mid-sixties Hammer film has the life span of a mayfly by comparison.

This nuclear plant, little more than a pile of looted wreckage is under consideration for construction.

I call upon anyone and every one for a little respect for the facts of the situation. Surely, we can think better than this?

James Pilant

By MATTHEW L. WALD/NYT HOLLYWOOD, Ala. — Spider webs line the 50-story cooling towers, parts have been amputated for the scrap value of their nickel or copper, and the control room still has analog dials at Bellefonte 1, a half-built nuclear plant here that was shelved 23 years ago. This does not seem like a particularly opportune moment to breathe life back into a reactor that was designed before the computer age. But its owner, the … Read More

via Energy

Rainbow 6 Leaked; Morality Plays Big (via The Lazy Geeks)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I am really impressed by this. It has been necessary for a long time. If the only way to keep score is to kill as many as possible, you kill as many as possible.

But the world is full of alternative actions. Morality and ethics are important, not only in the world of business but in war and peace.

I used to play a game called Fable in which your characters looks changed to match the moral quality of his actions. My character looked like a hero. No black hat for me.

This is a great development. Let’s give players more choices then choosing 5.45 over 5.56.

James Pilant

Rainbow 6 Leaked; Morality Plays Big Does anyone want to play a game that makes you have to deal with real life choices? Apparently, Ubisoft thinks you do. In a leak from Kotaku, it appears that the new Rainbow 6 game will have a “morality” engine. When you think about it, it is pretty bad ass. If this runs the way that Kotaku claims, it will be one of the most revolutionary games that has come out for First Person Shooters in a long time. I have detailed this game as more of a choo … Read More

via The Lazy Geeks

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HOW MUCH FREEPORT PRODUCES? (via West Papua Media Alerts)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a David vs. Goliath story, if there ever was one.

A lone blogger wants to call a giant American corporation to account for how much ore it takes out of his country.

Well, at least due to the internet, he can make the demand. I’m not sure we could make the company report how much it takes out of the U.S.

James Pilant

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HOW MUCH FREEPORT PRODUCES? JUBI, 22 June, 2011 It is still very difficult for the Mimika district administration to get information about the quantity of gold and copper produced by Freeport-Indonesia and how much is exported via Portsite, Amamapare. The head  of the mining, energy and minerals department of the Mimika a … Read More

via West Papua Media Alerts

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (via Gooseberry Bush)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

These are my favorite lines from the post.

Wow! That’s interesting. So, apparently, Walmart has no responsibility for looking at these skewed numbers and wondering just why, exactly, that far more men than women are “qualified” to be managers. No one in their human resources department ever once questioned these statistics? Are we really saying as a country that we believe that men are innately more “qualified” to management 67% of the time? That’s not sexist. Of course not.

Those are also my thoughts. This decision is a travesty, a disaster.

Please read the article.

James Pilant

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Two stories have made the news lately that involve women’s rights. The one step forward is Saudi Arabian women driving despite that country’s ban on women drivers. Despite the fact that there is not one civil, written law prohibiting women from driving, Saudi women who drive are jailed because of the ruling of conservative Muslim clerics. Some 40 women with int … Read More

via Gooseberry Bush

The Non-Rich (via Cassandra’s Tears)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I get depressed about it as well.

James Pilant

… what are we to do? It's a very depressing situation.  Guy dumps something like 299 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, was in charge when 11 people in his company died and gets a $400,000 safety bonus. You and me would go to jail for decades.  He gets a bonus.  What's up with that? Bankers foreclose on military families.  They take the house of people are actively in a warzone.  They kick the wife and kids out.  Is anyone going to … Read More

via Cassandra's Tears