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

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

via

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