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The concept of ethics is useless without religious values

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shibli:
Corruption everywhere; rich and poor countries, international institutions

It goes without saying, almost, that corruption is everywhere. Corruption in poor countries is well commented on (sometimes used dismissively to explain away problems caused by other issues, too). It would be futile to provide examples here (see also the sources of information at the end of this document for more on this).

Rich countries, also suffer from corruption. Examples are also numerous and beyond the scope of this page to list them here. However, a few recent examples are worth mentioning because they are varied on the type of corruption involved, and are very recent, implying this is a massive problem in rich countries as well as poor.

The first example is the US government, accused of outsourcing many contracts without an open bid process. Jim Hightower notes that “An analysis by the Times found that more than half of their outsourcing contracts are not open to competition. In essence, the Bushites choose the company and award the money without getting other bids. Prior to Bush, only 21% of federal contracts were awarded on a no-bid basis.”

Another example is Italy, where former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and some of his close associates were held on trial for various crimes and corruption cases (though Berlusconi himself has not, to date, been found guilty of any charges). Many key teams in the massive Italian soccer league, Serie A were also found to be involved in a massive corruption ring.

In the United Kingdom, the arms manufacturer, BAE was being investigated for bribing Saudi officials to buy fighter planes, but the government intervened in the investigation citing national interests. The Guardian also reported that BAE gave a Saudi prince a £75 airliner ($150m approx) as part of a British arms deal, with the arms firm paying the expenses of flying it. This seemingly large figure is small compared to the overall deal, but very enticing for the deal makers, and it is easy to see how corruption is so possible when large sums are involved.

International institutions, such as the United Nations and World Bank have also recently come under criticism for corruption, ironically while presenting themselves in the forefront fighting against corruption.

The recent example with the UN has been the oil for food scandal, where the headlines were about the corruption in the UN. In reality, the figures of $21 billion or so of illicit funds blamed on the UN were exaggerations; it was $2 billion; it was the UN Security Council (primarily US and UK) responsible for much of the monitoring; US kickbacks for corrupt oil sales were higher, for example. (This is discussed in more detail on this site’s Iraq sanctions, oil for food scandal section.)

At the World Bank, headlines were made when its recent president, Paul Wolfowitz, was forced to resign after it was revealed he had moved his girlfriend to a new government post with an extremely high salary without review by its ethics committee.

Paul Wolfowitz’s appointment was also controversial, due to his influential role in architecting the US invasion of Iraq. A former member of staff at the World Bank also noted concerns of cronyism related to Wolfowitz’s appointment way before the scandal that forced him to resign.

The US nominee for the next president is the former US Trade Representative and currently an executive at Goldman Sachs, Robert Zoellick. His nomination is also coming under criticism. Bush supports it, saying Zoellick “is the right man to succeed Paul in this vital work.” Former World Bank chief economist, and Nobel Prize winner for economics, Joseph Stiglitz feels that instead of a political appointee, it would be better to get an economist who understands development.

As also reported by the BBC, Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, said that he thought Mr Zoellick was a terrible choice because “Zoellick has no significant experience in economic development in poor countries,” and that “he has been a close friend to the brand-name pharmaceutical industry, and the bilateral trade agreements he has negotiated [for the US] effectively block access to generic medication for millions of people.”

While the US typically gets its preferred nomination to head the World Bank, Europe has typically got its preferred person to head the IMF. Critics have long argued that this lacks transparency and is not democratic. While not illegal as such, it does feel like a form of corruption.

shibli:
The man is poor but honest

Md. Main Uddin

WHEN I was s student of class seven, I was taught the above-noted English translation. Everything went well regarding this translation until I started reading different books on welfare economics and philosophy. As time passed by, I came to realize that the concept of this translation is wrong as well as misleading. When one says 'the man is poor but honest', it indicates that most of the poor people are dishonest and the very person to whom this translation is applicable is honest while he should be dishonest. This is misleading in the sense that those who learn this concept from the very beginning of their life would have a negative concept about the poor.

Money is one of the most sensitive and important variables that can be used to test honesty of the people. Banks are the principal financial institutions that deal with money and drawing examples from them the issue of honesty and poverty may be resolved. Loan default is a common term known to many of Bangladesh. There is a huge amount of defaulted loans in the banking sector of Bangladesh and most of the defaulters are the borrowers of large loans. The rich take large loans and defaulted ones come mainly from such loans. If there is any bad name arising out of this behaviour of large borrowers, they are almost exclusively liable to that. Thus, it is the rich people who take money from banks and do not give it back. They are also responsible for introducing the culture of loan default in the banking sector of Bangladesh. To make the situation worst, some took loans from the nationalized banks and established private banks by such loans without repaying them. The high default rate has originated from the non-repayment of loans by the rich.

On the other hand, the poor have access to small loans mostly provided by the microfinance institutions (MFIs). Their loan recovery rate is very high. The Grameen Bank, for instance, has the recovery rate of more than 90 per cent. The poor borrowers of these MFIs have proved that banks can bank with them and they always pay back. They also introduced Bangladesh positively to the rest of the world by their disciplined behavior.

Therefore, it can be uncritically generalized that the rich people are the principal loan defaulters and they do not care about the rules and regulations as they know the loopholes of them or they know how to break them. But the poor never think of braking the rules and regulations like the rich do. In the other areas of activities where corruption, irregularities, and indiscipline are pervasive, such generalization in favour of the poor that they are not dishonest is also applicable. Thus, the poor are dishonest, is an outright fallacy as the above arguments prove. Thus, let us stop saying 'the man is poor but honest' and start saying 'the man is poor but dishonest' or 'the man is rich but honest'.

(The writer, an Assistant Professor, Department of Banking, Dhaka University, is currently doing PhD on Microfinance at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan)

S. HOSSAIN:
every 1 has a personal ethical point of view . but the question is " Is his/ her ethics  follow religious values?"  for example . now a days it is very common that two separate religious  man & woman married. they think their ethics is right. sometime they r very happy  about their life. Is it right according to religious point of view?

shibli:
DEBATE ATHEIST [Professor] -V- BELIEVER [Student ]

[Professor ] Are you Muslim,believe in God who is good pouwerful & can do anything. and If here a sick person and you can cure him. Will you try to do it?

[Student]Yes, I would or I would try at least

[Professor ] Yes you are right, everyone will do if they could. But God doesn‘t

[Student:] No answer /silent

[Professor ]Satan and evil is bad but God made them,the evil's, Sickness, Immorality, Hatred, exist everywhere, and which  God created all evil, didn't He, son? "how is it that, this God is good if He created all evil ?

[Student] No answer/silent

[Professor] Science identify five senses like ,See ,Hear, Feel , Taste, Smell. Have you ever seen, heard, felt ,smelt, or tasted your God?

[Student] No answer/silent

[Professor] According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable
protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. Can you prove Where is
your God now?"

[Student] NO SIR, but I've got a question for you sir ...."Is there such a thing as cold?"

[Professor] Yes, son, there's cold too

[Student] You're wrong sir’’ because we can have extra heat, super-heat, mega-heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold, otherwise we would be able to go colder than 458 - - You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."

[Professor]No answer/Silent

[Student] Is there such a thing as darkness, Professor?"

[Professor] Yes (That's a dumb question, What is night if it isn't darkness)

[Student]You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something, it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light but if you have no light constantly you have nothing  and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to  define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would  be able to make darkness darker and we can give a jar of it. Can you...give me a jar of darker darkness, professor?"

[Professor:] OK what is your point, young man?"

[Student]Yes, sir. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed
to start with and so your conclusion must be in error...."

[Professor] How dare you...!""

[Student]"Sir, may I explain, For example there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science cannot even explain a thought.
It uses electricity and magnetism but has never seen, much less fully understand them. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, merely the absence of it." Is there such a thing as immorality?"

[Professor] Of course there is,

[Student] "Wrong again, sir. You see, immorality is merely the absence of morality. Is there such thing as injustice? No. Injustice is the absence of justice. Is there such a thing as evil?" Isn't evil the absence of good?" "If there is evil in the world, professor, and we all agree there is, then God, if he exists, must be accomplishing a work through the agency of evil. What is that work God is accomplishing? Islam which means Submission to the will of God , tells us it is to see if each one of us will, choose good over evil."

[Professor ]"As a philosophical scientist, I don't vie this matter as having anything to do with any choice; as a realist, I absolutely do not recognize the concept of God or any other theological factor as being part of the world equation because God is not observable."

[Student] "I would have thought that the absence of God's moral code in this world is probably one of the most observable phenomena going," Tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that, they evolved from a monkey?"

[Professor] Yes of course "If you are referring to natural evolutionary process,

[Student ]"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?" "Professor. Since no-one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a priest?"

[Professor ] I will overlook your impudence in the light of philosophical debate."

[Student ]""So you don't accept God's moral code to do ... what is righteous?"

[Professor ]I believe in what is - that's science!"

[Student ] SCIENCE!" "Sir, you rightly state that science is the study of observed phenomena. Science too is a premise which is flawed..." However about your early point may I give you an example."have you ever seen air, Oxygen, molecules, atoms, or your own brain, have you ever heard your brain felt your brain, touched or smelt your brain?"

[Professor]No answer/silent

[Student ]  Sir, It appears you never had any sensory perception of the your own brain whatsoever. Therefore according to the rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science, I am sorry to DECLARE that YOU HAVE NO BRAIN’’ Sir

shibli:
Is it ethical to flatter your boss to get sometime done????

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