Ethics in Unethical Situations

A young American friend of mine (we'll call him "David") was vacationing with a friend in Mexico when he got into a very minor fender-bender with a taxi, resulting in a small dent.

When David offered to exchange information, the taxi driver publicly and vehemently demanded $150 US. While David and his friend and the taxi driver were in their discussions, a police officer arrived at the scene. The police officer very publicly and vehemently demanded $300 US, the alternative being spending the holidays in a Tijuana jail. David did not have the cash on him, but the police officer offered to stay with his friend and the car until he returned with the money.

David went to the nearest ATM and withdrew the cash and returned with it. The police officer divided the money with the cab driver (David thought that the cabbie got the $150 he had originally demanded) and everyone went on their way.

Knowing that I have an interest in ethics, David's mother asked my opinion.

I hesitate to give one. Clearly, the young man was under quite bit of duress and his options were limited.

One could argue (and I often do) that when you're visiting a different culture, it's not your place to judge or attempt to change things unless someone is obviously being harmed. Maybe the legal system there is so corrupt that this was the best "justice" that could be expected. On the other hand, without some resistance, entrenched unethical situations never change. Perhaps a police officer that did not take bribes (which is apparently an entrenched system in Tijuana) would not long survive, and some police protection is better than none?

What would you advise? Should David, the cabbie, or the police officer have acted differently?

Will We Have a Global Currency?

Reuters reported today that Japan, Germany and Canada, and Japan pledged new measures to confront the financial crisis.

The Belgian government officially collapsed over the weekend.

In neighboring Belgium, King Albert consulted political leaders after the government collapsed following its botched attempt to bail out financial group Fortis.


Prime Minister Yves Leterme tendered his government's resignation on Friday after a report by the Supreme Court found signs of political meddling to sway a court ruling on the future of the bank, a victim of the credit crunch.

This worldwide nature of the crisis, and the multinational efforts to meet it, call for extraordinary measures. Could one of those measures be to create a global currency? Some advantages:

• It simplifies commerce between countries
• It provides stability to volatile currencies
• It lessens the fluctuations for global organizations, that may buy materials in one country, have manufacturing in another, and sell in another.

People that won't like it:

• Companies that make money from the cost differential. There will still be a cost differential, just as San Francisco is more expensive than Topeka Kansas, although they use the same currency.
  
• Individuals that make money betting on the foreign exchange.
  

Is that really such a bad idea? :-)

-Paula

Status of Professional Businesswomen in India

In the past, the Indian traditions followed from ages never allowed a ‘Woman’ to rule the business world like her male counterpart could. In this country, women play a prominent role in the well-being of her family. It may be due to this reason, Indian Women were discouraged from holding high managerial roles of the corporate world over the last decades.

The courage and determination exhibited by many enterprising women of the country to revolt the traditional rules has helped ‘Indian Women’ find a more respectable status in the society and encouraged the new generation to follow. Currently, India is undergoing the feminist phase that U.S. went through during the early ‘70s. The advent of globalization encourages educated middle class women to take up opportunities to build her own dreams and excel in professions which were earlier perceived as complete male domain.

Although it’s quite ironic that ours is a nation where maternal mortality rates are among the worst in the world, yet the country can boast of the world’s largest number of professionally qualified women when compared with developed countries.

I would personally state the impact of the increased role of the private sector, the IT boom and the increase in the number of MNCs that have sprung up all over the country are among the notable reasons behind the success of the professional businesswoman of the country-in both professional and public sphere.