Breaking news is that Lord Swaraj Paul, has quit his post and tendered his resignation to the House of Lords, on being suspended for skulduggery..........

The other day I was reading a piece on Theodore 'Ted' Roosevelt, the American President, preceding World War 1. Roosevelt donned various hats, one being that of a ranch owner.Out on a spin, one day, he and a cowboy,noticed an unmarked calf. The next logical step was to brand the bull. The thumb rule was that, the calf belonged to the person or ranch owner, on whose territory the bull was found.

Roosevelt, was surprised to see his cowboy branding the calf with his sign, even though the land belonged to some other rancher and protested as such. The cowboy ignored his boss. After all he was doing him a favour.

The pair rode home quietly, post which, Roosevelt called the cowboy over, paid him his dues, and asked him to leave the ranch. He was fired, with a terse message, 'A person who steals for me, will steal from me'.How true. A simple homily most corporates do not seem to get.

That unfortunately is the unqualified truth. Dishonest people remain dishonest.It is probably the reason, why Tiger Wood's wife gave him the boot..........she understood Tiger better than most.

Strangely, Theodore Roosevelt, is best remembered,for the Teddy Bear, which was named after him!For me.......he was not a hypocrite, because as they say "When a guest starts talking about ethics and morality, its time to hide the good silverware."

Ted walked his talk.

Kenneth Lay, the cowboy, from Enron, is a good example!

Money......one way or the other!

Labour peer Lord Swaraj Paul, was suspended from the House of Lords, in the United Kingdom, last week for allegedly cheating the taxpayer out of tens of thousands of pounds in wrongly claimed expenses. Apprently the Lord cannot be expelled!

It amazes me as to why somebody as rich as the peer would try to deprive the system of its due.What is even more amazing is that the British MP thought he could get away with a simplistic scam that he tried to pull off................

It was found that Swaraj Paul, a steel magnate and one of Britain's wealthiest men, lived in London but designated a one-bedroom flat in an Oxfordshire hotel that he owned as his main home.

The question is 'Are politicians the world over, no different from each other'?

On that note lets look at the business world:

On August 6, 2010, Mark Hurd resigned from all of his positions at HP, following discovery of inappropriate conduct in an investigation into a claim of sexual harassment made by former reality TV actress Jodie Fisher.The probe concluded that the company's sexual-harassment policy was not violated, but that its standards of business conduct were.Hurd said he "realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP" and added that he believed it would be "difficult to continue as an effective leader at HP." In exchange for releasing HP from future litigation, Hurd received $12.2 million in severance, plus vested options and restricted stock for an estimated total of $34.6 million.

What followed was even more bizarre!

Oracle Corporation CEO Larry Ellison, a close friend of Hurd who has also been the object of sexual harassment claims, sent an e-mail to the New York Times saying "the HP Board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple Board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn't come back and saved them. HP had a long list of failed CEOs until they hired Mark who has spent the last five years doing a brilliant job reviving HP to its former greatness".

The only sad conclusion that one may draw from these rather distasteful episodes are:

1. The richer you get the meaner you become.
2. The better you are at your job, there is a latitude for indiscretion, that mere mortals are not offered and you are entitled to believe that normal rules do not apply.To me it smells of 'megalomania'.
3. You swing along as long as you do not get caught.

At the end of the day, it is sad that many believe, that one can be dishonest, if you do not get caught and if you do then have friends or a system that can bail you out.

Honor & Ethics! You gotta be kidding......the buzz word are networking and money, any which way you can!

Power Corrupts!

When Lord Acton said- Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely- the old gent knew what he was talking about.
Does a position of great responsibility and power vest you with the right to take law into your own hands, even when you feel, your actions are for the larger good? Names like Satyam, ENRON & Parmalat scream out in anguish the follies and ethical failures of their top brass. In all instances, top executives from these organizations, while lining their own pockets, had little remorse for what they had done. Why ? Hadn't they slogged & sweated blood to set up the organization? Who was the law to interfere if they took a few short cuts. Arrogance of the powerful and an inability to see right from wrong are dangerous habits, when they reside in the powerful and decision makers.
Look at the following story.... With the curtains rapidly dropping on World War 2, the Nazi's were desperate to clear their concentration camps ( to hide evidence) where all anti socials ( as deemed by Adolf Hitler ), including Jews, Gypsies, Communists and Homosexual's were held prisoner. One such infamous camp was Auschwitz, in Poland. In clearing the camp, a group of women prisoners, on a long march, were sheltered in an old church for the night.As luck would have it, the church was bombed in the night and caught fire. What do you think happened to the 300women prisoners, in the church? Two hundred and ninety nine perished in the inferno ! Why could their guards, not let them out? A guard later said, that they were 'guards' and could not let the prisoners 'escape' from the church by letting them out, so they allowed them to burn! It is this kind of perverse logic that is dangerous and demonic. The top brass of Satyam, ENRON & Parmalat, are either dead or cooling their heels in prison. Just reward for their sins, but what about the innocent share holders and employees whose lives that they have destroyed, in pursuit of their greed.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY )

Follow the link to see an enthralling courtroom drama where....... Col. Nathan Jessop,is commander, of an elite group of marines, on Guantanamo Bay,off Cuba. He orders a banned disciplinary procedure, called the 'Code Red' on one of his marines ( Private Santiago ) to punish him, for slackness and breaking the chain of command. In the process, the marine dies ( a rag is stuffed down his throat & he is gagged, causing him to suffocate) & the marines buddies who were part of the 'Code Red' are charged with murder as the powerful and well connected Colonel, denies that he gave the order.The Colonel is finally cornered ( by a brilliant Lt. Kafee, played by a young Tom Cruise, who knows that the egoistic Colonel will self destruct if provoked), his arrogance gives him away and he faces a court martial.

Why does the Colonel order the 'Code Red'? Because he believes that he is the man on the spot and reserves the right to bend rules as he does a job more important than those that others do. Sheer arrogance! What about the troopers who are accused of murder, for following orders? Plain bad luck.........

When Ramalinga Raju was jailed, there was a school of thought which said that he should be treated 'kindly' as he had done a lot of good work, by providing jobs for many Indian's. Hitler provided a great many jobs in Germany, by mobilizing his nation for war and building the autobahns. Does that cut any ice with the six million Jews he murdered or people of the nations that he destroyed by following the diktat's of a crazed mind? I do not think so............

Ethics and morality are not words that exist only for the powerless and poor.It would do us good to remember that every day at work and if you find your ethical values being tested I suggest you find another place to work before the corrupt, corrupt you.

I know what my young friends would say...............discipline & rules are stifling.......maybe, but they provide the bedrock for a just society & keep us from descending into chaos.

It would also do us good, on occassion, to pause & reflect where we are heading......

What is right?

I don’t know if Charlie’s silence here today is right or wrong; I’m not a judge or jury. But I can tell you this: he won’t sell anybody out to buy his future!

One of the most interesting, movies that I've seen undoubtedly is 'Scent of a Woman'. The movie primarily deals with Charles Simms, a poor student on a scholarship, with an upmarket school. While the rich kids head off to Switzerland to ski, Charlie takes a job attending to an irascible blind Colonel ( rtd ) Slade who makes his life tough, amidst trying to commit suicide on an out of town visit. The run up to the story is that Cahrlie's class fellows have played a prank on the school's headmaster Mr.Trax & the HM is desperate to find the culprits and bring them to book.His honor is at stake!
His ACE! Charlie Simms who has seen the pranksters, while putting in overtime at the library. Even when Charlie is offered a bribe ( scholarship to Harvard )bullied, coerced and threatened with expulsion he refuses to divulge the names of his classmates and is eventually saved by an inspiring speech by the blind Colonel, who turns up to save the boy acting as his 'in loco parentis'or local guardian, which is a lie.The Colonel labels Charlie to have great integrity!

The question however remains......
1.Was the HM right in offering to buy the truth?
2.Was Charlie right in protecting the guilty?
3.Was the Colonel right in defending Charlie's right in remaining silent?
4.The poor HM received no support from his faculty. Did they make a right decision is exonerating the whole crowd?
5. Why was the enquiry held in the slipshod manner that it was?

These are ethical questions that each one of us must answer for ourselves..... Unfortunately like much of life they fall in a twilight zone where interpretation is the key and definite answers are difficult to zero in upon.

It’s actually somewhat ironic that Colonel Slade, a military man, praises Charlie’s decision to stay quiet. Slade is presumably a graduate of West Point, where the famous Honor Code says: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do.” In other words, if you know one of your fellow students has done something wrong, you have a duty to snitch. If you don’t, you’re just as guilty as they are.

The Colonel like most military men goes for the jugular straight away and leaves poor TRax devastated. The HM does not stand a chance in weathering the kind of oratory that is unleashed at the scool by the Colonel.He gets Charlie off the hook, but was he right, in doing so? Does he send the right message to young students?

Colonel Slade is inspiring and I had a faculty who spoke much like him.....biting sarcasm amidst brilliant English.........who was a little like Slade, brilliant, burnt out and frustrated.The Colonel is frustrated as his career has been stymied by blindness. The burntout man now hits out blindly at everyone that he meets and leaves a trail of broken relationships in his wake. Whom does he hurt most? Those who love him most, just like many of us!

Why is the movie called 'Scent of a Woman'. Apparently, the Colonel ( a ladies man ) can identify the Scent that a woman wears from a distance, with accuracy.( Does it help- I'm in the dark!)

While that is an amazing feat, what do you guys feel about the ethics of the piece?

Speech
Prank