A Question of Ethics

I’d like to start by admitting that I’m “old school”. I believe that when a person posts an article that they did not write, that they should give credit to the original author. Just because something is posted online does not mean it is free; it’s just another method of publishing and the author retains all rights.

Occasionally I’ll see articles on LinkedIn or various business blogs, that I have reason to believe are not written by the person who posted it. Sometimes these articles will say “Posted by”, and that lets me know that the person posted it is not the original author. I’d still like to know who the original author is though, so I often turn to my friend Google. I’ll search for the first two sentences of the article, with varying degrees of success.

Other times, the person posting the article lists themselves as the Author. Being old school, I believe that’s called plagiarism. I also believe it speaks to the character of the person who does this. It’s dishonest, misleading, deceptive, and leads to me question how much I can trust any other assertion they make about their skills and abilities.

There’s a plethora of examples currently on Linked In, which makes me wonder if there is a subscription service somewhere that provides these articles on a regular basis for a fee. I wonder this because it’s the same group of individuals posting the exact same articles. I’ve commented on a couple, asking if such a subscription service exists, but nobody is answering me.  Despite my best efforts, I’ve been unable to locate the original authors.

So I’m throwing it out to the community at large (meaning my contacts on Linked In). Is there such a service?

Here are a few examples - try searching these phrases and you’ll see what I mean:

“Where Hackers Go to Shop for Malware

You might recall how the Silk Road, an illegal online drug market, was recently shut down. Similar to the Silk Road, there’s another distributor of sensitive information out there; this one dealing with zero-day vulnerabilities. These types of cyber threats sell for top-dollar, and hackers are willing to pay in order to access your network.”

“How to Monitor Employee Communications Without Taking What’s Said Personally

There seems to be some confusion in the workplace regarding the privacy of digital communications made over a company network. Can an employer read an employee email or record a phone call without employee consent?”

“Do You Trust Your Employees Enough to Offer Unlimited Vacation Time?

As a business owner, you know how difficult establishing a paid time off policy is. Providing too little can make your business seem unfair, but giving away too much might make you feel like you’re losing money.”

This work by Suzette Leeming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.

Just Another Sunday

After dinner, I sat to watch CBC's the Fifth Estate; it always makes me think about societal issues. Tonight they're talking about the garment factories in India and other places, all so that Joe Fresh and Walmart can import cheap clothes for us.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2013-2014/made-in-bangladesh

That got me thinking - would I be willing to pay more for "ethical" clothes? Yes. I would pay more if I could be convinced that they truly were "ethically" made. I've experienced clothing stores where designer labels were placed over the regular labels and tags, to misrepresent the garment.

It's like fish in Canada. Nobody wants to eat fish from China, so they stopped buying all fish where the packaging said "Imported from China" or "Processed in China". Now all they'll say is Imported for ABC Foods, Burlington, ON (for example). It's impossible to see the country of origin anymore - and that is SOOO wrong. I'm not being racist (I don't think) if I vehemently state that I don't want to eat food that's been produced or processed in what is pretty much the dirtiest country in the world. These are the people who put Lead Paint into infant formula and milk, to make them more white. That proved to me that China has very little control over the food industry there. Oh sure, once found guilty, I believe they're put to death, but that's little consolation after you find out that you've been drinking lead for 2 years. Really.

I've been looking at an online clothing store - Holy Clothing Company. Theoretically, their clothes are handmade in India and the workers are ethically paid. The clothing is beautiful, and very reasonably priced. Maybe too reasonably priced. I'd love to buy a few items, but I need to do more research first.

I might write another post later and tell you what I found out.

Or I might not.




This work by Suzette Leeming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.

Ethics Lost

I've been thinking a lot about the ethics and morality that exist in our world today, or not.

We've been through Bill Clinton having oral sex in the White House, the Jean Chretien's Liberal Adscam, Stephen Harper's Conservativea circumventing the election rules, Martha Stewart's inside trading, the head of Canada Post forced to retire because of outrageous expense reports, Brian Mulroney making deals with criminal people while in office, Worldcom's accounting fiasco and the resulting aftermath, and so on and so on.

And now the Toronto Catholic School Board trustees, living high off the hog while they operate the school board on a deficit. Expenses such as car allowances, cell phones they're allowed to keep, Dominican Republic vacations, extravagant dinners, and gold plated benefits. Even lingerie was expenses - now how does that relate to education?

Recently, Ryerson University wanted to expel a student who put together a study group on Facebook to solve an engineering problem they were supposed to work on individually. The school called it cheating. HELLO!?!?

Why are we surprised when we catch our children cheating or even wandering into grey areas? They see the news, they know what's happening. It's become the business style du jour. Grab what you can before they kick you out - if they catch you!

Call me naive, but I expect more from our government than having them act like pigs at the trough. I expect more from major corporations than having them think up more creative ways to screw us. And I really expect more from a group that puts a religious name on themselves. They're greedy, selfish, pigs, marauding as pious Christians, which makes me sick.

I'm more sympathetic in situations where someone steals (call it what it is) because they are in financial need, but these are people who are already rich - looking to get richer. The people who end up paying are the poor and the working class.

How long are we going to take it? The only way to approach this situation is to start charging people AND SENDING THEM TO JAIL!! At least our children will then realize that it's wrong. We need to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. Let's throw out the corrupt politicians, and charge them for their misdeeds, or at least for breach of public trust. The laws were created for all of us, but authorities seem to leave the rich alone while they harass the rest of us.

Have we become such a complacent society that we will just keep taking this? The one thing I really hate about getting older and wiser is that I don't like what I'm learning - what I'm seeing and hearing. I'm becoming disillusioned.

Am I the only one that feels this way?