Entry #6 - SAS-sy

            After watching both SAS and Foxconn video regarding their work environment, we can really distinguish a “good” place to work from “bad” place.  We see the seemingly perfect workplace in SAS with everything you need nearby and we see the hellhole and mistreatment of workers in the Foxconn factories.  In this scenario, we know what is right and wrong.  However, in certain places where people are starving and in dire need of money, are things like child labor or underpayment justifiable?

            Let us picture a little child somewhere in a foreign country.  The boy’s family cannot feed him and his siblings.  They live in the slums.  The boy cannot continue his studies.  He can only beg for money in the streets.  Then a corporation opens up near the area and starts to employ children with these backgrounds, providing food, money and maybe even education in exchange for 5-hour work days.  Who are we to say that this company is unethical?  Aren’t the children getting what they need? So what if they may be a little underpaid? At least they can eat.  So what if they have to work as child laborers? At least they can get an education.  This is what I don’t get with “Human Rights” or ethics.

            Some of these practices are in fact justifiable in my opinion.  In fact, if you want to protest something as “unethical”, why not internships?  Most internships or OJTs do not compensate the interns and sometimes even ask them to work more than 8 hours.  Free labor is technically slavery right? Then isn’t this unethical as well?  It is the media that moves people to think about what is ethical or unethical.  As long as the media portrays a practice to be bad, then it is probably bad in our eyes as well. 

            This why media isn’t always a reliable source to me.  If I want to get information on a topic, I always make sure to get a secondary source as well.  I don’t know if my line of thinking is ethical or not, but logic tells me that if a company helps people, then it is “good”.

Entry #5 - The THORax

            Here is my try at reviving the Thor (From Marvel, not the actual Norse God) puns:

  

Courtesy of Tumblr

            Behold the THORAX! Featuring the Once-ler (dressed as Loki). 

            So it was my first time to watch the Lorax, although I had been aware that it was out a long time ago.  Barring the choppy quality of the movie, the lesson was quite clear.  Be concerned for the environment or one day it will run out.  This was quite an amazing lesson/moral from Dr. Seuss, especially considering that during his time, there was no “green movement” yet.

            The meeting following the film discussed the Models of CSR.  While the Economic Model of CSR was being discussed, I was thinking in my head that Friedman’s definition of CSR was so lacking.  I kept wondering if that was the right model to use for companies and if my understand of CSR was wrong all along.  I was glad to hear Miss Pia say that she doesn’t recommend that model, so I felt relieved to know that.  In the end, I guess each person has a different view on how CSR should be implemented.  My idea of CSR is have a mutually beneficial program with a community in line with the vision of the company. 

            That’s all for me this THORsday night. (Really wanted to have another Thor Pun) 

Entry #4 - Com-PUN-ee Culture

            Due to the suspension of classes last week, our quiz was moved to Monday and we reported on a Good News Wednesday.  What we reported was a nice segway to the lesson we would be learning that day about company/corporate culture.  The core values of the company should be in line with the CSR they would do.  For example, the news I researched on was Philippines’ Veteran Bank, and their CSR was basically catering to the veterans of World War II. It is important for companies to have a clear vision of what their company is going to be and the CSR programs should reflect this.  I was reminded of my time at Unilever and their various CSR projects.  Unilever had CSR projects for the community around it as well as CSR projects related to their specific brands.

            During this week, I was also curious to see how our SL project would turn out.  I have heard of the One Liter of Light project before, but I didn’t really know how you could help people with just a bottle with water and a household item in it.  Then I saw this:

                                         Courtesy of Youtube

           

            Wooooow! That is as bright as a light bulb! I do think our SL project will be quite helpful to the community we will be going to. Hope we get to do this project soon! 

Entry #3 - Sad Who?

            Sadhu? More like sad who.  The parable of the Sadhu was heavily discussed this week.  I felt that the people already did the best they could to help the sadhu, but I guess my ethics is more on the “ethics of the wealthy” then.  In a way, this made me realize that we are actually the sad ones, not knowing what ethics really is. This led me to think about our SL proposal which was due this week.

Our group decided to go with the One Liter of Light (Isang Litrong Liwanag) project that ENGLICOM was handling, because we felt that it was a sustainable project and we had connections in the organization.  We were considering other projects in BMS as well.  Unfortunately, we felt that this project was a better fit to the requirements of the course. 

While looking for a suitable SL proposal, it made me think about how many “sadhus” are around in our area.  It is sad how many people are marginalized or have been mistreated.  There are so many organizations that support these people, especially COSCA, who apparently are supporting many different organizations. 

I also remember the times where I used to think that companies are purely profit driven and “ethics” was merely a way of getting good publicity.  It has become evident that modern companies do need CSR and that it is not limited to big companies.  Human Nature, Ben & Jerry and Binalot are just some of the companies that prove CSR is indeed beneficial to a company.  I hope that our SL project will give me an idea on how to implement it in my future company. 

Entry #2 - I Pod-on (Pardon)?

                I will probably title my blogs with clever (annoying?) word puns, unless I either run out of word puns or get tired of it myself. Why, you may ask? Because this is my way of showing creativity! Pod-on (Pardon) me for amusing myself, but I hope that this will entertain you too!

                So the main topic of the week was making ethical decisions.  I sort of felt that using the iPod case was too overused.  Although, it was effective in getting to the point, I felt that I was already familiar with this as I had already picked up these lessons from ENVISOC the previous term.  Utilitarian and Kantian Ethics was already taught to me and I knew how to make an “ethical” decision by applying these theories.  What was surprising to me was that being “completely utilitarian” was actually a bad thing.  With the example of a purely utilitarian doctor, my eyes were opened in the sense that you could make unethical decisions even if you were purely utilitarian.  I felt that I could have been completely utilitarian in running a company in the future and reinforce the tough decisions with the rationale of being a utilitarian decision maker.  I guess this is why Kantian ethics are also necessary in the decision-making process due to it respecting human dignity. 

               I thought that ethics in decision making was just choosing what you felt was right; and that if more people are needed to make a decision, then we should just vote for the decision.  However, the lesson showed us a decision making model so that you can weigh each course of action to take and have actual numbers to back up the decision.  Although the numbers produced are objective, it would still give you an idea that there was a logical way of reaching the decision.  

               In the end, the lessons taught this week helped me to realize that each decision we make can have a different impact on many different people.  If these decisions were made in a company scale, then the implications would be much bigger.