Ethics Newsline®

If the Katrina calamity had been managed by that “Greatest Generation” of Americans who fought World War II, would the results have been different?

The answer seems obvious to me. But why? What was it about the Greatest Generation that would have changed the outcome? What is it about the Katrina Generation — my generation, alas — that makes the contrast so unfavorable?

It’s not enough to say that their generation was more patriotic, or their world more simple, or their nation more homogeneous. In fact, the culture they inherited was shaped by the shattering dislocations of World War I. During their growing-up years, that war produced a sharp questioning of patriotism and militarism that pervaded the literature of the age — from Hemingway and Cummings to Dos Passos and Ford Madox Ford.

Yet off that generation went to triumph in history’s first fully mechanized war. And home they came to master a fractured global economy, corral a business cycle that had spawned the Great Depression, create international air travel, and engineer the interstate highway system. Of course there were historic missteps — of corporate greed, of political selfishness, of academic hubris. And of course there was hyperbole: The age that brought us the Superman comics was, in the end, still only human. But it remained an age of builders. A devastating natural disaster would have called forth decisive leadership, quick coordination, and immediate commitment. Put simply, theirs would have been an adult response.

By contrast, the response to Katrina seems oddly adolescent. Just when responsibility needed to be asserted, the situation dissolved into blame shifting. Just when compassion should have trumped suspicion, an intense self-absorption took hold. Just when cooperation should have overcome divisiveness, a relentless polarity set in. Just when quick, clear orders should have been given for the greater good, petty sensitivities arose about personal power and posture.

Blame, self-centeredness, black-and-white oversimplifications, an unwillingness to accept responsibility — these are things that teenagers struggle to overcome. Last week’s partisan squabbling in Washington about how to investigate government’s failures of response only compounded these intimations of immaturity. With the dead still uncounted and thousands of the living still without homes or jobs, the political bickering over committee assignments seemed more fitting for a preschool playground than a legislative leadership.

To assert that the United States is a nation led by full-grown adolescents would, of course, be to descend into still another adolescent characteristic: wild overstatement. But if a key difference between past and present leadership centers on maturity, it’s worth asking why an earlier generation grew up in ways the current generation never did?

One answer is courage. Societies through the ages have organized rites of passage around expressions of courage. Want to become an adult? Then prove yourself in battle, in hunting, or in personal survival. Those elders knew that courage always involves an element of risk and an overcoming of danger. What united the Greatest Generation was that so many of its members faced and surmounted danger in World War II. As a result, courage came to be broadly honored, perhaps even expected, in that generation — even among those who remained at home.

So are young people with no war to fight doomed to perpetual adolescence? Not at all. The physical courage of warfare is not the only pathway to adulthood. One can also mature through expressions of moral courage — having the fortitude to stand up for one’s principles. That, too, can involve real risk.

But what if nobody wanted to take moral risk? What if an entire generation were raised in a cocoon of comfort with so little danger that it never learned either physical or moral courage? Would it reach the age of maturity with the mentality of adolescence? Would it remain stuck on the teenage side of the rite of passage, even as it took on progressively higher positions in national leadership? Would it finally arrive at a point of crisis where it needed to behave in adult ways, but where its mindset pulled it backward into childishness? At that point, would it sink into a paralysis of irresponsibility and self-justification?

One thing is sure: We’ll have plenty of opportunity to investigate the way our generation handled this hurricane. Katrina shattered lots of things. One of them is the myth that leaders can express moral courage in times of crisis without ever having learned how to take moral risks in times of normalcy.

©2005 Institute for Global Ethics

” ‘We are going to be very conscious of private property rights. All these cars and houses and boats still belong to somebody, and we can’t go in and mass destroy all of them without some kind of order from the governor or the president.’

“He addressed an attorney at the opposite end of the table.

” ‘Am I right?’ he asked.

“She nodded and made a note, and the discussion turned to detecting potential sources of radioactive leaks in the floodwaters.”

– Chuck Brown, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Office of Environmental Services, talking with a small task force debating how to handle the estimated 20 million tons of debris left by hurricane Katrina. The Los Angeles Times notes that the region is facing a massive pile of contaminated waste — including at least 150,000 homes, 163,000 vehicles, and 93,000 boats — laden with toxic materials. “Oil would need to be drained from every vehicle before it went to the scrap heap; the mercury switches yanked. Also, Brown said, each car and truck represented at least four tires and a spare, all of which must be hauled away or turned into recycling material,” noted the Times. (“Put to Katrina’s Test,” Los Angeles Times, Sep. 11)

UNITED NATIONS
A panel of independent investigators last week slammed the United Nations and Secretary General Kofi Annan for indulging a culture rife with corruption, mismanagement, and laxity that contributed to massive fraud within the organization’s Oil for Food program.

The $64 billion program was intended to cut off the income of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by imposing strict limits on Iraq’s oil sales, allowing proceeds to fund only the purchase of food and humanitarian supplies for Iraqis.

Instead, Saddam and a network of corrupt officials from participating countries, companies, and the United Nations rigged the system to enrich themselves, with Saddam pocketing nearly $2 billion in illegal surcharges, kickbacks, and bribes.

Wrapping up a $34 million investigation that took 18 months, the Independent Inquiry Committee concluded that the corruption was largely caused by mismanagement and negligence at the United Nations.

“Our assignment has been to look for mis- or mal-administration in the oil-for-food program, and for evidence of corruption within the U.N. organization and by contractors. Unhappily, we found both,” former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who led the inquiry, told the U.N. Security Council last week.

Volcker’s fourth report into the Oil for Food fraud pinned much of the blame on United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was criticized for negligence and deficiency in his oversight duties, noted the Washington Post.

“His sins were ones of omission basically; there were things that he might well have done and should have done that he didn’t do,” a senior investigator told the New York Times. Annan was faulted for failing to ask warranted questions, failing to pursue evidence of misbehavior, and allowing his position to be used by his son, Kojo, who sought favors and contracts by dropping his father’s name.

“The inescapable conclusion from the committee’s work is that the United Nations organization needs thoroughgoing reform — and it needs it urgently,” warned Volcker’s report.

World leaders from more than 175 nations are scheduled to return this week to the United Nations to vote on reform measures, though disagreements between members may derail the process, noted the Los Angeles Times.

While Volcker’s panel has concluded its investigation, at least one more report from the group is forthcoming: a naming of implicated corporations and their abuses, scheduled for release next month.

WASHINGTON
Michael Brown, the beleaguered head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), resigned this week, days after being removed from his onsite command role in coordinating relief efforts for hurricane Katrina.

While the federal government has been battered over its response to Katrina, Brown has borne the brunt of the criticism, with critics accusing the Bush administration of hobbling FEMA by gutting its budget and replacing seasoned crisis professionals with political allies.

Of FEMA’s top eight officials, five took their posts with little experience in handling disasters but with plenty of political points after serving as fundraisers, speech writers, press planners, and advocates for President Bush, reported the Washington Post.

Compounding the problem, FEMA was absorbed in 2002 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which shifted FEMA’s focus from handling impending natural disasters to countering possible terrorist attacks.

Between the political appointments, budget cuts, and shifting goals, a large number of seasoned FEMA professionals left the agency, reported Bloomberg News.

“There’s been a huge demoralization of the professional FEMA staff,” said Dave Liebersbach, the outgoing president of the National Emergency Management Association, which represents state directors of emergency services.

While political patronage and appointments are nothing new, their reported dominance at FEMA sparked angry questions last week from critics who said boys’ club back-scratching had put lives at risk.

Michael Brown took the reins at FEMA after nearly a decade as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, a sporting group, followed by two years as FEMA general counsel. He was awarded that post while his college friend, former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, was running FEMA.

In the week after the storm, critics raised pointed questions about Brown’s qualifications, including charges of résumé inflation from Time magazine, which examined Brown’s official credentials and claimed multiple discrepancies between listed achievements and actual facts.

Among the more relevant discrepancies claimed by Time: Brown’s official bio on FEMA’s website says he served as an “assistant city manager with emergency services oversight” in Edmond, Oklahoma, in the mid-1970s. An official with the city last week said Brown was actually a manager’s assistant — “more like an intern.”

A spokeswoman for FEMA denied the substance of Time’s report, saying that the investigation was “very inaccurate.”

Brown, who resigned after being recalled to Washington, was replaced by U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, who now will oversee relief efforts related to hurricane Katrina.

WASHINGTON
A large portion of the nearly $5 billion in federal loans earmarked for firms hurt by the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been diverted to companies with no connection to the attacks, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.

Using records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the AP inquiry found the $4.97 billion in 9/11 loans spread among companies across the country, with many business owners saying they had no idea their federal loans had been siphoned from the 9/11 pool of funds.

“I feel really bad about the whole thing. If I had known it was coming from that fund, I wouldn’t have taken the money,” North Carolina restaurant owner John Storm told the AP.

Like others contacted by the AP, Storm said he was granted a low-interest loan by the federal government’s Small Business Administration (SBA), but was never informed of his loan’s 9/11 provenance.

“There wasn’t any connection with the terrorist attacks,” agreed Montana restaurateur Steve Morris, who received an $867,000 loan. “We were never aware of any loan program related to terrorist activity.”

The AP report charges the SBA with lax oversight and with encouraging banks like Wells Fargo and Wachovia to distribute the loans to businesses with no connection to 9/11 — a possible violation of the congressional mandate.

The SBA told the AP that it intentionally diverted the loans to businesses not directly impacted by the terrorist attacks, but said the funds were nevertheless being used to battle a 9/11-induced recession.

Last week’s report catalogs the breadth of curious loans, noting that many were given to firms whose connections to the 9/11 attacks ranged from solid to tenuous to nonexistent — from a perfume retailer in the U.S. Virgin Islands to a Utah dog groomer to a Florida campground owner.

Of the 19,000 loans approved under the 9/11 program, fewer than 11 percent went to firms in New York City and Washington, reported the AP. About 600 of the loans — some with a value near $1 million — already have defaulted, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

“Had we known it was 9/11 money, we would not have borrowed it. We would have chosen some other avenue,” said John Adams, vice president of an Indiana brokerage firm that received a $1.33 million loan. “That money surely could have been used by people who needed it more than we did.”

The SBA last week “said it first learned of questions about some loans through AP’s review and was weighing whether to investigate,” noted the report.

BEIJING
Internet portal giant Yahoo was accused last week of helping Chinese authorities identify and imprison a reporter who described government fears about pro-democracy activists, raising questions about the firm’s values.

Shi Tao of China’s Contemporary Business News attended a meeting at which an official read a government memo warning of possible social unrest during the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Using an Internet alias, Shi described the government memo in an email sent to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website, incurring the anger of Chinese authorities, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Yahoo’s Chinese division helped local authorities crack Shi’s alias, leading to his arrest, two-hour trial, and 10-year prison sentence, according to court documents cited by Reporters Without Borders.

Last week, the international watchdog assailed California-based Yahoo for sacrificing free-speech tenets in order to curry favor with China, whose 100 million Internet users are coveted by Internet companies..

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, which are vying for their share of that market, each have been criticized for sacrificing Western principles in pursuit of Eastern profits. In June, Microsoft fended off criticism for blocking Chinese bloggers on its sites from using words like “liberty,” “capitalism,” and “human rights.”

Last week, Yahoo declined to comment on the accusations, saying only that its Hong Kong division must comply with local laws and customs, noted the BBC.

“Does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations?” Reporters Without Borders asked in a statement.

“Without the help of Yahoo maybe there are other ways to prove he’s guilty,” said Reporters Without Borders official Julien Pain. “Certainly [Yahoo] made it so much easier for the Chinese government.”

SHANGHAI, China
The Bank of China, which is poised to go public in the United States, is being investigated for alleged money laundering and other activities linked to North Korean crime syndicates, according to press reports last week.

The Bank of China and two banks based in Macau allegedly have helped fund sprawling criminal trade in narcotics, fake cigarettes, and counterfeit currency.

Each of the banks last week either declined comment or expressed surprise at the allegations, which were broken by the Wall Street Journal’s Asian edition, reported the Associated Press.

The suspect transactions have been used to bankroll North Korean efforts to obtain nuclear materials, according to the reports.

More than 80 people have been arrested in recent weeks, with investigators striking after suspects tried to sell undercover agents surface-to-air missiles, which the U.S. government feared could fall into terrorist hands, according to the AP.

The crackdown follows an investigation of more than three years involving police in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, as well as agents from more than a dozen U.S. agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service and Justice Department.

The Bank of China, which promised to look into the alleged money laundering, has made moves to launch an IPO in the U.S. market in 2006, noted the Reuters news agency.

OTTAWA
The Canadian government last week got an earful from women’s rights groups and others worried that a proposal to allow Muslim citizens to settle family disputes under Islamic law will hurt women.

The government is considering a proposal that would authorize domestic disputes to be arbitrated under Islam’s sharia law, a code based on Muslim holy scripture that many say discriminates against women.

The proposal would authorize sharia arbitration in the province of Ontario, where the majority of Canada’s 650,000 Muslims have made their home, reported the Globe & Mail.

While many Ontario lawmakers have similar concerns about sharia’s possible suppression of women, the government is in a bind: If it rejects sharia arbitration for Muslims, it may be forced to scrap similar arbitration already authorized for Jewish and Christian sects.

Those religious groups already arbitrate family disputes — divorce, spousal support, child custody, property division — under Ontario’s Arbitration Act, which became law in 1991, noted the Globe & Mail.

Although religious arbitration decisions must comport with rights guaranteed by Canadian laws, critics worry that women would be quietly forced to participate in sharia arbitration and then prevented or intimidated from appealing the decision to supervisory courts.

Canadian protestors in Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria, and other cities were joined by European marchers in Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, London, Paris, and Stockholm.

Ontario Prime Minister Dalton McGuinty has been studying the sharia proposal since December and has promised a decision “shortly,” noted the website CTV.ca.

From Kelly Services:

“…An international survey on ethical behaviour in the workplace shows that workers in the UK are amongst the most honest in Europe and generally do not fall prey to a wide range of ethical breaches common in other countries, such as France, Germany and Spain.

“The Kelly World at Work survey of more than 19,000 workers in 12 countries across Europe … also found that just over half of those surveyed in the UK are satisfied with their employer’s ethical standards.

“‘This survey shows that when it comes to ethical behaviour in the workplace, the majority of workers and employers in the UK are getting it right,’ said Steve Girdler, Marketing Director of Kelly Services UK.

“One finding is that UK workers rate their employers favourably when it comes to ethical standards, with 53% satisfied with their organisationÆs ethical standards and practices. This was significantly higher than most other countries in the Europe-wide survey.

“‘Some organisations have a powerful culture which establishes a strong set of ethical principles, but many companies donÆt give the proper emphasis to setting ground rules which will guide the organisation,’ Girdler commented….

“On an employee level the survey found that 14% of workers surveyed in the UK approve of taking office supplies home for personal use — along with Russia, the lowest of all countries surveyed. It also found that 21% approve of using office software at home — the second lowest in the survey.

“A total of 31% approve of using the Internet for personal use during work time — the third lowest. And just 3% say itÆs OK to use unlicensed software at work — the lowest in the Europe-wide study.

“Girdler said the findings reveal the real difficulty that many workers have in meeting high standards of ethical behaviour.

“‘At one end of the scale, using the Internet for personal use, within reasonable limits, may not be a serious issue. It becomes more problematic when people are stealing items belonging to their organisation or using unlicensed software, which is an offence and attracts heavy penalties.’

“Girdler cautions: ‘In recent years, we have seen many instances of corporate misconduct at the highest level which reflects a breakdown in workplace ethics. It is important that employers communicate their values for an organisation which will make it clear at all levels, what is acceptable, and what is not.’ “

“The right of commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature; like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage.”

– Voltaire (French writer, 1694-1778)