The questioner was puzzled. We’d been talking about universal values and the research suggesting that honesty, responsibility, respect, fairness, and compassion seem to lie at the heart of every culture’s moral sensibility.

But how could that be? he asked. Given the prevalence of corruption he’d seen in his travels as an executive in a multinational company, surely some cultures simply don’t share those values.

It’s a question I’m often asked. This time, however, the questioner added a crisp example. While living in a South American country, he discovered a particular mode of corruption he’d never seen before. At movie theaters, he recalled, you would go to the ticket window and ask for two seats.

“I’m sorry,” the ticket seller would reply, “we’re sold out.”

“May I buy two tickets for the price of three?” you would ask.

That formula immediately produced the two tickets you wanted. It also allowed the ticket seller to pocket the price of the third ticket for himself. Doesn’t that, my friend asked, argue against shared values?

I don’t think so. But first, a few words on his deceptively simple example. Was the ticket seller simply doing what was customary and appropriate for that situation at that time? Was he no more to be condemned than Bostonians who in the 1950s failed to carry muskets to church or chose to bathe on Sundays — in direct disobedience to the so-called blue laws still legally in force when I was growing up in rural Massachusetts? Was he, in other words, doing something technically wrong but universally overlooked? Or was he doing something he knew to be wrong but which, given the derisory pay he received from the cinema, was expected by his managers and tolerated by the public in order to give him enough to live on?

Or did he see these payments less as bribes than as tips? The usual distinction between the two concerns deception and timing. Tips are usually open transactions freely acknowledged by both parties and often required to be reported to the tax authorities as legitimate income. They also are seen as a reward for service already performed, rather than as an incentive for delivering it. In the ticket seller’s culture, there was no question about timing: His message wasn’t “Tipping is permitted at the end if you’re satisfied,” but “Bribing is required up front if you want results.” Was it important to him to keep these transactions hidden or were they taking place in full sunlight? Given that he never asked for a bribe but simply waited until it was offered, he may have construed these payments as a reward for the service of finding additional tickets. But was it?

Or perhaps he indeed had reasoned through these core values and concluded that while honesty was a fine thing, the value of responsibility in supporting his family trumped it on this occasion. While that’s a wobbly piece of moral scaffolding — in that it could justify just about any action through familial self-interest — it may have satisfied him.

But there’s a larger question here, and it has to do with aspiration. If you asked the ticket seller, would he tell you he was acting this way by choice or out of necessity? Did he really relish the giving and taking of bribes, or would he rather live in a culture where bribery isn’t an essential feature of daily life?

I remember similar discussions some years ago in Mexico, a country with a culture steeped in gross and petty bribery. The Mexicans I met were both resigned to it and highly sophisticated at it, knowing just what amounts were proper and just what to say and not say during the transaction. But they were by no means pleased with the system. They longed to live in a culture where bribes were neither sought nor proffered. Their aspirations, in other words, far outstripped their context. So when they identify those same five values as central to their sense of ethics (as they continue to do) they appear to be talking not of the world they see around them but of the world as it ought to be. Yes, they bribe to get along, but that doesn’t prevent them from seeing themselves as inherently honest individuals helplessly entangled in a culture of corruption and yearning for something better.

Values, in other words, are aspirational. From my conversations on this topic in various places around the world, I think that’s why, even in cultures where corruption is merrily pursued, the groundswell of moral sentiment sets so strongly against it. The latest evidence of that groundswell may be appearing in Panama. As the New York Times reported last week, a multibillion-dollar government plan to modernize the Panama Canal may not pass a public referendum in October — not because it’s a bad idea, but because of fear that so much of the money would be siphoned off into politicians’ pockets. Lying behind that fear is a dawning recognition that corruption is essentially a massive tax on the poor — a point that groups like Transparency International keep making and that average voters in Panama increasingly understand.

But back to that South American country. Here you stand at the cinema ticket window. It becomes suddenly clear that to get in, you’ll need to hand over a little something extra. Do you pay to get in, or do you walk away — and in either case, why? Share your thoughts with me by clicking here. I’ll let you know the consensus in a future column.

©2006 Institute for Global Ethics

“If people are getting accustomed to higher levels of nicotine when they smoke, when they stop smoking, I would expect they would have more withdrawal symptoms. And it would make it harder for them to quit smoking.”

– Dr. Nancy Rigotti, director of tobacco research and treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital, speaking to the Boston Globe

The Globe last week broke news that U.S. cigarette makers have increased nicotine levels in their products by an average of nearly 10 percent since 1998, with the biggest increases found in cigarettes marketed to young people and minorities.

The jump in nicotine levels was not disclosed by the federal government, which has collected information on cigarettes’ nicotine and tar content for three decades, but stopped releasing regular reports on the subject in 2000.

Instead, the state of Massachusetts stepped in, discovering the trend, reported the Globe and the Washington Post.

The major U.S. tobacco companies declined to discuss the findings or answer questions about the increased nicotine levels, the papers reported.

LOS ANGELES
The Labor Day weekend, a traditional venue for employment-related rallies, featured a variety of events and news items related to the ethics of immigration. Among them:

• Immigration advocates, who engineered large-scale marches in Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, and Washington, find that they are facing a less friendly political climate, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. Reporter Nicole Gaouette wrote that while the U.S. Congress may take up immigration reform when it returns from summer break, the political winds seem to have shifted toward a focus on enforcement, rather than on providing more options for illegal immigrants to move toward citizenship. The issue has become increasingly polarizing, with some weekend rallies “incorporating voter registration drives aimed at affecting tight races in November — along with reminders that the Latino community, in particular, will watch what politicians say.” Gaouette noted that House Republicans also have taken the offensive, attempting to tie immigration to the larger issue of national security.
• As ethical and legal issues related to immigration become more prominent in political ads this campaign season, related charges and countercharges are becoming more visible and visceral. The Associated Press reported that an increasingly bitter campaign in Rhode Island features incumbent senator Lincoln Chaffee criticizing a challenger for the Republican nomination, Stephen Laffey, for Laffey’s decision as mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, to allow city police to accept ID cards issued by the Mexican government as identification. Laffey charged that the ad is “insensitive,” while the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which sponsored the ad, claims it raised legitimate questions about national security. Campaigns in Arizona, New York, and Pennsylvania also have spurred controversy, including criticism from various Hispanic groups that say the electioneering from both sides has crossed the line, according to the AP.
• Immigration politics has become increasingly contentious at the local level, according to reports from the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle, which noted that proposals in Texas communities and elsewhere would penalize landlords for renting to illegals, fine employers who hire them, punish social programs that serve illegals, and even require U.S. radio stations to broadcast entirely in English. The Morning News reported that one Texas community, Farmers Branch, is considering strict anti-illegal-immigrant legislation sponsored by a city councilman who claims that property values have declined and local schools dropped in state rankings largely because of the influx of illegals. Similar proposals are under consideration by other cities in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania, according to the report.

VANCOUVER
A Vancouver health facility that lets addicts inject their own cocaine or heroin in the presence of a nurse will remain open, at least temporarily, after the nation’s health minister delayed a decision on what has become a divisive health-ethics issue.

According to the Free Press of London, Ontario, health minister Tony Clement said more research needs to be done on whether the availability of a free injection site provides a net benefit by preventing overdoses and injection-spread diseases or a liability by encouraging drug use.

He said a decision would be made by Dec. 31, 2007, the Edmonton Sun reported.

The site, the only one of its kind in Canada, is a pilot program that was granted an exemption from Canada’s drug laws.

The CBC reported that Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan applauded the extension, saying, “We strongly believe that this research program plays an important role in not only reducing harm to those who are drug addicted, but also reducing harm and costs to our communities.”

While the site has support from local police, according to the Canadian television network CTV, an organization representing law enforcement nationwide has gone on record as calling for the end of funding for the project and investment in a national drug education and prevention program instead.

NAIROBI, Kenya
Representatives of the Kenyan government last week reacted angrily to comments by Illinois senator Barack Obama, one of the young standouts in the Democratic Party, who criticized corruption in the homeland of his father, who rose from being a goat herder to an influential economist.

The Reuters news agency reported that Obama, who is considered a role model by many in Kenya, concluded his tour of the nation by claiming that graft and corruption are crippling the East African nation’s economy and setting back democratic gains.

“It is painfully obvious that corruption stifles development,” Obama said in an address at the University of Nairobi, according to a transcript from the Kenya News Network. “It siphons off scarce resources that could improve infrastructure, bolster education systems, and strengthen public health. It stacks the deck so high against entrepreneurs that they cannot get their job-creating ideas off the ground.”

“In fact,” Obama continued, “one recent survey showed that corruption in Kenya costs local firms 6 percent of their revenues, the difference between good-paying jobs in Kenya or somewhere else. And corruption also erodes the state from the inside out, sickening the justice system until there is no justice to be found, poisoning the police forces until their presence becomes a source of insecurity rather than comfort.”

In a letter to the Illinois senator, Kenya’s ambassador-designate to the United States, Peter Oginga Ogego, said the “wild” accusations were ill advised and hurt relations between the countries.

“Your unprovoked and uncalled for statements were in bad taste, particularly given that your visit was well arranged in advance, with full briefings given to your office in Washington, D.C., by the Kenya Embassy,” Ogego said, according to the Standard of Kenya.

Obama’s remarks made page-one news throughout Kenya and elicited praise from some commentators, according to a report from the Agence France-Presse.

WASHINGTON
An obscure U.S. Education Department program, created days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has examined thousands of student loan records at the request of the FBI for evidence about terrorism suspects, according to press reports.

USA Today reported that the data mining program, dubbed Project Strike Back, was instituted to see if terror suspects had used identity theft or other means to obtain college aid money to finance their operations.

The FBI had fewer than a thousand suspects run though the databases, a spokesperson said, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune, which also reported that the program ended abruptly over the summer after journalism students from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, interviewed the agent who oversaw the program. The students were working on a series about the balance between individual rights and collective security.

The FBI said the program ended because it had run its course, but declined to say if any terrorism suspects had been identified, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times news service.

An Education Department spokesperson said that existing laws allow agencies to share the information gleaned from student aid applications, according to the Jurist, a law-news website from the University of Pittsburgh.

News of the program was the latest in a series of revelations about government programs that have sifted through Americans’ data in search of links to terrorism, including examination of phone records and international bank transactions.

WASHINGTON
While many CEOs, accounting firms, and investment banks linked to corporate ethics scandals in recent years have paid a heavy price, lawyers serving fraud-ridden companies have emerged largely unscathed, according to a report last week from the Washington Post.

Post reporter Carrie Johnson wrote: “Unlike the accounting profession, forced by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to submit to independent oversight, lawyers have generally ducked proposals that would have forced them to blow the whistle to outsiders.”

“On an individual level, law firms that dispensed bad advice or failed to act on red flags mostly have avoided prosecution, in contrast to their brethren in the accounting industry,” she reported.

Johnson noted that lawyers enjoy broad protection from intrusion into their communication with clients and from legal retribution resulting from claims that they gave bad advice.

There are other obstacles limiting civil or criminal action against lawyers, including the fact that they are often one or two layers removed from the actual decision making, and that those plotting frauds often conceal the details from their lawyers, according to the Post.

To date, Johnson noted, no Enron lawyers, either on staff or acting as consultants, have faced any civil or criminal charges.

TOKYO
As the fraud trial of Japan’s most famous Internet entrepreneur looms, a wider ethical issue is being examined in the nation’s press: Japan’s tentative shift to a more open economy.

The Tokyo-based Mainichi Daily News reported that the fraud trial of Takafumi Horie, 33, founder and former president of Livedoor, represents the conflict of the old guard versus the new: suit-clad corporate officers who hold stock in each other’s companies in order to bar outside influences versus T-shirt-wearing start-up gurus.

Horie is charged with a variety of security law violations, including allegedly falsifying earnings data to prop up stock prices, Bloomberg reported.

His trial is certain to be an enormous media event in Japan, with reporters expected to flood the courthouse, the Japanese Daily Yomiuri newspaper reported.

Horie, who rose to virtual rock-star status in Japan and is lionized still by some, has denied any lawbreaking, though four ex-Livedoor executives on trial with him admitted some complicity in previous court sessions, according to a report from the Japan Times.

Horie captivated many young Japanese with his brash, bare-knuckle business style. But his arrest and the subsequent delisting of his firm from the Tokyo stock exchange caused shock waves — and some significant financial losses — throughout the Japanese stock market.

Executives of his company later publicly apologized, saying the company lacked a “social conscience,” and promising to “regain society’s trust.”

PHNOM PENH
Cambodia, a nation grappling with conflicting moral codes and legacies of government abuse, last week was the venue for a heated debate over whether adultery should be punishable by law.

The Bangkok Post reported that Cambodia’s parliament last week narrowly approved a new law that could result in jail time for adulterers, a highly unusual proscription in a nation where extramarital affairs are commonplace and carry little social stigma.

Proponents of the measure argued that it would fight a decline and morality and help reduce corruption by public officials who steal from the state in order to maintain mistresses. “This law is also aimed at reducing corruption, because when government officials have more women, they seek more financial sources to support their girls,” National Assembly chairman Heng Samrin told the Herald-Sun of Melbourne City, Australia.

Opponents claim the government wants to use the measure not to enforce morality but as a club to jail dissenters on trumped-up charges, according to the Associated Press. Others compared the proposal to the rigid Puritanism of the Taliban or pointed to the draconian laws enacted in Cambodia decades ago by the Khmer Rouge.

Many members of the National Assembly boycotted last week’s vote in protest.

The measure must be approved by Cambodia’s senate and signed into law by the king before it can take effect.

SHANGHAI
Chinese history has undergone an extensive facelift in some of the nation’s textbooks, prompting scholars to debate the ethics of educational revisionism, according to a report in last week’s New York Times.

Reporter Joseph Kahn wrote that many of the nation’s leading schools are beginning to adopt, among other texts, a state-approved history book that “drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.”

“Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course,” Kahn wrote. “Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.”

While supporters of the new series of revised textbooks say the updated versions are more in sync with economic and social realities, critics charge that the works simply serve a new political agenda. The critics were reluctant to be quoted or identified.

As the Times noted, the government is not reluctant to punish those who promulgate an unapproved version of history: Early this year a prominent historian wrote an essay criticizing Chinese textbooks for glossing over the violence of the Boxer Rebellion, a series of persecutions of foreigners in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. The popular newspaper supplement that published his essay was temporarily shut down, its editors were fired, and it reopened carrying an essay that rebuked the historian’s criticism.

SPRINGFIELD
Thousands of Illinois state employees, who are required to take an ethics training program via computer, are being told they must take extra training because they apparently skipped through a lot of the session.

UPI reported that the employees are receiving letters from the governor’s Inspector General’s Office saying that they went through the training program so quickly they couldn’t have read and studied the information.

According to the Associated Press, some workers spent as little as 10 minutes studying the 80 computer pages, which generally take about half an hour to complete.

No one told the employees that they had to spend a minimum time on the test, the AP reported.

The Journal-Register of Springfield reported that the training includes at least five scenarios plus a quiz at the end.

Of about 58,000 state employees who are required to take the training, about 10 percent are being sent a 10-page “ethics orientation for noncompliant employees.” The document, which completes the required training, explains basic ethics rules and also warns that failure to comply properly with further training will result in disciplinary action, according to the Journal-Register.

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, speaking at Illinois State University last week, noted that he passed his ethics course. While state employees who failed to complete the program will get “another bite of the apple,” he warned that they will not receive leniency in the future, according to the campus paper, the Daily Vidette.

From the Pew Research Center:

“Americans believe that workers in this country are worse off now than a generation ago — toiling longer and harder for less in wages and benefits, for employers who aren’t as loyal as they once were, in jobs that aren’t as secure, and in a global economy that might very well send their work overseas.

“Yet the public has generally taken in stride this perceived fraying of the social safety net at work, according to a new Pew Research Center nationwide survey. Most people still have positive feelings about their own jobs, and even though many are troubled by the way the forces of modernization and globalization are affecting the American workplace, the level of public concern today is not substantially greater than it had been a decade or two ago.

“To be sure, most Americans are well aware that the social contract associated with work in America is going through a period of profound change – with the industrial-era model of secure jobs with good wages and benefits that predominated until roughly a generation ago giving way to a more cost-conscious and globally-competitive workplace marked by stagnant real wages, cutbacks to health benefits and retirement plans, and growing threats of having jobs outsourced abroad.

“When asked whether each of eight different aspects of work life have gotten better, worse or remained the same for the typical American worker over the past 20 or 30 years, a majority or plurality of respondents in the Pew survey answered worse to all eight questions….

“These downbeat assessments do not extend to ratings of one’s own job, however. Nearly nine-in-ten employed adults in this survey say they are either completely (28 percent) or mostly (61 percent) satisfied with their own jobs, a level of satisfaction on par with findings from similar national surveys taken in 1989 and 1971….

“Even though most workers are generally satisfied with their jobs, the Pew survey finds that there are pockets of discontent with various aspects of work life. About a quarter of all workers are unhappy with the retirement plan offered by their employer (28 percent completely or mostly dissatisfied), the health insurance benefits (27 percent), the level of on-the-job stress (27 percent), the amount of money they earn (24 percent), and their chances of promotion (23 percent).

“In a similar vein, when Americans are asked not about their own jobs but about the jobs of the average working person, employee benefits, such as health insurance and paid vacations, are the area where negative assessments have grown most sharply over time….

“This downbeat rating of employee benefits is hardly surprising given cutbacks that have affected millions of workers, retirees and their families in recent years. And these cutbacks, in turn, may also explain another sharply negative finding in the survey: by a margin of 56 percent to 6 percent, Americans say employers are less, rather than more, loyal to workers now than they were a generation ago (another third say employers show the same loyalty now as they did then)….”

“Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.”

– Democritus (Greek philosopher, ca 450 BC – ca 370 BC)