Excusive Summary
This report will analyse the ethical perspectives, its relationship with Phronesis and how it can be used to solve social issues emanating from Congo. Issues such as child labour, civilian deaths a fall out from the continued finance of an illicit war in Congo. According to the findings, Congo supplies 80% of the world coltan and also provides the cheapest coltan in the world. This is perhaps the main reason why foreign companies desire to purchase coltan from Congo as spells more profit (Utilitarianism) for Western based shareholders but translates in more death in Congo in Africa. This rising civilian deaths (5.4 million) also means that more orphans are created which forms the bulk of labour force in the mines in Congo.
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However, not everyone being tread fairly and justly. Differentiation and discrimination divide people lives on earth. A classic term from Milton Friedman (2011, 258) mentions that “the business of business is business". This indicates business desire to pursuit profit prior rather than contributing society and environment. As a result, business impact massively on society and environment. Therefore, it is crucial that businesses have to agree with United Nations Global Compact and Triple Bottom line theories. Before moving further, it is crucial to have an understanding of Phronesis inquiry. In Greek word Phronesis can be translated as prudence, common-sense and practical wisdom mentioned by Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Critically, it involves highly logical thinking and human natural capacity on moral and intellectual virtue (Eagle and Low 2014, 246). According to a classic term “to do the right thing in the right place, at the right time in the right way”. This simply defines that how individual or groups behave logically and ethically in different circumstance (Hegel 2015). There are 4 Phronesis values need to be considered. Firstly, it is where we are going. This means that the direction and method have to be correct. Secondly, it related to who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? This can be explained as benefits have to be equal among people and it is unethical to tend to one consistently gain and another often lose. Thirdly, the value is this development desirable? This defined as doing the moral issue need more information to judge the ethical issue. Eventually, it is in regard to what, if anything, should we do about it? This mean ethical issues need to be noticed by people instead of ignoring and also take action to solve it accordingly (Martin 2015, 151). The Phronesis values will be further transfer in regard to the Congo Child labour
Hochschild concludes that the world must never forget the events of Leopold’s Congo. This event is evidence that it is the result of human greed that led to so much suffering, injustice, and corruption.
This relates back to Congo, where violence spurred by ethnic rivalries is due to local groups’ desire to make money by getting into the extractive industries. In another example, Newmont, an American company, mines Ghanaian gold and pays the government part of the profits. Here, Burgis shined the spotlight on an environmental issue: the sodium cyanide spill in Kwamebourkrom that killed aquatic life and posed hazardous living conditions for locals (Burgis, 134). Finally, in the last few chapters, Burgis touched on Cecil John Rhodes’ legacy as the founder of De Beers, blood diamonds, imperialism, and violence carried out by local governments and mining companies in order to protect their interests.
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
A disturbing thought about man’s ethical barometer is that most of the theories, categories and principles emanate from the point of man’s reason. There is a cause to shudder at the thought of man as the absolute authority of what is right and wrong; what is ethical and what is not. Born into a sinful nature, man will ultimately make decisions that will lead to a moral philosophy that is shaky at best. Even philosophers with the best of intentions fall short to God’s model for the order, organization, and meting out of ethical actions. Because of man’s finite vision of what should be done to improve the present situation, mankind will always be found lacking in making the best ethical decisions; not being able to see the long term outcome and the impact those decisions and actions would have on others in the world.
At the highest level of morality, these values can be described in the following ways. First, integrity requires the decision-maker to adhere to the values of sincerity, honesty and candor. Justice entails the use of equality and fairness in decision-making. Competence is the value that forces workers to be competent, to maintain state of the art knowledge in their fields. Fourth and finally, the concept of utility dictates that the decision-maker will ‘‘actively seek information on the impact its decisions will have on all parties and it will weigh this information equally (Payne,
All human societies and communities have basic ethical principles that constitute certain moral codes. People formulated these principles and rules many centuries ago; they are fundamentals that structure human behavior and as such are included in all major religious and ethical systems. One of these basic rules is “do not steal”, something children are taught from their very early age. In our rapidly developing and dramatically changing contemporary world, ethical issues and problems are becoming ever more important and urgent. Maintaining basic ethical principles in a variety of settings and conditions requires more than accepting major moral values; it calls for courage, commitment, character, and strong and flexible reasoning and judgment. Ethical principles have been developed by different philosophical teachings and theories that analyze and structure worldview principles including, as one of their basic parts, ethical issues. In their everyday life, people often use words “good” or “bad” defining by them what they understand as ethical, or moral behavior or that which is immoral or unethical. They normally make no discrimination between ethics and morality, although the former “seems to pertain to the individual character of a person or persons, whereas morality seems to point to the relationships between human beings” (Thiroux Jacques P.20). The simple definitions of “good” and “bad”, however, turn out to be complicated and even controversial when we try to formulate consistently the principles that underpin them or define standards for judging and evaluating these norms.
Ethics in business is a highly important concept, as it can affect a company’s profits, salaries paid to employees and CEOs, and public opinion, among many other aspects of a business. Ethics can be enforced by company policies and guidelines, set a precedent when a company is faced with an important decision, and are also evolving thanks to new technology and situations that arise due to technology usage. Businesses have a duty to maintain their ethical responsibilities and also to help their employees enforce these responsibilities in and out of the workplace. However, ethics and the foundation for them are not always black and white. There are many different ethical theories, however Utilitarianism, Kant’s Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics are three of the most well known theories in existence. Each theory is distinct in that it has a different quality used to determine ethicality and allows for a person to choose which system of ethics works best with both the situation and his or her personal ethical preferences.
The war was worsened by the wealthy minerals in the ground and the influence of the mineral was strengthened by the fear and displacement the war caused. The intertwining of these two destructive forces is seen in the story Salima is told by a man who bought her. In this he tells of a man who stuffed”...the coltan into his mouth to keep the soldiers from stealing his hard work, and they split his belly open with a machete”(31). Not only does this story show the harsh conditions the men are exposed to in war, but also it further demonstrates the hold coltan has on the minds of those who live in the Congo. The want for coltan leads to the destruction of the community and individual identities of those involved as it perpetuates a cycle of war that damages men, induces violence against women, and ultimately creates a cycle of lost identity.
The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more then 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country everyday. The people of Congo are being pushed farther into poverty and starvation can't handle the fighting for very much longer. I propose that the solution to the post-Civil War violence in Congo is to rid the country of all foreign nations and their problems, namely the Rwandans, and to get combatants inside of the country to hold a summit and find a peaceful and fair resolution to the problem, with a superpower like the United States acting as host and mediator. Once all quarrels are amended, the Congolese can start to focus on a economic strategy for rebuilding the country.
Kidder, R, M., (2010), Center for corporate Ethics, Institute for Global Ethics, retrieved on August 08,2010 from www.globalethics.org/ reserve reading from ethics news line
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