Whistleblowing has its roots in Injustice!

As always I rely on my one loyal reader and the support I receive. I know that this reader is concerned about the increasing injustice reported daily. Injustice affects us all and has a toxic and corrosive effect on society generally.

People know when they are doing  wrong – lawyers, accountants, real estate agents milking Trust Accounts, for example. So do businesses. So do banks. So do Governments. So do religious organisations. They are all aware of wrong doing but they keep doing it!

As I have stated many times before the root of injustice is unethical conduct – people, businesses, governments either for personal gain, trying to gain unfair advantage or to avoid scrutiny or to cover-up some dubious conduct. This applies to all levels of human conduct.

Now we have the serious allegations (they are still just allegations) that a commercial subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia  has been offering bribes to encourage sales of the bank notes that it prints. This is the banker bank and is owned by the Australian Government! If the allegations are proved this will be a REALLY serious affair.

Also just recall the recent Olympic Games – taking drugs to gain an unfair advantage. Then there was the Tour de France – more drugs. Also of course there is the unethical conduct of banks and financial institutions – greed, manipulating interest rates, money laundering, betting on credit default swaps and fraudulent practices; the Catholic Church and paedophilia; businesses – poor customer service, greed, price gouging, squeezing suppliers to lower prices and general anti-competitive conduct; individuals involved in crime – be this “white collar” fraud, violence, sexual or physical abuse. Then there are the breaches of human rights by ALL governments (think Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib and “renditions”; China and the Falun Gong and official corruption; the basket case that is North Korea; Russia with endemic corruption and Putin’s attempt to crush all dissent; Australia and the “stolen generation”, the treatment of asylum seekers and the Defence Force sexual abuse scandal – and so on and so on. The list is unfortunately endless).

This type of conduct, which hurts people either physically or emotionally, is often carried out by people who show a complete lack of empathy – an inability to feel what another person is experiencing. They show no remorse, are callous, have poor behaviour controls, are impulsive and fail to accept responsibility for their own actions. This evidence of anti-social behaviour is typical of people who usually would have high scores on the relevant clinical checklist for psychopathy.

On the face of it, psychopaths are often highly intelligent, charming, outgoing people, who are eager to make a positive impression. But this behaviour is a façade and an imitation of what they know to be socially acceptable: the so-called “mask of sanity”. The clinical checklist for psychopathy refers to "glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating ", and such like.

You may think that sounds like some of the businessmen and politicians we know!

Research shows that high-functioning psychopaths are often very successful people. On the surface they appear to be confident and calm and seem to have their act together. The Human Capital and Management Library says: "High-functioning psychopaths...tend to rule the world. They rise to the highest levels of power in politics and business."

Research also indicates that about ten per cent of CEOs could be diagnosed as psychopaths compared to about one per cent of the general population who show this same tendency. What allows these people to manipulate and control others is their ability to do so on a very rational, logical level with no feelings of emotion or empathy for the other person.

The importance of whistle-blowers stems from the fact that most of the unethical, unjust and downright criminal behaviour in government and in commerce that has been exposed, has been exposed by people with a conscience – whistle-blowers! Without whistle-blowers how would we know, truthfully, how any government, of any country was actually governing? Without whistle-blowers how would we know truthfully, as tax payers, how our money was being spent in any jurisdiction? Without whistle-blowers how would we know, truthfully, how our law enforcement officers were performing? Without this knowledge provided by whistle-blowers how could there be any trust in the performance of any branch of any government or any company or corporation? Every one of them has something to hide. Every one of them has a skeleton hidden somewhere (as do we all as individuals).

Whistle-blowers perform the very important function of shining a light into the dark corners where these activities are normally hidden and exposing the perpetrators of injustice for what they are.

Remember the advice Polonius gave to his son Laertes:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 78–82.

Long live whistle-blowers!

American Government (in)justice

I have written about this before – many times – but I repeat again that injustice is the root of most of the problems in the world today. When governments, of whatever persuasion, start hiding their activities from their own people then you know that there is a problem and this arouses my sense of outrage. Injustice and unethical behaviour are inexcusable.   

While (generally) I hold America and Americans in high regard I am particularly targeting their Government’s “holier than thou” attitude and a “do as I say, not as I do” approach to some policies which I find offensive and unworthy of the American people.

I know that politics is a dirty game but denying illegal or unethical activities and behaviour is taking things too far. In this regard the American Government has lost its “moral high ground” with the treatment of those in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre (Gitmo), by the vitriol directed at Julian Assange (Wikileaks founder), Bradley Manning (American soldier who is alleged to have supplied Wikileaks with information) and whistle blowers generally. Other countries (including Australia) are guilty of similar offences.

It is necessary to examine the issues impartially because this is very important.

If a government, American, or that of any country conceals information from its population how can voters make an informed judgement on the effectiveness or otherwise of that government? Especially, as mentioned above, if the information so concealed may be of such an unethical or illegal nature that any disclosure would diminish the government’s standing in the eyes of the voting public and cause the officials concerned much discomfort!

This is where whistle blowers such as Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are, as far as I am concerned, performing a valuable service – not just to the American public but for mankind generally. It is necessary, for any individual’s or government’s well-being to be shown up for what they are, prone to unethical activities, lying and plain criminal behaviour (unfortunately all of us are at times guilty of these).  Unless governments and individuals acknowledge their weaknesses how can they correct their errors and aspire to reach their full potential? How else can the voting public be given enough information to know if they want or need a change of government other than by the information provided by whistle-blowers? Without this information the voting public is in danger of being manipulated, against their wishes.

Whistle blowers need to be commended for their actions, not condemned.

The American Government, in particular, has forgotten or chosen to ignore the fact that their Declaration of Independence includes the basic tenet that people have certain rights, and when a government violates these rights, the people have the right to "alter or abolish" that government ...!  

Also remember that America is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (as is Australia). This states in the preamble that, “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.”  It goes on to declare in:

Articles 6:

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article10:

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

 Article 19:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

It would appear that the Americans by holding inmates indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay detention centre and by their treatment of whistle-blowers generally, are violating many of the most fundamental human rights and I ask the question “Why?” I also ask the Australian Government a similar question – why hold individuals (“illegal boat people”) in indefinite detention without judicial review or recourse to the courts? Such actions promote injustice and are plain wrong and will be subject to unintended consequences.

I strongly suspect that this abrogation of  basic Human Rights stems from the fact that officials are discomforted by the disclosures which, in turn, generates a desire to punish whistle blowers for showing to the world that Americans (or Australians) are not as ethical, as just or morally correct as they would like to be known for.  Their declared abhorrence, almost a hatred of whistle blowers is testament to this.

Those who fail or refuse to do good in the face of evil are sowing some dangerous seeds. It worth recalling the famous quote by the British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797):

“All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”