Do World Religions Employ the Antitrust Wink?

It would be a rare religious leader who at one time or another failed to express a desire to make the world a better place. As a Benedictine wrote, "That which each of us does to proclaim God's love makes a wonderful difference in our world."

     Are statements like this said with the winks John Brooks describes in a chapter on antitrust price fixing in his book Business Adventures? He tells how executives of competing companies would wink to cancel the following advice: Avoid any agreements, expressed or implied, that could be viewed as violating the 1890 Sherman Act and the 1914 Clayton Act that make setting noncompetitive price levels illegal.

     When Pope Francis could not visit the pyramids last April, because Muslim extremists vow to attack Egypt's Christians, it does seem some who claim to lead the world's religions give their followers confusing signals. And again and again from the hatred turned against Judaism in the Holocaust to the 24 Coptic Christians killed while riding a bus to a monastery south of Cairo and the two men killed when they tried to defend Muslim girls in Portland, Oregon, last month, religious followers get the winked messages.

     But can't signals, such as peace symbols, also be forged to unite members of all religions?

   

Posts about TIME's 100 Most Influential People

• Lin-Manuel Miranda and Stephen Curry: "Stage Your Life"
• Pope Francis: "Why Is the Pope Going to Philadelphia?" "Warning to Students: Don't Cheat," "Good News from Cuba," "We Have a Pope"
• Christine Lagarde: "When to Buy/Sell in the World Market"
• Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton: "What Are You Wearing in the New Year?"
• Jin Liqun: "China's Corruption Crackdown, New Bank Backing, and Release of PR Activists"
• Barack Obama: "Good News from Cuba," What Moscow Could Learn from History"
• Xi Jinping: "Time to Revisit China's and the World's Foreign Currency Exchange Rates," "China's Corruption Crackdown, New Bank Backing, and Release of PR Activists," "Let's Visit China"
• Aung San Suu Kyi: "Who Are Your Country's Super Heroes?" "Hope for the Future"
• Hillary Clinton: "It Takes a World to Raise a Child"
• Vladimir Putin: "What Moscow Could Learn from History," "Hearing Voices from Mexico and Russia," "Hope for the Future"
• Kim Jong Un: "Corruption Has Consequences," "Nuclear Straight Talk," "Reasons to Celebrate Global Victories," "Hope for the Future"

Cheating is Easy, but...

When my daughter was using a game to teach a concept, the student who won suddenly jumped up and said, "Yes!" Whether a student is learning a new concept in a dirt floor classroom in Sudan, in an air conditioned one in Saudi Arabia, or in a slum in Chicago, the joy of understanding can't be underestimated. As Pope Frances observed last week during his trip to Nairobi, Africa, a country riddled with bribery and government graft, corruption is easy, but it robs a person of peace and joy. Conversely, mastering a concept gives joy.

     I have been very interested to read in Elmira Bayrasli's book, From the Other Side of the World, 
how entrepreneurs in unlikely places are countering what India calls chai paani, "a little bit of extra," the tradition of taking a bribe before correcting an erroneous and costly customs classification, performing a medical test, issuing a telephone number, or awarding a construction contract.

     When I taught international marketing, I used to dread teaching the chapter that discussed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits US businesses from paying bribes openly or using middlemen as conduits for a bribe, when the middleman is known to use part of the payment for a bribe. I felt naive teaching that US corporations would resist the temptation to maneuver around the law when multi-million dollar contracts were at stake. I remembered the story of the overseas diplomat who took a visitor from the US to see two new office towers. "There were supposed to be three," he said, "but, after paying kickbacks, there was only money left for two."

     With this background in mind, I was surprised and delighted to read how the ability to obtain licenses, register property, and obtain other government services online has eliminated contact with officials who have discretionary power to do their jobs only after they collect a bribe, the little bit of extra.

     Although there are still many instances where bribes and kickbacks could help a business handle government paperback faster, companies like the "Dial 1298" private ambulance firm in India and high tech Infosys and Wipro in Pakistan refuse to engage in corruption. They decided to create a new corporate culture built on well defined and uncompromising values and standards that employees are expected to internalize. Moreover, organizations like Transparency International and Ipaidabribe.com, have sprung up to monitor corruption and to invite reports of bribes required and paid in India, Pakistan, Kenya, and Russia. Narenda Modi, India's current prime minister, considered it a winning message to campaign on a promise to end corruption.

      Bayrasli observed that the middle class expects functioning public services and reliable governance. As globalization expands the middle class throughout the world, wise parents and teachers may need not only to punish cheating but to reward the value and joy of learning.

     (Also see the earlier posts, "Warning to Students: Don't Cheat" and "Learning Can Be Fun.")

   

Why Is the Pope Going to Philadelphia?

Pope Francis will attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. He has nothing in common with the aristocratic slave owner who wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but he agrees with the essence of what Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776. That is, people are entitled to "the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...."

     Specifically, to what rights are people entitled? Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. For Pope Francis, the pursuit of happiness goes beyond searching for gratification or escape with sex, drugs, or alcohol. The pursuit extends all the way to the eternal happiness of heaven. And what is heaven? No one knows for sure, but I believe it was St. Frances of Assisi, Pope Frances's namesake, who posited heaven could be like the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve gave into Satan's temptation. Could be. When I lived in Hawaii, I often heard people refer to the natural beauty of the islands as "a little piece of Paradise." When, in the Pope's recent encyclical, Laudato Si, he asks individuals and countries to make changes needed to protect the environment, perhaps he is inviting us to find a bit of heaven on earth.

     In any case, Philadelphia will be for the Pope, as it has been for the many who have visited the city since 1776, a reminder that governments are instituted to secure the rights God has endowed on all people. After the Declaration of Independence listed the ways government by the King of Great Britain failed to secure basic human rights, delegates again met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the Constitution. Not satisfied that the Constitution sufficiently safeguarded individual rights, a Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, was added in 1791. When the United Nations, which Pope Francis addresses September 25, 2015, was founded after World War II, it adopted a similar Declaration of Human Rights to promote respect for human rights and basic freedoms for people all over the world.

     Does God see countries with secure borders? It seems He sees people with secure rights, the way Thomas Jefferson did in 1776 and the way Pope Frances does in 2015.

   

   

   

 

Warning to Students: Don't Cheat

Children who are motivated to cheat by copying another student's work, paying someone to write their papers, or hiring another student to take a standardized test for them could learn a few lessons from those who have avoided corruption or engaged in it around the world.

Even if the current business culture in a country sanctions corruption, the honesty espoused by Bulent Celebi's AirTies firm in Turkey offers a promising example. When Celebi established his WiFi company, which does not rely on phone lines or fiber optic cables to transmit data, he had six founding values. Besides customer satisfaction and engaged employees, he stated AirTies would be ethical. Therefore, he did not rely on bribes but, according to Elmira Bayrasli's book, From the Other Side of the World, he launched his business by working through the laborious process of dealing with Turkey's bureaucracy and paperwork. Shortcuts, he felt, would start AirTies off in the wrong direction.

     While on a visit to Nairobi, Kenya, in November, 2015, Pope Francis told a cheering crowd that corruption was easy and sweet but in the end it makes politics, even in the Vatican, and a country sick. He urged the crowd to keep corruption out of its lives, because corruption takes away joy and robs people of peace in their lives.

     Major European auto and truck maker, VW, will pay at least $15 billion for developing a cheating way to pass emissions tests.

     As a result of bribing doctors and hospitals by giving them kickbacks, the Japanese-based manufacturer, Olympus, paid a $646 million fine.

     By pretending subprime mortgages were sound, Goldman Sachs, one of the US firms that helped bring on the 2008 recession, is expected to pay about $5 billion to resolve state and federal investigations.

     In Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff and House Speaker Eduardo Cunha have been implicated in a corruption scandal involving construction firms that paid bribes to Petrobras, the state energy firm. Marcelo Odebrecht, former head of Brazil's giant construction company, designed the scheme that paid kickbacks to win contracts from senior Petrobras officials and that funded political campaigns. In March, 2016, Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Although Rousseff thus far has been found blameless in the Petrobras scandal, the charge of her involvement has led to a call for her impeachment and hurt the country's economy by stopping building and energy projects. Petrobras has had to stop paying dividends, and the company has cut $32 billion from its 5-year $130 billion investment plan. Now that the Federal Accounts Court has ruled that Rousseff's administration used illegal accounting practices, the prospect of impeachment is even greater. Eventually, Rousseff was out, but in June, 2017, new President Michel Temer was charged with taking $11.5 million in bribes for helping a meatpacker who had tax and loan problems.

     Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, Iceland's Prime Minister, was the first victim of a leak of papers from the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. In April, 2016, he stepped down, when it was disclosed that he and his wife owned an undeclared off shore account where he concealed millions of dollars from taxes. The papers reveal Mossack Fonseca also has formed off shore shell companies to help other clients launder money, dodge sanctions, and evade taxes.

     Nigerian authorities fined the South African-based MTN multinational mobile telecommunications company $5.2 billion, later reduced to $3.4 billion. Of MTN's 62 million subscribers, the company failed to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered, and therefore unidentified, Sim card accounts. Kidnappers had used an unregistered Sim card from MTN to demand a ransom for Nigeria's former finance minister, Chief Olu Falae.

     A November, 2015 report from the World Anti Doping Agency alleging State-sponsored doping of Russia's Olympic athletes could result in banning the country from competing in 2016's Summer Olympics. And the head of the agency that selects the countries that hold World Cup soccer matches had to resign, when winning host countries were found to have bribed their way into the honor.

     In Indonesia, the government's failure to keep an up-to-date land registry results in an inability to assign blame for the devastating forest fires on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo that also have spread a thick haze of smoke to Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand. All together, the smoke has caused an estimated 500,000 respiratory tract infections, and 100,000 premature deaths are a possibility. Fires are set by cheap slash and burn methods used to clear for new planting by both small scale farmers and corporate palm oil, timber (used for paper), and other agricultural corporations. Standards for the hiring and working conditions of migrant labor in the palm oil industry have failed to remedy abuses. When an investigation by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil found the Malaysian palm oil company, IOI, failed to correct deforestation violations in its concessions, Unilever and 9 other major companies cancelled their contracts with IOI.

     You can read about charges of corruption Russia faces in the earlier blog post, "Hearing Voices." And Communist Party officials throughout China have been severely punished as reported in the earlier blog post, "China's Corruption Crackdown, New Bank Backing, and Release of PR Activists."

Changes to US-Cuban Relationships

In June, 2017, Raul Castro announced his intention to step down and President Trump announced new US regulations will change travel and business contacts that applied in President Obama's administration.

     In my earlier blog post, "Hope for the Future," I wrote that some day we would rejoice when a U.S. AID worker held captive in Cuba would be released. Alan Gross is now a free man after five years in a small room with two other prisoners.

      Calling Pope Francis the "real deal" and a source of inspiration, President Obama acknowledged the pontiff's role in restoration of normal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. The countries reopened their embassies in Washington, DC and in Havana on July 20, 2015. Two months later, Pope Francis visited Cuba before he came to the USA. During President Obama's 2-day visit to Cuba in March, 2016, he met Cuban President Raul Castro and anti-Castro activists and attended a baseball game. On November 25, 2016, Cuba announced the death of Fidel Castro, who had led Cuba from 1956 to 2006, which included the Cuban missile crisis during the administration of John Kennedy.

      The US has not appointed an ambassador to Havana, but Jose Cabanas has been appointed Cuba's ambassador to the US.

     Until President Trump's new regulations take effect, individual US travelers to Cuba can still go to the Airbnb website, airbnb.com, to book bed and breakfast accommodations and facilitate cash payments and MasterCard and American Express credit card charges. Airbnb has one million listings of unique accommodations in 190 countries.

   

"We Have a Pope"

Can children respect different religions, when the beliefs of other faiths are very foreign to them? They can if they understand a bit about the backgrounds of the world's religions. Now that the Cardinals of the Catholic religion have elected a new Pope, it is a good time to consider what led to his selection and to learn what the new Pope is saying and doing. From May 1 through October 31, 2015, the Vatican's pavillon at the World Expo (expo2015.org) in Milan, Italy, will feature the theme, "Not by Bread Alone." On his first foreign trip to Brazil, before joining students at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, July 23-28, 2013, he said protection of nature was one of his major goals. In November, 2013 he began polling the layity about the subjects of gay marriage, single-parent families, surrogate mothers, and divorce. What will he say, when he visits Cuba and the USA in September, 2015?

     Ever since Jesus told St. Peter, "...you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church...." (Matthew 16:18), there has been a continuous succession of Popes. Beginning in 533, they have adopted names such as Alexander, Celestine, John, Paul, and Benedict. The new Pope is the first one to take the name Francis. He also is the first Latin American Pope and the first Jesuit to become Pope. Known as the bishop of the Church of Rome and successor to St. Peter, the Pope has power over the whole Catholic Church. Ever since the Lateran Treaty of 1929, the Vatican State of his residence in Italy has enjoyed sovereign, independent status.

     Cardinals appointed by the Pope hold the highest religious rank under the Pope. Papal authority is exercised collectively with the College of Cardinals at ecumenical councils, such as Vatican II that was announced by Pope John XXIII on January 25, 1959, which issue documents concerning important Church doctrine. In 1869-1870, Vatican I, for example, defined papal primacy and infallibility in matters of faith and morals.

     Since the divine mission of all members of the Catholic Church is salvation, i.e. happiness in heaven, the Church hierarchy looks to Scripture and Tradition to determine and teach what is required to live a holy life. That path involves a wide range of matters, including the rituals of worship, prayer, forgiveness of sins against the Ten Commandments, care for the poor, respect for life. The Pope canonizes as saints known to be in heaven, men and women who have been true to Church teaching, such as the early Christians who died rather than renounce their faith.

     By reading about the lives of saints, children who are trying to be good will learn that Popes have recognized that there are many ways to live a holy life. St. Francis of Assisi, born into a wealthy family, sold what he had to help the poor and sick and to repair churches in poor neighborhoods. He was known for his love of animals and all creation and for his ability to win over bullies with his good sense of humor. St. Isidore of Seville didn't do his homework until he saw how a thin rope had worn away the stone on a well. Once he realized a little effort applied constantly could produce results, he became a learned scholar who presided over the Church's Council of Toledo that determined in 633 that Jewish people should have freedom of religion and not be forced to convert to Christianity. St. Monica, like many mothers, faced the problem of raising a teenage son who was living a wild, undisciplined life. Her prayer and determination not to give up on him paid off in his conversion. He became St. Augustine, one of the Catholic Church's most influential thinkers.

     Beginning in 1431, Colleges of Cardinals have selected the new Popes. Before a new Pope is elected, the ring of the former Pope is smashed to symbolize the end of his authority, and the doors to his papal residence are sealed. Although, in the eighth century, a layman became Pope Constantine, modern Popes have been elected by a two-thirds vote of members of the College of Cardinals who are younger than 80. This year it took at least 77 of the 115 assembled Cardinals to elect a Pope. In the 13th century, it once took 33 months to elect a Pope, but after 12 to 13 days now, a Pope can be chosen by a simple majority. Ballots are burned after each vote. When the smoke from these burnt ballots was white on March 13, 2013, the world learned that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76) of Buenos Aires, Argentina, had become the Catholic Church's new Pope.

     Information about some of the other world religions is included in an earlier blog post, "This We Believe."