Government Regulatory On-going Education Tests with Unethical Questions on Ethics

By L. Winslow

The government is requiring more and more businesses to comply with on-going education and yet we see that amongst these tests are tests in every industry on ethics. One might ask what the government knows about ethics, yet this is not the topic that came up in discussion recently in our think tank, instead we discussed that on these ongoing education tests on ethics it is impossible to get 100% correct, because one question is always impossible to get right, there is No right answer?

Well it there is no right answer and the test indicates there is then there is a problem with Trickery questions and is that really ethical? No of course not. It is nearly impossible to understand all the verbose rules and regulations, ambiguous definitions and intent of the laws sometimes, and all this is a clear sign of over regulation, over regulation is unethical, because it is like saying there is a problem in an industry that does not actually exist.

Even if you know the Letter of the law, over time the case Law is inconsistent with any sort of real ethics. Regulations are most often used as tools, like the regulators who write the legislation in order to attack a competitor in the market place. Of course, once attacked from a government agency, no matter why or who instituted the investigation, fine or finding; it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend and slows the progress of the company in question in the market place.

Thus most of our regulations are not made to help consumers, rather they are made so one business can get the upper hand of another. One has to ask why the government takes sides and why the government cannot practice what it preaches with regards to ethics or listen to the warnings of Adam Smith. So, if we really wish to discuss ethics, it is time to clean up the government's hand in it, from the on-going education tests to the actual market place extortion. Think on this.

L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur http://www.worldthinktank.net . Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by http://www.Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.

Non-Governmental Organisations In Mauritus

By Morinn Chamilall

Recently there has been a mushrooming of NGOs in Mauritius. Those NGOs have different purposes, be it to sensitive people about human rights, animal rights, ailments and so much more. Sometimes those NGOs reach their goals to a certain extent and often they fail to do so due to lack of personnel, funds and a proper organisation.

In an interview in a popular local weekly Dr. Satish Boolell gave his opinion about NGOs.
According to him, the propagation of NGOs does no good to the country. What we really need, still according to him, is for those NGOs to work together in networks. That is, each organisation doing a share of the job to reach a certain objective. For example organisations fighting against the abuse of illicit drugs can join hands with organisations fighting against AIDS. The association of these organisations will result in a better planning of tasks and the reaching of a common goal.

As we say, too much of something can ruin the whole thing. I feel that this applies in the case of these organisations. When they try to work individually and independently they have difficulties in finding sponsors and volunteers to work for them. A lack of personnel and most importantly a lack of finance greatly paralyses the success of any organisation. Therefore, remaining small is as good as not existing at all. The head of those organisations might have superb ideas to help the country progress but unfortunately their message goes astray, not reaching those to whom it was intended.

I'm not saying that organisations in Mauritius are up to nothing constructive. Organisations like PILS are doing great but there are others which are created, ran for a few months and then forced to cease working because of the above mentioned reasons.

So this goes to say that what we actually need is more cooperation of the NGOs with each other and more funds to those organisations in the form of government subsidies or sponsors from private firms. We also need volunteers to work for those organisations, at least part time.