Classwork this Wednesday

For this Wednesday, we'll do what was left from last class in classwork. Take a look at Reading 6.1 (p. 337). See ya.

PHI 2604 W, 5:40PM

THIS IS THE PLACE TO POST YOUR LAST ASSIGNMENT/COMMENTS: YOU HAVE A WEEK (UNTIL SUNDAY DECEMBER 6, 10PM) TO POST YOUR COMMENTS. PLEASE, SIGN YOUR NAME AT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR COMMENT.

Last assignment

The next assignment deals with the issue of sex exploitation against women. Here are some links for you to get an idea of what's going on:

Cheated out of childhood in Russia.
Rape in Japan.
Sex slaves in Italy.
Child sex workers in Nepal.
Child prostitution in South Africa.
You don't have to go overseas. Sex exploitation happens in our own backyard.

Although the evidence is overwhelming, but why do we still struggle with these horrible issues in the Twenty-First Century?

Here is the wikipedia entry on prostitution, which brings the bigger issue of human trafficking.
Prostitution in the United States. (see that there are different kinds, from brothel, to escort to child prostitution).

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Following the guidelines of the previous assignment, I'd like you to comment on the ethical issues involving the sexual exploitation of women.

Some interesting facts you should know:

1- "About 80% of women in prostitution have been the victim of a rape. It's hard to talk about this because..the experience of prostitution is just like rape. Prostitutes are raped, on the average, eight to ten times per year. They are the most raped class of women in the history of our planet. " (Susan Kay Hunter and K.C. Reed, July, 1990 "Taking the side of bought and sold rape," speech at National Coalition against Sexual Assault, Washington, D.C. ). Other studies report 68% to 70% of women in prostitution being raped (M Silbert, "Compounding factors in the rape of street prostitutes," in A.W. Burgess, ed., Rape and Sexual Assault II, Garland Publishing, 1988; Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan, "Prostitution, Violence, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder," 1998, Women & Health.
2- Prostitution is an act of violence against women which is intrinsically traumatizing. In a study of 475 people in prostitution (including women, men, and the transgendered) from five countries (South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Zambia):
62% reported having been raped in prostitution.
73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
72% were currently or formerly homeless.
92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
(Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426.
3- Many of the health problems of women in prostitution are a direct result of violence. For example, several women had their ribs broken by the police in Istanbul, a woman in San Francisco broke her hips jumping out of a car when a john was attempting to kidnap her. Many women had their teeth knocked out by pimps and johns. (Melissa Farley, unpublished manuscript, 2000). One woman (in another study) said about her health: "I’ve had three broken arms, nose broken twice, [and] I’m partially deaf in one ear….I have a small
fragment of a bone floating in my head that gives me migraines. I’ve had a fractured skull. My legs ain’t worth shit no more; my toes have been broken. My feet, bottom of my feet, have been burned; they've been whopped with a hot iron and clothes hanger… the hair on my pussy had been burned off at one time…I have scars. I’ve been cut with a knife, beat with guns, two by fours. There hasn’t been a place on my body that hasn’t been bruised somehow, some way, some big, some small." (Giobbe, E. (1992) Juvenile Prostitution: Profile of Recruitment in Ann W. Burgess (ed.) Child Trauma: Issues & Research.Garland Publishing Inc, New York, page 126).
4- The commercial sex industry includes street prostitution, massage brothels, escort services, out-call services, strip clubs, lap-dancing, phone sex, adult and child pornography, video and internet pornography, and prostitution tourism. Most women who are in prostitution for longer than a few months drift among these various permutations of the commercial sex industry. All prostitution causes harm to women. Whether it is being sold by one’s family to a brothel, or whether it is being sexually abused in one’s family, running away from home, and then being pimped by one’s boyfriend, or whether one is in college and needs to pay for next semester’s tuition and one works at a strip club behind glass where men never actually touch you – all these forms of prostitution hurt the women in it. (Melissa Farley, paper presented at the 11th International Congress on Women’s Health Issues, University of California College of Nursing, San Francisco. 1-28-2000)

If you have any questions, post them here.

PHI 2604 Chapter 6 (Chapter 10 of 10th edition): Homework

1- What is the meaning of “due care” and how does it relate to the MacPherson vs. Buick Motor Car case?
2- Define “caveat emptor.”
3- Define “legal paternalism.”
4- Go over the 6 steps regarding business responsibilities.
5- Define the following: a) Express warranty, b) implied warranty, c) merchantability.
8- Describe: a) “price fixing,” b) “price gouging.”
9- Regarding deceptive techniques used in advertising, define the following: a) ambiguity, b) concealed facts, d) exaggeration, e) psychological appeals.

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Let's do case 6.1 (p. 327) "Breasts implants". All discussions questions (breast implant problems). Also, we'll analyse Reading 6.1 "The Ethics of Sale" (p.337)

Corruption and foreign interests

The long arm of repression and foreign interest covering corruption:

“Of course it’s because of oil,” said John Bennett, the United States ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 1991 to 1994, adding that Washington has turned a blind eye to the Obiangs’ corruption and repression because of its dependence on the country for natural resources. He noted that officials of Zimbabwe are barred from the United States.

“Both countries are severely repressive,” said Mr. Bennett, who is now a senior foreign affairs officer for the State Department in Baghdad. “But if Zimbabwe had Equatorial Guinea’s oil, Zimbabwean officials wouldn’t still be blocked from the U.S.”

Do you have any questions?

Topics for Quiz #2

Chapter 9

Legitimate and illegitimate influence (p. 477)
Informed Consent, (p. 479)
Polygraph Tests: Purpose of PT (p. 480)
Major assumptions: Personality tests, what are they good for?
Drug Testing; 4 remarks (p. 484)

Chapter 10

Conflict of Interest: (p. 539)
Insider Trading (p. 542)
Trade secret (p. 545) There are 3 arguments for protecting trade secrets (1- trade secrets are intellectual property, 2- it's unfair competition, 3- employees who disclose t.s. violate confidentiality owed to their employers).
Bribes. Kickbacks (p. 547)
Gifts: Seven rules (p. 550)
Obligations to third parties.
Whistle blowing (p. 554) Five guidelines.

Chapter 11

Job discrimination (p. 609)
Affirmative action (p 615-619)
Argumments for and against affirmative action (p. 620,621)
Comparable worth (arguments) (p. 623)
Sexual Harrassment (p. 626). Two types of harrassment. Four things to do when one encounters sexual harassment.

I'll post the review tomorrow

Countries where homosexuality is "illegal"

New anti-gay laws in Uganda

Being homosexual in Uganda is illegal, but the parlament is ready to pass new tougher anti-gay law (further proof that morality and laws are different things).

How stupid can they be

The cost of stupid corporate decisions: In its complaint, the S.E.C. accused JPMorgan Securities and two former managing directors, Charles LeCroy and Douglas MacFaddin, of making more than $8 million in undisclosed payments to close friends of certain Jefferson County commissioners. Then the county commissioners voted to select JPMorgan Securities as managing underwriter* of the bond offerings** and its affiliated bank as swap provider (keep in mind that swaps can be used to hedge certain risks) for the transactions.

See the poor decision: you advance $8 million to possibly own a contract and earn hundreds of millions... but since it's not a legal investment because the contract is awarded fraudulently JPMorgan ends up paying $75 million in penalties and $647 million in termination fees to settle civil charges. Did the big shots at the Corporation know about this? 
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*The underwriter, typically an investment bank, acts as the structurer and arranger of the Bond.  Who is one of the defendants? Larry Langford, found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. **Basically a government bond is a loan: the issuer in this case is Jefferson County (the borrower and debtor), and the holder or lender (creditor) is whoever buys the bonds, while the coupon is the interest. Bonds provide the city with external funds to finance long-term investments, or to finance current expenditure.

Competition law and antitrust

From NYTimes: Following the lead of foreign regulators, New York’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against Intel, the world’s largest chip maker.

These cases have largely revolved around deals Intel had struck with computer makers and retailers that, regulators said, pressured them into picking the company’s microprocessors — which serve as the central chip inside personal computers and servers — instead of competing products from A.M.D.  “Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “Intel’s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices.”

What is competition law? This is an important paragraph in the Wikipedia article: When firms hold large market shares, consumers risk paying higher prices and getting lower quality products than compared to competitive markets. However, the existence of a very high market share does not always mean consumers are paying excessive prices since the threat of new entrants to the market can restrain a high-market-share firm's price increases. Competition law does not make merely having a monopoly illegal, but rather abusing the power that a monopoly may confer, for instance through exclusionary practices.

Huge corruption in China

From the NYTimes, Huge corruption in China:

Mr. Wen’s lavish tastes were nothing compared with the carnal appetites of his sister-in-law, Xie Caiping, known as “the godmother of the Chongqing underworld.” Prosecutors say she ran 30 illegal casinos, including one across the street from the courthouse. She also employed 16 young men who, according to the state-run press, were exceedingly handsome and obliging. In recent weeks, Ms. Xie, Mr. Wen and a cavalcade of ranking officials and lowbrow thugs have been players in a mass public trial that has exposed the unseemly relationships among gangsters, police officers and the sticky-fingered bureaucrats.


The spectacle involves more than 9,000 suspects, 50 public officials, a petulant billionaire and criminal organizations that dabbled in drug trafficking, illegal mining, and random acts of savagery, most notably the killing of a man for his unbearably loud karaoke voice.