SYNOPSIS
Insights 70 Days Ethics Plan
Day – 10 and 11
- You are a businessman. Lately your business is not making any profits and is running under loss. Your powerful friends have abandoned you. Your wife runs an NGO that takes care of about 100 orphaned children. These children, who are aged between few months old babies to 15 year old boys, are rescued and rehabilitated with the aid of donations. These children include both boys and girls. In recent days your wife is finding it difficult to provide food, education and other basic necessities such as clothes, shelter etc on a regular basis due to lack of sufficient inflow of funds. She wants to close the NGO and hand it over to government. Even though she cares about these children, she is helpless in continuing her NGO on her own.
a) What options she has in this situation, in case you would want her to continue to run her NGO? Evaluate their merits and demerits.
Answer:-
The case study emphasis about the empathy, compassion and sense of responsibility of my wife towards the Children and society as she is trying to improve the lives of these children by providing them a better life.
The ethical dilemma which is bothering the lady are the lack of financial resources vs duty, love and affection towards the children. The stake holders are me, my wife, children.
The options which are available to her to ensure that NGO is still run by her are:-
She can approach bigger NGO’s which can take over this NGO and with her still playing the motherly role to the children. This approach will ensure that the children have shelter, food and other needs met and they have a decent life especially when sexual exploitation of child is rampant. However my wife might not be able to play a greater role or role she intended to.
She could wait till my business resurges. Then she need not depend on others for funds as I can help but as my business is already in losses it might take some time for it to make profits again and so much time is not available for the NGO to sustain.
She can take help from government authorities or elected representatives of the constituency. This can ensure some funds to the sustenance of NGO in short term. However the response by the government authorities can be to transferring the power of NGO to some others. So her purpose is unresolved.
She can take help from established industrial houses or companies. As corporate social responsibility is actively being done there are chances her genuine interest might be understood and funds could flow. However businesses invest when they have some returns for the investment they made.
She can use the influence of social media to explain her cause. This initiative can reach wider audience and ensure greater response however the response is still doubtful as in the age of cyber crimes rising many people could have doubts to trust a stranger. She can use the above option.
Instead of focusing only on funds she can even concentrate on food items, clothes donations from the society. This can ensure basic needs of the children are met. But this option is not sustainable as ultimately funds are required for functioning of NGO.
There is need to experiment with two to three options simultaneously like approaching corporates, using social media etc for the effective functioning of NGO by my wife.
- Latha lost her husband many years ago in an accident. As she was childless, later she adopted an abandoned child from a nearby hospital. The child has reached her schooling age. Latha who is still in her early thirties, finds it difficult to be single mother and decides to remarry. She puts her profile on matrimony sites. After many proposals, she finds a suitable person in a divorcee who is a government employee. Latha is convinced that the person is genuine and also her and her daughter’s life would be secure if she marries this person. However, her family, when told about this is shocked and is opposing her decision. They are worried about background of the man she is going to marry. If she marries him, she will have to go to distant place, away from her parents and siblings.
a) Examine the ethical issues involved in this case.
b) Do you support Latha’s decision? Justify.
Answer:-
The case study highlights the conflict of a women to act independently or have personal autonomy and the familial influence.
a) The ethical issues involved here are:-
- Family’s pressure vs future of oneself and daughter to achieve one’s own aspirations
- Divorce perceived as a bad thing
- Sense of responsibility towards her child vs societal negative view about remarriage
- Societal deterrence to accept change.
b) Latha’s decision is right because of the following reasons:-
Firstly ,Latha is only in her early thirties and she has her whole life ahead of her. She has every right to be happy
Secondly being a single mother she is finding it hard to give her child a decent life. For the security of her child and herself (even though that should not be only reason to marry )if she finds a suitable man she can remarry.
Thirdly she has already found whether he is right for her or not and she trusts that he is genuine man.
Fourthly her family’s apprehensions are equally valid as they are worried about the genuineness of the person she intends to marry and Latha leaving her family and going far away. As Latha is confident about the man she can try to initiate more communication between her family and the man so that they realize her decision is right.
Also in the current technological society distance is not a constraint as internet and mobile communication family is close by itself.
For the sacrifices Latha has made she has every right to lead a happy and peaceful life and move towards future rather than be stuck in the past.
3) How is technology impacting family values and ethics? Illustrate.
Technology is a powerful tool that used to connect people with education, communication, and entertainment. The influence of social media and technology affects every family in many ways.
Technology has definitely benefitted families who stay far apart with easy communication, getting to know about the events in family members lives better through whats app groups, chats etc, ensure safety of the family under crisis immediately etc. However family values have largely been affected in an adverse way:-
- Children’s absorption in technology, from texting to playing video games, does by their very nature limit their availability to communicate with their parents. One study found that when the working parent arrived home after work, his or her children were so immersed in technology that the parent was greeted only 30 percent of the time and was totally ignored 50 percent of the time.
- Parents can struggle to gain proficiency and comfort with the new technology that their digital-native children have already mastered. This divergence in competence in such an important area of children’s lives makes it more difficult for parents to assume the role of teacher and guide in their children’s use of technology.
- Earlier parents had the opportunity to monitor and act as gatekeepers for their children’s social lives. Technology has provided children with an independence in their communications with friends and others.
- Parents are often wrapped up in their own technology, for example, talking on their mobile phones, checking email, or watching TV, when they could be talking to, playing with, or generally connecting with their children.
- There is also less sharing which means that parents know less about what is going on in their children’s lives and, consequently, have less ability to exert influence over them.
- Technology has led to isolation and alienation leading to depression and ultimately rise in suicides. For instance children falling victim to Blue whale challenge.
Impact on ethics:-
- Privacy is one of the biggest issues when it comes to technology and people are actively revealing their personal information on social media thus threatening themselves to be victims of cyber bullying and other cyber crimes.
- Direct communication is hardly visible and people are losing the ability to find the authenticity of news.
- Technology has given rise to more materialism leading to loss of empathy ,compassion etc.
Technology is a double edged sword .So it needs to dealt with carefully for the needs that are absolutely necessary but not as a means to avoid family time.
