A Missing Sense Of Ethics: Just Adhere To The Basic Principles And Guidelines Of This Great Religion
30 January 2018By Tariq A. Al-Maeena
There are some who agree that our ethics have taken a collective turn for the
worse over the past three decades or so. Be it work, business or social
ethics, our general behavior seems to be on a subtle but downward spiral into
something most of us are not comfortable with.
And many pundits will be quick to point out that it was the extraordinary oil
boom years of the late seventies and eighties that propelled us onto this
path. The economic burst injected so quickly into this country during that
period led to a fragmentation of established ethics and mores.
Perhaps that may be too harsh a statement, but certainly among the generations
spawned since, we witness firsthand the "me first" mob, the "I am better than"
horde, the "silent objector" factions and a host of others that were once
alien to this desert peninsula.
In the work place, it is not uncommon that work discipline remains the
farthest thing from the minds of some of the staff. Be it their tardiness,
their time-consuming obsession with the stock market during duty hours, their
failure to complete assignments, because they are tired due to late night
frolicking or because they simply don't care, all contribute to actions that
are not well received.
And if they happen to be in the civil and government sectors, then it indeed
affects the rest of us who have pending issues lying on their desks, often for
months on end. Adopting a "nobody holds me accountable" attitude results in
untold woe for those waiting for their transactions to be processed. Heads of
public sector departments compound the misery meted out by their own
unaccountable activities. While many transactions today can be successfully
conducted online, others, unfortunately, do dictate a visit to the
bureaucrats.
In the business sector, the spoken word that was once used to conduct business
in place of the written contract is worth almost nothing today. Even contracts
written in triplicate are habitually ignored or violated. Today's promises in
the marketplace are as easy to predict as our dry weather, and they are seldom
honored.
Unscrupulous employers are abusing employee rights, while contracts are being
granted to companies with very dubious track records. When businesses fail,
recouping losses is often at the expense of the workers who may be deprived of
their livelihood. The use of graft to get things moving is not an uncommon
grievance. Perhaps the government crackdown on corruption will reduce much of
that.
On a social level, the family bond has had its share of trials. Distance now
separates relatives, and it is not the distance of mileage. Where once
families related on a consistent level, today our gatherings are pretty much
confined to weddings and funerals. The young have distanced themselves from
the old, the educated from the ignorant, and the rich from the less fortunate.
The extended family environment is gradually fading into oblivion.
In the home, as employers, how many of us have respected the rights of our
staff and treated them with kindness and dignity? They, who sacrifice so much
by leaving their loved ones in faraway lands to come and serve us, deserve
that.
Interaction with others may be based upon what is in it for us, and not
necessarily genuine concern. We are less tolerant with those who may disagree
with us, and more prone to herd together with like-minded individuals,
isolating ourselves further and further. Our conduct in public, on our roads
and streets and in the workplace speaks volumes about our unethical behavior.
Our sense of ethics has to be rediscovered. In a peninsula that gave birth to
Islam, if we would just adhere to the basic principles and guidelines set
forth by this great religion, such practices would disappear practically
overnight. But we have to begin by exercising those principles individually.
— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena
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