Ethical Code for the XXI century: Contrasts

Friday, 29 August 2008

Contrasts

I just arrived from Malaysia, where I spent a couple of weeks traveling around.
Malaysia is a cheap country. Food is cheap, accommodation is cheap, transport is cheap, most things for sale are cheap. Oil is cheap...
Malaysia is also a warm country, tropical, humid, rainy at times, so we can not blame the locals for abusing the air conditioning...apart from the fact of setting it to polar temperatures. Everything is air conditioned, houses, shops, cars...

What led me to write this post however, is that in Malaysia, it is common place to leave your car running while you go shopping or while you have a pause along the highway to rest, just so that the car is still cold when you come back.

We live a confortable life in the western world, and can't blame them for wanting one also. Nobody keeps themself from buying and using airco in the car, or heating in the winter. All people should have access to a comfortable life.

It is easy to provide comfort, if people are willing and/or able to pay for it. Shouldn't we also provide education.

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Manifesto

Do not kill. Even in self defence avoid the death of your aggressor. Use Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy responsibly and in cases of manifest health risks and consider the alternatives in other cases. But do not accept as dignified the living of beings in extreme pain and suffering and accept that they might prefer to terminate it.
Respect the other. Don’t inflict bodily painful punishments. Don’t use of physical or psychological violence. Don’t insult. Control your aggressiveness. Don’t accept torture under any pretext. Respect yourself and your body and promote hygiene and health in public spaces.
Protect the helpless. In particular care for your elderly and children and avoid their early institutional commitment and abandoning. Protect the sick and safeguard the indispensable care and treatments with dignity, based on medical criteria, not economical. Preserve dignity and respect in death. Be sympathetic.
Consume responsibly. Work to be self-sufficient. Practice a fair consumption towards those that produce the goods, such that they receive a fair price and adequate and decent working conditions. Consider the environmental and social impact of consumer goods in all their life cycle. Minimize waste.
Respect Nature. Don’t kill animals and plants other than for nutritional or medicinal purposes or for the purpose of controlling plagues and deceases. Protect nearly-extinct species. Respect biodiversity and life in general. Contribute for resetting or transferring of green spaces and consider the impact of your actions in the ecosystems. Prevent exhaustion of forest and water resources.
Respect the Environment. Don’t pollute. Don’t create unnecessary garbage. Recycle. Use water and energy responsibly and efficiently. Consider the environmental sustainability of your actions. Don’t leave as a heritage to future generations a worst environment than the one you found.
Do not oppress. Don’t accept or promote any authoritarian or totalitarian forms of government under any pretext (stability, security, nationalism, etc.). History has proven that they are always harmful to populations. Don’t accept imposition on restrictions of free mobility, association and expression. Don’t cooperate or condone in any acts of segregation or genocide.
Get informed. Demand the practice of independent information. Consider the political and economical association of your sources of information. Demand a free (non-politicised), accessible and quality education system. Promote peaceful utilization of science and technology. Promote the defence of History and facts from manipulation for political or economical purposes. Get informed and form your own opinion and participate of public and political life. Preserve cultural wealth and heritages.
Don’t discriminate. Don’t use gender, colour or ethnics, age, health or physical shortcomings, nationality, political, religious, sexual or other preferences as elements to discriminate, neglect, or marginalize groups or individuals from life in society. Accept difference. Fight prejudice. Integrate and include. Promote access to opportunities in equality. Reward merit but support the weak.
Be fair. Use the laws to solve conflicts and punish acts of wickedness. Demand a fair and balanced distribution of wealth, both locally and globally, avoiding accumulation of extremes. Demand and participate in combating poverty. Don’t defend war as a form of aggression towards other people. Defend and support geographical mobility and integration of populations, in particular those originating from hostile or desolate parts of the planet.