Most of us rage against multinational corporations avoiding taxes.
Most of us rage against multinational corporations avoiding taxes.
COMMENT:
Morals and money move on separate but parallel paths and when they cross it can get very messy.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, usually abbreviated to PwC, is currently checking its moral balance sheet and dealings with Isabel Dos Santos, the daughter of the former President of Angola.
The release of the LuandaLeaks has revealed the complex web of financial manoeuvres that made her the richest woman in Africa.
Her response: "I can say my holdings are commercial, there are no proceeds from contracts or public contracts or money that has been deviated from other funds."
Meanwhile PwC, who the leaked documents show were up to their neckties in financial consulting with Dos Santos, have suddenly gone all contrite.
The chairman of PwC is saying there will be consequences for company staff who are found to have been complicit in aiding in the siphoned of huge sums out of Angola to enrich Dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo.
The PwC Chairman is dismayed and saying that "heads might roll" at what is one of the biggest global corporations.
The opening question was to the audience asking them to indicate what type of anti-social behaviour would tip the moral scales against an artist?
It was interesting to note that very few thought that an author/ artist /musician who did not pay their taxes was bad enough to stop buying their books, art or music.
There seemed to some moral slippage involved in that most of us rage against multinational corporations avoiding taxes but think it is a different moral outlook if you are a "creative" person.
In this context the notion of creative accounting takes on another meaning.
It was agreed that robbery, in the form of plagiarism or stealing other peoples creative work was a moral infringement.
Further along the moral continuum, where the issues were a different degree of bad behaviour, there were mixed views.
Wax figure of Michael Jackson in Madame Tussauds Wax museum in Amsterdam
Some thought that great work still trumped known transgressive behaviours.
An example being Michael Jackson's music and the serious allegations about abuse of children.
These days the Sorry-Go-Round moves very fast. It cycles through discovery, denial, apology, talk show redemption and return as the media focuses their attention on the next to take the ride.
In the moral swamplands of international finance tackling transgressions is more like a wash cycle.
Dirty laundry is soaked in morality powder, put through the PR whitewash, someone is hung out to dry, folded and stashed out of sight until the next incident becomes public. For tough stains - rinse and repeat.
*Terry Sarten (aka Tel) is a writer, musician and social worker.
