The Janplex Post

Payday lenders operate legally in the United Kingdom. However, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of the Anglican church, last week made a statement that did not accuse these lenders of operating illegally but accused them of acting immorally. He criticised the payday lenders for preying on the most vulnerable people in society through high interest rates on cash loans. He vowed that his church was going to set up credit unions to compete with payday lenders and drive them out of business. This statement raises the issue about the extent of morality in business. Payday lenders such as Wonga and Quick Quid are accused of not applying the principles of morality when offering cash loans to borrowers but only tend to consider their own financial gains from such transactions. The principles of morality are associated with the distinction between good and bad or right and wrong. However, this criticism may not be justified on the ground that the primary objective of running a business is ...

Prior to the birth of the baby boy into the British royal family yesterday, the world media had acted as if there were no other newsworthy items to report to their audiences. They had camped around the hospital, Queen Mary's Hospital, where the future king was born for weeks before the birth. Following the birth, this media went viral. Important news items were suspended to broadcast the good news. Some observers, however, are not happy that a lot of time and resources had been devoted by the media to the stories of the birth of the future king and question whether the royal baby deserves the attention of people outside of the royal family. The media had every reason to show great interest in the newly born royal baby boy even before he was born because they have a great stake in the birth. Both viewers of televisions and readers of newspapers or magazines like sensational stories. The media had camped around the hospital where the baby boy was delivered to sensationalize...

Last year there was food scandal involving the selling of horsemeat as beef to consumers. The scandal implicated a number of British supermarkets including Tesco, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland which were selling beef products contaminated with horsemeat. The vast majority of people were surprised about the extent of this malpractice but were not too alarmed over the revelation. Almost one year has elapsed since the scandal and nothing serious has been done about the case. Should we consider this revelation involving the substitution of horsemeat for beef very seriously and should the government do more to reduce the chances of it recurring? When interviewed, a number of people stated that the selling of horsemeat as beef is a tip of the iceberg in terms of malpractices that occur within the meat industry. They concluded that the industry is too large and the government cannot do anything about it. It is true that the extent of food malpractice in the meat industry may be more widesp...

State prosecutors often try to prosecute as many suspects of crimes as possible not only to punish such offenders but also to reduce the risk of their re-offending and deter commissioning of crimes. They can do unthinkable things while trying to apprehend such perpetrators of crimes and present misleading perception that lawbreakers are being held accountable for their crimes. As a result many people tend to be wrongly convicted of crimes for which they did not commit. The cases of Birmingham Six (1989), Guildford four (1991), and Bridgwater Four (1997) in the United Kingdom clearly demonstrate this point. In all of these cases the victims were prosecuted, found guilty and incarcerated for offences they did not commit. Following these incidents the British government has enacted law governing the type of evidence that can be used in prosecution of crime suspects and how such evidence can be gathered during investigations. There is a provision for compensation of people wrongly co...

The concept of democracy within western society is very easy to comprehend. The party that wins majority of votes forms the government. What that counts as majority of votes depends on the law governing elections within the respective countries. In some countries, winning majority of votes involves getting just over 50 % of the total votes after elections. In others, it involves winning two thirds of the total votes in elections. If there is no party that wins the majority of votes following elections, two or more parties can team up to form a coalition government. This is the only form of democratic process being advocated for and practiced by the west. When it comes to non western countries, however, it seems that a different concept of democracy is being advocated for them by western and other world leaders. A typical country to illustrate that a different concept of democracy is advocated for non western countries by their western counterparts is Egypt. Last week the pr...

When the news of US spying program was leaked by Edward Snowden France was one of the few European countries that openly expressed dissatisfaction with the program and called on US to provide an explanation for the program. France also threatened to derail the talks on free trade between US and Europe if US did not come out clean with the allegation. Subsequent events however have shown that France was disingenuous with its reaction to the spying scandal. France did not allow the air plane carrying the Bolivian president to enter into French airspace. The assumption was that the whistleblower who leaked the spying program was onboard the aircraft. Observers could hardly understand why France who was furious over the US snooping program could disallow the aircraft carrying the passenger who had leaked the secret from entering into French airspace. The only possible explanation was that France was acting under the instruction of the United States. It is interesting to note that...

Two weeks ago Edward Snowden, a former CIA analyst, leaked the extent of the spying program (The Prism) masterminded by the government of United States. The Prism program involved collecting information about internet activity and phone calls made by people around the world. It also involved bugging the offices of the EU allies in US and Brussels. Following this revelation the United States has indicted the whistle-blower on counts of espionage and has also put pressure on countries that intend to offer asylum to the whistle-blower to reject his application for asylum. Considering its history on issues relating to refugees and espionage acts the United States can be considered to be a hypocrite. Since Second World War the United States has been in the forefront of countries that offer asylum to refugees. It offered asylum to large numbers of refugees from Europe who were fleeing from Nazi persecution. It had also provided refuge to hundreds of thousands of refugees from war ra...