Thursday, October 22. 2020

Today's schedule is: 

9:15 - 11:50 D Block Social and Environmental Sciences

12:30 - 3:05 A Block Criminology

D Block Social and Environmental Sciences - Today we conduct the student vote in classrooms. Our class has distributed ballots in advance to all participating classrooms along with ballot envelopes. At the beginning of homeroom class, each teacher hands out ballots to students in their D Block class. Students vote immediately at their desks, and the teacher will collect the ballots shortly after with an envelope. We will send runners (returning officers - you) to collect the ballot envelopes from all teachers in the school. All envelopes are then taken to the returning office (room 115). There, we'll check and then count the votes. I will forward the results to CIVIX and Student Vote Canada. This will take the first part of class...After you may work on your water conflict poster. If you think...I'm done, ask yourself "did I answer all the questions Benton and Young asked of me?" Look at Tuesday and Wednesday's blog post to check out the questions. Now if you think...yes I answered them, ask yourself is there anything I missed in answering the questions?" Will Benton and Young say, "Did you think of this?" Like in point 1 where you're asked what happens as a result of water disputes you need to look at the area in question and see if political instability, social unrest, economic downturn, heavy unemployment, or civil warfare is connected to the water crisis. Be specific...what are the effects of a water conflict besides a lack of clean fresh water. Did you do that? Remember that your answers to solutions for the conflict (point 6) need to be concrete (doable) and need to address all stakeholders. Did you consider that? Don't forget a sources cited section on the back of your poster. Did you do that? So really check to see that you're actually done, right?

A Block Criminology - Remember, not all business is bad but we do need to understand the "corporate view" of white collar criminal activity. What is it that makes a successful business person and what kind of ethical behaviour is valued by corporate culture? I'm going to show you a television show called White Collar. Before we do, however:

From USA network:

White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffery (Matt Boomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay). When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law.

The episode I’d like you to show is called Hard Sell from season 1, which deals with stock manipulation and churning the value of stock in a boiler room (metaphor). From tv.com...

The scam is a "pump and dump", in which a group of "junior Gordon Gekkos" is selling bad stock. The guy in charge buys a large amount of dollar stocks, and has his men inflate the price by selling it over the phone. When the price peaks, guy in charge dumps the stock and leaves the buyers holding worthless shares. The average person loses $30,000, and some victims have lost their homes. The boiler room is mobile, moving to a new location after each stock dump 

 

You will need to work on the following questions: 

From Wednesday

1. Is it fair to blame a single executive for the activities of a company that has thousands of employees? 
2. Can Corporations Commit Murder? If a corporation is considered as a person in law (as it is in the US) who can be held liable (responsible) if a corporation kills people? 
3.  Recall 10 or more brands, their logos, their jingles, slogans, and any memory of the product (think Nike = swoosh = "just do it"). Do you know who owns the brand? What is your perception of this "brand"? 
4. The documentary raises important questions about ethics and personal responsibility. One of the fundamental messages in the film is that corporations are irresponsible because in an attempt to satisfy corporate goals, everyone else is put at risk. To what extent is a person responsible for what they do even when within a company? Is a person morally culpable for their actions when satisfying the goal of profit within a corporation? Why or why not?

 From Tuesday

You'll have four questions to answer for me:

1. What’s the psychology behind the con and what can we learn from it?  
2. How does a con man identify a mark?  
3. What are the four phases of a con game?  
4. What is the one fact that instantly makes you harder to con?