 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem and As-Salaamu Alaykum everyone, welcome back to our module on corporate governance and we are moving forward with the foundation of corporate governance which is the various dimensions and paradigms of ethics, morality, good governance and anti-corruption. Well, ladies and gentlemen, a very important chapter today and that is challenges of living ethically. Now every day as an individual, as a member of a family, as a member of a community or society, as a member of some institution or as a national or citizen of a country or as a global human being, there are different challenges of living ethically and there are different interpretations of living ethically and there are different considerations of living ethically and all of this is affected by norms, by laws, by traditions, by culture, by religion. All of these things are having an influence of us of living ethically and sometimes what is ethically accepted at home might not be ethically accepted in society and what is ethically accepted in society might not be accepted in institution and maybe it might not be accepted globally and we have seen so many examples in all of this. We have seen how there has been a massive segmentation of society whereby, again, we are reverting back to our history where people are known by their tribes, are known by demographics, are known by where they live, are known by their religion, are known by their norms, their rules, their regulations, their own society. So, there is so much of segmentation. Let me just take one example. For example, wearing a hijab or a veil is acceptable at home. It might not be in the office. If it is acceptable in the office, it might not be in society. If it is acceptable in society, it might not be acceptable in some other country. So, it is the same dress but it has multiple implications. Similarly, what we see is that there are other challenges also. There are challenges of practicing religion, of following religion, of interpreting religion and that is where there are so many differences. We also see how in a country there are so many different types of laws. For example, there are about 149 industrial laws or labour laws in Pakistan. Now, who is ever going to find out how many laws there are? Who is going to read them? Who is going to interpret them and then who is going to implement them? And once they are implemented, who is going to understand what are the different implications and the different interpretations of those particular laws? They would differ from situation to situation. So, the labour code is a huge voluminous book which when you look at it, you just can't go through it because it is so huge. So, similarly, there are different challenges. There are challenges of age. There are challenges of demographics. There are challenges of region, of geography. There are challenges of society, of norms, traditions, religion. So, all of these are challenges of living ethically. Many a times, we are in a situation where we feel we should do something, but then due to some compulsion, due to what we say, what will others say syndrome? We will not do it or we will be doing it. Even though we know that we should not be doing it or we should be doing it. Now, these are all challenges of ethical living. So, in the coming sessions what we are going to do is that we are going to try to understand this in a better way. Try to see how things can be done differently and yet accepted. How my freedom ends where the freedom of someone else begins. That is extremely important and that is what we have to comprehend. So, humans are ethical creatures by nature, guided through life by normatic considerations. Even pre-linguistic infants exhibit signs of possessing ethical prototypes that become ethical after a long process of socialization. So, ladies and gentlemen, what we see is that even a little baby, even a little toddler has its own ethical considerations. It knows what is right and what is wrong, what can be done and what cannot be done. And it is through those different notions that he or she later on, through a long process of socialization, of interfacing with society, they understand that whatever their ethical prototype was, now it is a societal norm, whereby society also tends to accept it. So, therefore, even at an age when someone is not speaking, the ethical considerations and the ethical structure and matrix is being developed within that particular human being and is being developed in such a way that it would affect his or her life throughout. So, these are very very important things. Actually, now research is saying that even when the baby is in the mother's womb, the child can perceive. The child starts developing the notions of the world beyond the mother and in the womb, just based upon the different sounds and the chemical reactions of his or her mother, they are able to create an understanding of the world. And that understanding remains in the human being till his or her last day. So, these are different challenges. What we see is that the perpetrators of atrocity typically describe themselves as freedom fighters or something very similar to this from their own perspective. Now, why is it that we see that some people who are called terrorists later on become heroes or some people who are heroes later on become terrorists or some terrorists later on become oblivious altogether? Now, all of this is circumstantial. All of this depends upon the circumstances and the experiences of an individual. And in all of this, what we see is that sometimes perceptions can also change, based upon reality opening up in front of them. But most of the time, we remain glued to our experiences and what we have heard, observed and felt throughout our lives. Even criminals have excuses for the crimes that they commit. So, there is always that element of rationality which is put in and based upon some form of rational people tend to endorse what they are doing and they have an excuse for it. And therefore, they put a blind in front of their eyes, in front of their minds which they tend to then not understand, even though it is so obvious right in front of them. But the obvious becomes the immobvious. The rational becomes the irrational and the irrational becomes the true. So again, there is this immense state of confusion and how do we swim through this confusion? How do we get a better understanding so that we can follow the postulates of values and ethics and morality and differ between what is right and wrong without encroaching upon anyone else and understanding that yes, there is going to be a difference. And in that diversity and in that difference, there will be unity of humanity. That is extremely important ladies and gentlemen. It is rare to come across morally exemplary individuals who try to convince themselves that they are morally bankrupt. This is an evidence that at a basic level, everyone seeks to be ethical. So it is very rare that people will start condemning themselves to be wrong. They will always justify themselves. They will always try to convince others that yes, they are on the right path and they are ethically correct and therefore, they stand on a higher ground. And on one side, it can be a dilemma and it can be a painful truth and in some cases, it could be a tragedy. But on the other hand, it tends to reflect that at least everyone wants to be ethical. We have a statistics that nearly 70 percent of people want to work in an ethically attuned organization. More than 70 percent of consumers don't want to buy products from ethically incorrect or morally corrupt organizations. So these things are there and show that we have an inclination of doing things in the correct way rather than this general perception that you can do anything to be successful. That to be successful, we have to compromise. We have to find shortcuts. We sometimes have to tread on other people's toes or heads. We have to do something wrong to be able to maximize profitability, to optimize performance. But in the long run, ladies and gentlemen, it is always truth that wins. It is always honesty that wins. It is always one's sense of conviction and hard work and perseverance and grit that enable a person to win. To be successful in life and with that success also be content to move forward in a better way. That is what are the challenges of ethical living. And there can be a fudge factor, a term referring to the extent to which one can cheat and still feel good about oneself because of the pull of powerful, countervailing desires. So we tend to fudge our lives. We live in an artificial bubble. We live in a glass house where we can ask that mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most beautiful, handsome and stunning of all and the mirror would reply, you. It would make us feel good. It would make us be happy. But the truth is that we are lying to ourselves. So therefore it is extremely important that we should not lie to ourselves. We should be truthful to ourselves. So at least we can discern in the right way. At least we can distinguish between good and bad, right and wrong, corrupt and incorrupt. Otherwise we will always be swayed by the flow of the water. We will be compromising on values, compromising on truth, compromising on honesty and that would be the devastation of humanity. Therefore we should try to stay away from the fudge factor and move towards the truth factor and that is the real essence of life. Thank you so much.