http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29170560

The article above describes how Malaysian Airlines, along with other major airline companies, such as Emirates, claims that at the time of its flight MH17 was shot down in the eastern Ukraine, they were unaware of missiles being present in that area. Nevertheless British Airways and other airlines were avoiding flying over that region as they knew (based on the information available “publicly”) there were dangerous weaponry present in the area.

This is more of a political topic, than a business one, however by reading this article, a couple of things came up, that I wanted to mention here.

First of all, this is clearly a publicity move, meant to take the blame away from Malaysian Airlines; who, based on two tragic accidents in one year, are now loosing business and the shares have dropped in the past 5 months. Unfortunately, this only contributes towards the bad reputation of Malaysian Airlines, as it is their responsibility as a large firm to be aware of the global situation and avoid any situation that is going to in any way endanger their clients.

Second of all, the unrest in Ukraine began during the fall months in 2013, and went viral internationally. The fact that a large company, such as Malaysian Airlines “didn’t know” that there are dangerous weaponry in the area of a serious unrest is plain ridiculous.

An article from The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/10/energy-consumption-behind-smart-phone

Nowadays, technology is extremely advanced and widely used all over the world. It is no surprise that the market base for cellphone companies is extremely wide, as a life without cellphone in the modern world is not only difficult but somewhat impossible. One of the promotions that we often hear is that by using out cellphones to read newspapers, books, etc., we save our planet’s atmosphere, as less trees are being cut to produce paper to print the above listed items. However as this article points out, cellphones aren’t as “green” as the makers advertise them to be.

The truth is that pressure groups are demanding from cellphone companies to lower their environmental footprint. In my opinion, they should be socially responsible, in order to attract their customers, and if famous newspapers (such as The Guardian) start to point out their unethical behaviour, it will soon reflect on their sales. On the contrary, cellphones are not only wanted, but needed, therefore the fact that sales will drop is questionable.

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