MORALITY has a business case .

As the tear gas and battle smoke in the streets of Burma begins to clear, for now, many who favour the status quo will be hoping everything returns to normal. Include among them multinational engineering and energy giants such as Total (France), Chevron (the US) and even a handful of small Australian companies. The fact that what passes for normality is persecution and suppression may well be lost on them. The leaders of those companies may be making one of the biggest mistakes of their lives.

In Burma and in Iran (Total again, Statoil, Petrochina, etc) there is considerable debate over how businesses should act. To paraphrase Joe Strummer, should they stay or should they go?