The newspaper abounds with reports of corruption, in fact, I do not think they would have enough news to print each day if they were not reporting on corruption. Politicians, police, businessmen, bankers all caught bribing someone or being bribed or skimming or taking kickbacks or emptying bank accounts. Corruption touches everyone's lives here because every dollar pocketed by an official is one less dollar that can be spent on food for the poor or on infrastructure to grow the economy. One estimate suggests the lost opportunity caused by corruption in terms of investment, growth and jobs for India is over US$50 billion a year. According to a report by KPMG, "high-level corruption and scams are now threatening to derail the country's credibility and economy"
Am I claiming that corruption does not exist in NA, absolutely not, but you would need to ask a lot of people in NA before you found one who either offered or was required to bribe. In my own little study leading up to this post, I could not find anyone who had not paid a bribe to one official or another. A recent study estimated that 60% of Indians had paid a bribe (40% to a government official). I speculate that the 40% that did not pay a bribe were probably too poor and simply had to go without. Speaking of the poor, the most recent estimate is that of the funds the government has set aside for the poor, only 15% reaches them. Please refer to my previous post on the Poor and remind yourself this is at least 70% of the population. The most simple daily-routine administrative tasks cannot be performed without a bribe to the civil servant in charge of the paperwork. Indians accept it as a way of life. Corruption is not just systemic in India, it is endemic.
Corruption can kill people too. Reported in The Times of India, recently, 68% of the milk produced is unsafe, tainted at many sources. A tanker truck leaves the dairy farm for the producer, en route some of the milk is siphoned off and replaced with unsafe water. Once the milk is put into bags and shipped again, someone is drawing it out with syringes and replacing it with water again. Empty water bottles are collected and refilled with water to be resold to unsuspecting consumers, especially tourists.
Train officials are paid their bribes based on seniority. The Post Office is completely non-functional. Locals will tell you to NOT use the in-country Postal Service and that only Fee-Based companies such as Fedex and UPS will get your packages where they need to go. I am able to confirm this since I asked my wife to mail me a small care package of Splenda which after two months has yet to arrive. I was with my hosts recently when we were pulled over for a seatbelt violation. They were surprised when the policeman gave them a receipt for the 100rp (1.71Cdn) fine since they had expected him to pocket it. I am bothered when someone is surprised to find an honest policeman.
As usual, I am just reporting the news and my readers know I try to find the humour in every situation. Having never paid nor even been solicited for a bribe, I couldn't find anything funny about this. So if it is not funny then it must be sad. However, you will have to decide which is sadder; the person asking for the bribe or the person willing to give it unquestioningly.
I have a few more Articles which are in the Works but I am interested in where my Readers interests lie. Is there some facet of India Life which I have not explored which you would like to hear about. Let me know.
Am I claiming that corruption does not exist in NA, absolutely not, but you would need to ask a lot of people in NA before you found one who either offered or was required to bribe. In my own little study leading up to this post, I could not find anyone who had not paid a bribe to one official or another. A recent study estimated that 60% of Indians had paid a bribe (40% to a government official). I speculate that the 40% that did not pay a bribe were probably too poor and simply had to go without. Speaking of the poor, the most recent estimate is that of the funds the government has set aside for the poor, only 15% reaches them. Please refer to my previous post on the Poor and remind yourself this is at least 70% of the population. The most simple daily-routine administrative tasks cannot be performed without a bribe to the civil servant in charge of the paperwork. Indians accept it as a way of life. Corruption is not just systemic in India, it is endemic.
Corruption can kill people too. Reported in The Times of India, recently, 68% of the milk produced is unsafe, tainted at many sources. A tanker truck leaves the dairy farm for the producer, en route some of the milk is siphoned off and replaced with unsafe water. Once the milk is put into bags and shipped again, someone is drawing it out with syringes and replacing it with water again. Empty water bottles are collected and refilled with water to be resold to unsuspecting consumers, especially tourists.
Train officials are paid their bribes based on seniority. The Post Office is completely non-functional. Locals will tell you to NOT use the in-country Postal Service and that only Fee-Based companies such as Fedex and UPS will get your packages where they need to go. I am able to confirm this since I asked my wife to mail me a small care package of Splenda which after two months has yet to arrive. I was with my hosts recently when we were pulled over for a seatbelt violation. They were surprised when the policeman gave them a receipt for the 100rp (1.71Cdn) fine since they had expected him to pocket it. I am bothered when someone is surprised to find an honest policeman.
As usual, I am just reporting the news and my readers know I try to find the humour in every situation. Having never paid nor even been solicited for a bribe, I couldn't find anything funny about this. So if it is not funny then it must be sad. However, you will have to decide which is sadder; the person asking for the bribe or the person willing to give it unquestioningly.
I have a few more Articles which are in the Works but I am interested in where my Readers interests lie. Is there some facet of India Life which I have not explored which you would like to hear about. Let me know.
No matter how you slice it...it is sad...and corruption is such a vicious circle that feeds on itself...and it threatens the stability of a democracy, a free economy, and hurts everyone but poor people the hardest.
ReplyDeleteThat said...I decided to do some statistical comparisons (knowing that statistics alone cannot tell the whole story).
$50 billion dollars is lost to corruption annually in India. This works out to~ $37 per person lost on average or ~ 3% of the average annual wage in India. (I realize that corruption does not hit all people or income levels equally but in fact has the worst impact on the poorest...again these numbers aren't meant to tell a story...just make interesting comparisons).
I couldn't find data for Canada / US but worldwide it is estimated that we lose about $1 trillion US/yr due to world wide corruption (about $138 per person or ~ 1.4% worldwide average annual wage).
So although in absolute dollars per capita, India seems to be way below the rest of the world (average), a closer look shows that they are losing DOUBLE the world average as a percent of average income.
This is a double whammy as the economy is at a critical growth / no growth stage while Indian population continues to skyrocket.
Of course, the dollar numbers pale in comparison to the true detrimental effects...people drinking poison milk...eating poison food...essential services and assistance denied to those who need help most...it's scary!
Your example of how surprised everyone was to find an honest cop is a telling example. ...That said, I feel there is much more police corruption in Canada/US than the average 'uneducated' person realizes...the cops are just SMARTER crooks here...not as blatant... smart enough to not shake down honest citizens, because honest citizens are hard to (consistently) keep quiet....shake down the criminals who are powerless to "go to the authorities". Not ALL cops...
Most all cops are lazy and not above railroading someone rather than doing honest investigative work...the non- lazy ones don't last because promotions are given based on # of successful arrests...honest investigation is thus inherently penalized in favour of less honest cops taking shortcuts.
But I believe a lot smaller (but still very significant number!) go to the next step and pocket cash or other 'fringe benefits' at the expense of others....again, sad.
Then there are the government sanctioned corruptions....speeding tickets/parking tickets etc. used as 'cash cows' to fill local and state/provincial government coffers...Casinos (and other forms of state sanctioned gambling) are another hypocritical government sanction...private gambling is outlawed because it is a vice that takes unfair advantage of people, yet "government" sponsored gambling is perfectly legal...and somehow not hypocritical...drugs are illegal but alcohol is OK because it is heavily taxed etc. etc. Income tax has just become a legalized way for governments to STEAL.
But getting back to the numbers above...(and this assumes it's even remotely possible to come up with accurate numbers!...I mean, you can't take a poll of politicians to see how many have accepted bribes!), one might ask what's the solution??
ReplyDelete...I don't have one...beyond trying to live my own personal life as honestly (and I realize the term "honesty" is a very subjective one subject to personal bias & human rationalizations) as possible and teaching/encouraging others to do the same, I don't know what more to do.
One can try to remove temptations, have checks and balances so no one individual is in a position to take illicit funds etc. but this is an imperfect and cumbersome solution that all too often takes motivation to implement from the very people engaging in the corrupt practices!
The only POSSIBLE solution I can see is to use people's self interest to advantage. People engage in corruption out of self interest, make it so it's in their self interest NOT to be dishonest....but alas this isn't a true solution as I have no idea what such a system of doing things would look like or how one would begin to implement it.
Sad...
UPDATE!
Case in point: http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities/
This CNN report (video) is an investigative report on a charity that seems corrupt. It's a long video but worth watching as it illustrates how hard it is to stop corruption and what penalties honest people incur trying to right wrongs.
Apparently this charity was taking in millions of dollars (120 million over 5 years) and only paid out a measly 3% to actual charitable programs...the rest was "paid" to fundraisers....
ASIDE: out of curiosity I Googled "Canadian Feed The Children" and Wikipedia says 82% went/goes to charitable programs with 18% covering fundraising costs (13%) and administration (5%)..Wikipedia tends to be a reliable source, however, I find these percentages hard to believe since when I worked for them, I estimated ~50% of donations went to pay the fundraisers... but this was not under the table money but actual taxable income AND every dollar raised (even with 50 cents of it going to pay fundraisers) bought a whole entire breakfast meal for an otherwise hungry child....but either way, the percentages here were WAY ABOVE 3%!!!
In watching the video, I have no problem with fundraisers being paid...paid fundraisers are way more successful at fundraising than "volunteer" fundraisers...(it's better to have 50% of a substantial amount than 100% of a near zero amount).
BUT in the case of the charity in the video..there were several fundraising companies paid (millions) of which the OWNER was the founder of the charity!!!
And with the investigative reporting, this man has re-submitted his tax returns to now show this (previously hidden) income saying that it was an "accidental omission"!
Anyways, more to the point, this girl who'd worked there for 6 months noticed the money discrepancies and reported it to the board of directors.
She was fired within 45 minutes. The foundation also reported her to the FBI saying she had stolen confidential documents and also stole credit card numbers... (all false). The foundation also initiated a lawsuit against her, And the FBI raided her house with guns drawn!!! (in front of her startled husband, frightened children and terrified dogs). All her home computers, and paper records were confiscated.
She has since been cleared of all charges, but I assume she's still on the hook for a ton of legal bills stemming from the company's totally false accusations and lawsuit.
Sad...specifically, it's sad that the most honest people (the whistle blowers) are the most penalized and demonized.