Corruption

People complain about corruption, but some say it is just the way things are done. Need a job, take a slice out to pay the guy who hired you. Need to pass school, pay your teacher. No books for school, buy them out of teachers' homes on the black market. Need medical treatment at the hospital, be prepared to pay a doctor to get to the front of the line.

There are plenty of statistics that pertain to corruption and Mozambique, but most of them are really depressing and really just grasp the "how much" without really addressing the "how". Furthermore, those measures of corruption usually only look at the prices payed by foreign companies or NGO's to get permits, licenses, taxes, importations, and everything else.

The National Anti-Corruption Task Force announced that corruption was down on the whole last year. In particular they highlighted the education system as showing a great drop in illegal or improper practices. The general response by the public was that if corruption dropped, it means they just weren't looking hard enough.

One caveat in understand corruption is that the generation in power now came of age on the tail end of communism in Mozambique when bribing was the only way to get anything accomplished. However, as I have seen others that have not experienced that lifestyle come to positions of influence and power, it is remarkable just how unprincipled people are when the shoe is on the other foot. I've talked with teachers that bemoan how hard it is to get a job at a certain school close to their home because all the openings are auctioned off by the administrators and they cry about how corrupt the system is. Then, they turn around and are selling passing grades or offer to give "special help" to kids in need, a phrase which now makes me cringe every time I hear it

Even for that person that may have been until now uncorrupted, when somebody comes with cash in hand it is a very difficult thing to turn town. Especially knowing that, as a cop for example, all you need is about eight or ten very simple modest traffic stops for running a red light, outdated licenses, or improper vehicle maintenance, and you've just matched your monthly salary. 

For the person that is oppressed, it's very easy to cry foul and lament how it is impossible to get a drivers license, pass a class, get a maintenance worker to fix the electricity in your neighborhood, get the government to approve a document, travel freely, or a myriad of other things. Once that person is put in a position of power—whether it be over a classroom, a patient, or an entire populace—the mantra changes from a how awful oppression is to how they have earned the right after having suffered.

Not to pontificate* but one of the observations I've had is the realization that, in many ways, the default position of the human heart is selfishness. In this way, all those who cry about fairness and preach the Golden Rule concern themselves about it most often when they are the offended party. When they (or I) are in the position of control, it is amazing how the attitude changes from, "This is totally unfair and unjust," to being one of, "I had to go through the same thing, it's time for you to pass through this as well."

*I realize that "pontificate" really means to act like the Pope, but let's just use it in the figurative sense. I will not be conferring sainthood upon anybody and I will not be beautifying anybody other than myself. 

Even among Jesus' disciples, there were issues. I'm not certain what kind of background he had, but as soon as Judas was put in charge of the money he started stealing from it. Now, clearly, Judas had some other problems as well, but it just illustrates that many people I see, when given a position of power, use it to solely to remind others they it is they who are in power and you who are inferior to them.

One of the hardest things for a person to do, whether they be a Christian or not, it to shift their attention from him or herself and focus it on Th Other. Biologists would say this goes against self-preservation instincts. Anthropologists would say it destroys the tribal/societal fabric. Psychologists would say it suppresses the ego. Christians would say it is sin, knowing the good to do and yet failing to do it. It is that mindset that is the basis of Good Samaritan laws. They are not "karmic principles". They are not "societal well-being guidelines". It is the principle that you treat others the way you would want to be treated by them, not according to how you have been treated or how others are treating you.

You would think there would be overwhelming empathy and support for kids who live in an orphanage, yet tragically there is not. There are those that actively oppress the orphanage and the kids here because they grew up in difficult conditions and were made to suffer or when their parents died nobody put them in an orphanage or God made them orphans and it is not for us to alleviate their plight. It is dishearteningly sad, but these are real opinions people have, all hearkening back to the idea that selfishness is the natural inclination of the heart.

On the other hand, I must say that I have been absolutely shocked by the generosity and kindheartedness of the people here. People that do help the kids or the orphanage or even me without any regard or thought to what others would do and are so far removed from many of the expectations that society has for who should help and who should be helped.

There is the story of one man that sticks with me. About a year ago he came up to the gate and was carrying a big box of toddlers clothes and toys. He had taken the bus and then walked about a kilometre to get her. He arrived and said he had some extra clothes and toys laying around and his first thought was in giving it to the orphanage for the kids here to wear and play with. I was thanking him and making small talk with him and asked if hid kids had outgrown the clothes or what the occasion was that inspired his offering. He replied that earlier in the week his three year-old son died and he decided to offer the clothes up because he saw it as the better use than holding on and waiting to see if he had another child. I was moved to tears by the fact that this man, his boy having died that same week, would immediately be thinking of others in such a personal and tragic moment such as this.

I'm not so foolish at to say there is a universal sentiment or make a boilerplate statement about attitudes or practices when it comes. But with that, I'm going to make a universal, boilerplate statement that corruption exists because selfishness prevails.