Corruption Isn't What You Think
We barely hear news about corruption happening in Canada. Therefore, very few of us know what "corruption" really is. Some people, when they hear the term 'corruption' they generally think of "illegal use of tax money," or "bribing people to vote for them." Yes, those are classified as an act of corruption, but there's more than one type of being 'corrupt.' Like for example, simply using personal connections to obtain personal favors is classified as 'petty corruption.' Corruption may include activities like: bribery, embezzlement, fraud and etc.
Now that you have a pretty good idea about the real meaning of the term, let's get to what I'm trying to get across. If you look at the above picture, you can see the map of the world colored with shades of red, orange and yellow. The countries shaded in with yellow, means that there's little to no perception of corruption. Countries shaded in red indicate higher perception of corruption.
As you can see, more countries are shaded in red than yellow. However, countries like Sudan, Chad and Afghanistan are colored in a more intense shade of red, because there's a lot of corruption going on in these areas.
Some people, believe that corruption helps "get things done" and "keep people employed." Yes, it keeps the government officials employed with what cost? The freedom of individuals.
The big question is, why isn't anyone doing anything to stop this? Probably because, for the most part, the government is the one responsible for all the corruption. Once they start it, they won't be able to stop. I mean corruption is for their own benefits. They embezzle the money that was supposed to be going out to the country for their own luxurious needs. They live in castles, with swimming pools and wine bars. I mean, who wouldn't love that?
If I look at it from a different point of view, and put myself in the government officials' shoes, then maybe I would understand why they would be doing this. MAYBE it's because they just have a lot of relatives depending on them and therefore they get the pressure to feed them. MAYBE they just got tempted by all of the money coming in. MAYBE they're just plain selfish.
Whatever their reason is, aren't there better ways to feed your family? Aren't there better ways to feed your own needs? Ways that doesn't involve robbing people the money they worked hard for, and the freedom that they are entitled to.
ALee i like the topic you choose I really found the information you gave useful in expressing your ideas. But still I would like to ask a couple of questions about the corruption. Does the money of corruption only comes from the taxes or are there any other sources of it? After reading your blog post I am really curious to know if in these cases of corruption people in poor countries like Sudan should pay taxes to the government if they know what the government is doing with it?
ReplyDeleteThank you! As for your questions.
Delete"Does the money of corruption only comes from the taxes or are there any other sources of it?"
- There are many varieties of corruption. Like bribery, embezzlement, etc. But the one I chose to write about is political corruption. I don't know any other sources where the money used for political corruption would come from. S
"In these cases of corruption people in poor countries like Sudan should pay taxes to the government if they know what the government is doing with it?"
- That's the issue! Most countries doesn't even know that corruption is happening. Even though they know, they are still inferior compared to the government. Therefore if they choose not to pay taxes, they will get hunted down and thrown to jail or worse, they will be killed. Some countries are standing up to it though by having a civil war etc. still this involves death.