Corruption is not a small problem in Egypt and, in fact, threatens to undermine the state. The finance committee of the Egyptian parliament’s upper house, the Shura Council, confirmed this in a recently released report that has reportedly “created a firestorm.” In it, committee members conclude that corruption is the “main reason” for Egypt’s worsening financial situation. So much money is being stolen, the report claims, that the “growth rate of government debt went from 10.4% before the revolution to 17.5% after,” and public debt “would soon surpass safe limits according to international standards.”
From ‘Corruption: The Modern-Day Plague of Egypt’ by Stephen Brown in frontpagemag.com
Political corruption describes abuse of public office for personal gain, like receiving bribes; using insider information; peddling influence; accepting gifts; cronyism and nepotism and engaging in conflicts of interest. It cheats a nation of resources for its development. Corruption takes food from the mouth of the poor. It threatens every citizen. This disease has been infesting Trinidad and Tobago for the past 50 years. There are no signs of abatement. Corruption is now more rampant than ever. It is tragic and troubling. Whilst ordinary citizens struggle for survival, corrupt public officials wheel, deal and steal hundreds of millions. They are as evil as murderers prowling at night. They prowl day and night, murdering the nation’s future. They look so decent: jacketed or perfumed and pretty, smiling at the cameras, feigning care and concern. But they are incarnations of deceit, wolves in sheep’s clothing, serpents underneath; totally conscienceless, uncaring of people and poverty; and untroubled by the looming threats to the nation’s viability.
From ‘Our Deeper Corruption’ by Ralph Miraj in Trinadad Express
The consequences of tax evasion in South Africa are swift and severe. The consequences of corruption and maladministration are not. The current system demands our tax money . . . with such incredibly efficiency that one is tempted to be proud. Yet that money lands in the pockets of the genetically and socially connected, while the national government pretends to have its hands tied behind its back.
From ‘Corruption threatens my liberties’ by Zama Ndlovu in news24.com
As an education journalist, I have watched Jerry Sandusky’s downfall with a mixture of horror and fascination. But as a graduate school alumna of Penn State, it has been difficult to separate my own experiences as a student and instructor from what I am seeing in the news. Based on my own observations of abuse and misconduct while at Penn State – none of them related to the football program – I have every reason to suspect that the allegations released last November, and the punishments leveled just this week, mark only the beginning of a long and painful fall from grace for the institution as a whole. After all, Sandusky is just one man, but it took a proverbial village to hide three decades of overt abuse.
From ‘One Woman’s Account of How Abuse, Corruption and Silence at Penn State Perpetuate a Poisonous Culture’ by Kristin Rawls in AlterNet
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