Re: Views on CORRUPTION in our society

[Kartha1@aol.com]

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The recent earthquake and and subsequent discussions on this topic has
generated a lot of interesting mails.

The corruption is so pervasive in our society and I do not think that
politicians and beauracracy alone are to be blamed. The common people also
succumb and be part of the system to perpetuate it even further. A case in
point is the admission by the builders in Gujarat that they were part of
the problem. The official machinery of the Govt is not spared either. They
have outdated maps and plans.

I made a trip to India during Nov/Dec 2000 and stayed the whole 2 months.
Some examples from my trip experience to illustrate:

1. The CoOptex shopkeeper in Chennai offered me a 25% Deepavali discount
without receipt and the after Deepavali 20% discount with receipt. While I
opted for 20%, the shopkeeper looked at me perplexed. I asked him why he
would even offer the 25% discount, he said a lot of people deal with him
without receipts!

2. I went to book a community hall for a family function where they only
accepted a very small fraction of the rent as a donation for the
Association they were part of without receipt. With no other choice of date
and venue, I accepted to pay the small amount in cash. I have succumbed.

3. When settling accounts with a relative of mine, they would not accept
cheque but only cash. On another occassion, I made them accept cheque.

4. I had an interesting talk with a medical doctor doing his residency. He
admitted how they were being taught one thing in the class and do entirely
different in practice. The Govt hospitals are very poorly managed in terms
of their resources. They are in short supply of disposable syringes! The
disposable syringes for patients are reused with sterilization! The
top-level directors are in swindling money. Many of the workers in the ward
do not do their job right and the resident doctors are overloaded with many
of the roles that a nurse would perform. If you ask them to do their job,
then the caste issue or some other will be raised and they will go on strike.

I asked the resident doctor, why he would not take up the issue. The
answer: it does not work and moreover, there is no time for going after
every issue. They need to do the very best given their resources and try to
do a very good job!

5. While parts of Chennia are being kept clean, the neighborhood where I
was living was not very healthy hygiene-wise. I asked the people in the
apartment complex what they are doing about it. They just live there. While
my father-in-law would manage the apartment complex's need for no fee,
others entrust him with everything and expect him to do all. The neighbors
are not so participative. The street children play cricket in front of the
complex while the nearby playground is being used as a junkyard/toilet for
the poor. Nobody has initiated any action on them.

6. I went to a temple nearby. While hundreds of the deveotees flock, the
neighborhood is not clean! People donate money for the temple while the
surroundings remain unhealthy. An electrician who fixed some problems for
the temple said: "he didn't get paid for his labor and he never went back
to them". But the temple is busy arranging programs for the winter!

7. I also met quite a few inviduals who were unmindful of all this, were
relentless in upholding their values and honesty. My wife lost her handbag
with all the valuables in an autorickshaw and we forgot about it and in the
middle of the night, the autorickshaw driver handed us the handbag with
everything intact. In him, the country rests in balance.

Where are the values? What do we want? Do we care? Why do people walk away
from facing? Is there time to attend to all of these issues? What changes
are needed from the people? Why is everyone pointing to the other to act
upon? Why do we turn our faces away from facing?

I met a friend of mine from Germany and he said: India is not the only
country which faces these kinds of problems. It's there in Italy, Germany
and other parts of the world in various degrees.

While I am not justifying on the grounds that this is a global phenomenon,
the factors that influence our behavior are very nebulous. 

Avarice, poverty, disparity, abundance, rituals without real values,
misplaced priority, caste, righteousness, and so on play a vital role in
forming the behavior of our society.

I may not have put it very coherently. Hope to hear the comments of the
fellow debaters,

thanks,

- mouli





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