Corruption: The Descent into Hell

Here are some really dark and disturbing statistics.

1) Recent estimates from UNICEF (2006) state that each year, under nutrition contributes to the deaths of about 5.6 million children under the age of five.
2) Malaria is estimated to cause around 3 -5 million deaths annually
3) AIDs is responsible for 5% of deaths worldwide and caused 2.3 – 2.5 million deaths in 2003.
4) 1.1 billion people lack good, clean water supplies, and 2.7 billion have no access to proper sanitation

In the view of these issues confronting the world the Copenhagen Consensus in 2004 & 2008 investigated the various options to address the problems facing the world. The Copenhagen Consensus tried to identify the top 3 problems that would need to be addressed assuming that $50 billion was available at its disposal to solve these problems. Based on their analysis it was identified that HIV/AIDs, malnutrition, trade development and malaria were the top 4 issues that should be addressed for maximum effect.
Now in the light of these pressing problems of the world I would like to take a look at the issue of corruption in public life by those in power.
What level of depravity would a person have to descend to in order to amass wealth for himself, his kith and kin and his descendants through wrongful means and deprive millions of their share? How can a person ignore the problems of everybody else and only focus on hoarding wealth through illegal means.
Corruption truly indicates a distorted view of oneself and the world. It is truly the height of selfishness. The corrupt politician not only lacks a heart but is also probably blind. If not he/she would definitely would be aware of the poverty and problems facing society and he would not cheat the world.
In this world where millions are starving, children are undernourished and malnourished, and a large section of the population lack clean drinking water we have politicians who cheat the country and its people of billions of dollars and stash it in foreign banks. How heartless can these people be?
I guess the Copenhagen Consensus could be given its $50 billion if we could only recover the billions of ill-gotten wealth from the corrupt politicians and put the money to good use in solving the problems of the world.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *