THE WORST ENEMY OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IS THE BEST FRIEND OF DEVELOPED ONES!
I would like to talk about a subject that might not be strange for you, you might even read about it in the news this morning while you were having your coffee (which is probably organic or comes from Africa, or Brazil, or a developing country – because you like to feel you’re helping), but of course the subject didn’t surprise you, as it is part of everyday life, something rooted in our society, and I’m even tempted to say that is as old as humanity itself.
The subject (I’m sure you’ve got it by now) is corruption. Or rather corruption, bribes and lack of transparency, which are one of the most searched words on line, just check the amount of hits you’ll get on Google (corruption ≈ 150 000 000 hits, bribery 15 000 000 hits), really impressive! According to World Bank estimates,[1] more than one trillion dollars are paid in bribes every year around the world,[2] worsening the already poor unsupportable conditions in Third World Countries.
Since Bribery and corruption have both a Demand and a Supply, you’ll find out unsurprisingly that the “suppliers” are mostly greedy corporate unethical business as well as the unscrupulous common man. On the other hand, the “Demand” is mostly composed of politicians, bureaucrats, civil servants and of course, all those who have a little power (vested with hided purposes), However the remaining question is, where are these bribes going and where are they coming from? Without forgetting – what are they buying?
Before answering this questions, you have to understand that corruption does not come alone, it comes accompanied by two different problems, the first is to be found in the large uncontrolled global market, and the second- the easier to detect, although the most difficult to resolve, is the capacity of the governments and their institutions to govern and shape their economies. In other words, it is the failing governance, which you can see in areas such as the destruction of the environment (with the exploitation of natural resources, climate change), social disparities, economic development and the areas where a reintroduction of the primacy of politics into the economy are needed.
Nevertheless the area in where you can really see this failure of governance is in the fighting against fraud, bribery, corruption and its impact on society.
Who bribes who? I’m tempted to say that the ordinary man, the common citizen does not wake up every morning thinking “hmm, let me think, who can I bribe today?” Or “who can I corrupt today?” Most of the time, if the common man finds himself with no option than bribery, it is due to the failure of the system. For example, in countries where corruption is present in all levels of government, if you’re asked to pay a bribe in order to get something done, you can’t just say “I’m not paying it” or call 911 to report it (because, lets face it, they’ll be corrupt as well…), you don’t want to pay it, but on the other hand you really need this done and you’re running out of time, so you’re forced to bribe, even if you don’t feel like it. This isn’t just the situation in developing countries, in our modern world where time is money and just surviving is tough enough, the common man basically pays the bribe to get on with his normal life, but is this an excuse?
In the last decade, civil society began to worry about this situation and to think about an escape of this negative circle. As a result a NGO called Transparency International started to explain to stakeholders (States, companies and communities) how much it would be in their interest if they would stop bribing.
Nevertheless, powerful governments were unable to forbid national companies making bribes to foreign countries as those companies would lose major contracts to their foreign competitors and hence, pay less tax to their home government. In addition many companies believe that they are helping poor countries by producing cheap high-quality products and by paying governments to have the exclusivity of their markets or to have the privilege to exploit their natural resources. In countries such as Germany it wasn’t allowed to bribe a civil servant but it was permitted to bribe a deputy.
Developing countries are always pointed out by pedantic developed countries as weak, ungovernable and corrupts forgetting the failures in their own country. Economists also say that economic wealth comes from a combination of man-made (roads, factories, machines), human (hard work and education) and technological resources, but they seem to forget that all of these resources are useless without transparency. In a world that is illuminated 24h a day, that is almost transparent with blogs, networks, tweets-where people share every part of their lives, it’s important to work for a more transparent world. The magical triangle formed by civil society, governments and the private sector should work harder for it!!
Ingryd Perez
Ingryd Perez
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