Information Related to "Corruption: A Way of Life for Much of the World"
Good News subscriptionAudio/Video
view Beyond Today

Corruption: A Way of Life for Much of the World


by Melvin Rhodes
Writing of her childhood in Africa, Alexandra Fuller remembered the land reforms that took place in many African nations following
independence from European colonialism.

"This is how land redistribution goes. First, the nice farms, near the city, are given to (the president’s) political allies.

"Then, the nice farms far from the city are given to those politicians whom (the president) must appease, but who are not best-beloved.

"After that, the productive, tucked-away farms are given to worthy war veterans—to the men, and a few women, who showed themselves to be brave liberation strugglers.

"Then farms like ours—dangerously close to existing minefields, . . . with sporadic rains, unreliable soil, a history of bad luck—are given to (the president’s) enemies, whom he is pretending to appease" (Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, 2001, p. 151).

Those who needed help the most, the African peasants who daily struggle for existence, were left out.

Such corruption is all too prevalent throughout Africa, where the vast majority are penniless peasants while a ruling minority have made huge personal gains in the name of liberation. As Ghanaian writer George Ayittey put it: "In Africa there are two classes of people: the real people (the peasants) and the parasitic elites" (Africa Betrayed, p. xvii, 1992).

After independence, many African leaders amassed vast fortunes at the expense of their own people. Subsequent poverty and economic collapse were then blamed on the former colonial power or on Western "imperialism." Government officials and policemen asking for bribes became common—and still are. I can attest to this based on my own firsthand experience living in Africa.

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn40/corruption_world.htm


Related Information on UCG Sites:

Table of Contents that includes "Corruption: A Way of Life for Much of the World"
Other Articles by Melvin Rhodes

Corruption:

Government: Africa: Search Our Site
Key Subjects Index
General Topics Index
Biblical References Index
Good News Magazine Index
Booklets and All Literature Index
Home Page of this site