The Heavy Cost Of Corruption

“Wealth without work” was described by Mahatma Gandhi as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”; the others being, “Pleasure without conscience, Science without humanity, Knowledge without character, Politics without principle, Commerce without morality, and Worship without sacrifice”.

These seven deadly sins perfectly define the misery that is brought about by corruption. The love of wealth without sweat has rendered human life useless. It has made life cheap and expendable.

The Seven Deadly Sins have made it very dangerous to step outside the house every morning of every single day; the reason being the myriad life-threatening possibilities.

The possibilities include being shot dead during an armed robbery; but the murderers get away with it when money changes hands between the law breakers and the law enforcers.

Or the death of dozens due to the crash of some recklessly driven un-roadworthy matatu whose owner has bribed for the matatu to skip inspections and posses a road license; but when money changes hands between the law breaker and the law enforcers, the owner gets away with it a second time and is exonerated of the crime of causing the deaths.

Or the many patients who die needlessly while undergoing ‘medical care’ at health facilities; in the hands of a newly minted ‘doctor’ who does not qualify to be in any medical facility because he only became a ‘doctor’ because the rich parents bribed so that their poorly graded student child could smoothly sail through school and university; and the examination authorities cheated and lied that the ‘doctor’ “passed” exams with flying colors.

This ‘doctor’ is then unleashed on an unsuspecting public, leaving behind dead bodies because the patient received the wrong medication; or because of poor diagnosis; or because the patient was wrongfully tagged to undergo brain surgery while the problem was in the abdomen. But the ‘doctor’ gets away with it when money changes hands between the law breakers, the lawyers, and the judges.

Society is paying the ultimate price because of obsession and need to cut corners and get rich no matter what; circumventing all attempts that require one to go the long but right haul.

And this goes on and on covering all professions; not just the doctors, police, lawyers and judges. Buildings are collapsing due to poor supervision by architects and engineers.

Society is eating poisoned food, deliberately or otherwise, because of unethical practices during its production, testing, packaging and marketing.

There is increased insecurity and terrorism because of laxity in security operations as a result of money changing hands at various levels of the security and defense setup and organs.

But the root cause of all the ills is society’s inability to call out the corrupt, the thieves, the charlatans; and the result is that there is danger lurking every morning of every single day because society has chosen to ignore, and accommodate, “The Seven Deadly Sins”.

But again, they say that, “Money makes the world go round”. While others say that money can’t buy happiness but it’s more comfortable to cry in a BMW than on a bicycle; and that one can never pay bills with a hug, with a kiss. But maybe one day, society will change its mindset and priorities, and realize that the best wealth cannot be purchased using money; and this best wealth includes happiness and contentment.