{"id":854,"date":"2017-05-27T09:34:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T13:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/?p=854"},"modified":"2017-10-25T11:22:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:22:35","slug":"what-is-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"What is corruption?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne man\u2019s corruption is another man\u2019s wealth redistribution system. I find it hard to judge others on this.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What is corruption?<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is pretty much low hanging fruit, I know, and way past due.<\/p>\n

Impacting how the aid sector responds to corruption<\/strong>
\nMy simple thesis in this post is that as the entire humanitarian sector deals with corruption of various kinds, the Trump administration, a perfect example of what some might call nepotism<\/a>,\u00a0is providing a model -justification?- for other leaders around the world thus making it ever more difficult for aid workers at all levels to confront these behaviors.<\/p>\n

The negative, unintended consequence\u00a0of this US example is that it gives great support to arguments -at all levels, from the village to the Presidency- \u00a0that hiring family and friends despite lack of qualifications is acceptable.\u00a0This<\/a> NY Times\u00a0story\u00a0puts Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the middle of the Russia investigation, and provides an example of how nepotism can play out.<\/p>\n

Why OK there and not here?<\/strong>
\nHow does a country director anywhere in the world deal with the very simple and compelling question, “if is is OK in the US why isn’t it OK here?”\u00a0Laws in the US\u00a0regarding the legality of this apparent favoritism and nepotism in the current US administration\u00a0are not clear, at least to some, but at the very least the past 6 months in the US seen\u00a0behaviors modeled at the highest levels that lie in direct opposition to how, for example, the global north would have governments in the global south to function.<\/p>\n

In the survey the J (Evil Genius<\/a>) and I completed in 2014 we asked about corruption<\/a>\u00a0and many aid workers had some very astute observations. Here’s one:<\/p>\n

This respondent, a thirty-something female, further critiques the development sector and waxes poetic about the nature of the human condition, imperialism and the fine\u00a0semantic distinctions that arise when talking about corruption:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the organisation, it is bloated with money and many people simply gorge at the trough of development aid. I am thankfully removed from this in my field, I have little reason to interact with others in my organisation. I do see the old boys network everywhere, the British upper middle classes in particular seem to have taken over other organisations, such as parts of the UN for example. Corruption is endemic to the human condition however. Regarding the region (mostly Africa) \u2013 there is a fine line between helping ones friends and families and corruption, in some cultural contexts this line is not where we expect. It is imperialism to impose our values on others like this when we have so much \u2018acceptable\u2019 corruption in our own private and public sector. We should get our own house in order (for me, the UK) before we judge others.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>[emphasis added]<\/p>\n

Positive direction
\n<\/strong>This issue is complicated at best. \u00a0Perhaps what we need are policies\u00a0-both internationally and in the US- which articulate\u00a0specific qualification\u00a0rubrics for making appointments of influence by Presidents and other leaders. \u00a0These rubrics would not necessarily disqualify friends and family, but would move in a direction where they would have to at least meet basic qualifications. \u00a0Simply having them go through any transparent vetting process at all would serve a very positive function. \u00a0Indeed, we need to ‘get our own house in order’ so as to better model for others.<\/p>\n

Going one step further, perhaps there should be basic numeracy and literacy tests for leaders in general, but I digress.<\/p>\n

Back to our regular programming soon. \u00a0In the meantime, contact me<\/a> with comment or feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne man\u2019s corruption is another man\u2019s wealth redistribution system. I find it hard to judge others on this.\u201d What is corruption? This is pretty much low hanging fruit, I know, and way past due. Impacting how the aid sector responds to corruption My simple thesis in this post is that as the entire humanitarian sector … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What is corruption?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172089],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-filipino-aid-workers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elon.edu\/aidworkervoices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}