Taming the Humanly Untamable Beast — Corruption
SubTitle: The Biden Administration’s Approach to Corruption in Central America and Its Relevance to African Policy
Whether it is in Central America or in Sub-Saharan Africa, as the leaders change, the beast fattens, becomes more deceptive and less tamable by human persuasions or wisdom. That beast is corruption.
Vice President Kamala Harris has the unenviable task of trying to at least punch a hole or a crack in this formidable brick wall of corruption in Guatemala and other nations in the Northern Triangle of Central America.
This article is not intended to be a sullen appraisal of the efforts of the Biden Administration to bridle corruption and mitigate the suffering of the masses in Central America.
It is written from the viewpoint of a ground floor participant/observer of the failed attempts by a legion of well-meaning benefactors, predominantly in the West to ameliorate poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa in the last several decades.
Certainly, there are parallels between the misery and degradation of the majority in Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa. President Biden himself can testify to this, having spent eight years in the current Vice President’s shoes.
Corruption and Its Origins.
Often mistaken as the cause of the suffering and poverty in many nations especially in the third world, corruption is actually the effect (symptom) rather than the cause (etiology).
The reality of politics and economics in countries with very corrupt leaders is that the institutions in these nations have been hijacked for evil purposes. Thus there is widespread injustice which begins at the very top and permeates the entire fabric of the society.
Yes, in modern democracies, i.e. representative, rather than Greek direct democracy created in Athens in the 5th century BCE (Before the Common Era), the aspiration is for separation of Church and State.
However, today, in the 21st century CE (Common Era), whether we choose to accept or ignore it, Satanic influence is alive and thriving in political institutions in these poor performing nations.
When one experiences the depth and scope of poverty and human misery in these failing nations, it would be unimaginable not to conclude that unGodly influences are at play. Satan, working through secular power systems and wicked individuals in the leadership, is the dominant force in the power structure of these nations.
The heartless minds that thrive in corrupt milieu are powered by four major factors.
- Self centeredness and lack of contentment; our original sin.
- Lust for power at any cost including pain and suffering of the masses and heart-wrenching loss of lives of the citizens especially children and the elderly.
- Lust for excessive wealth, possessions and opulence by the leaders.
- Great capacity to deceive people and coerce them not only to follow the selfish leaders but even to revere them.
None of these four factors can be ameliorated by more funding, investment or any program engineered from outside these countries even when the largesse is coming from the world’s greatest economic and military power.
In 2015, then Vice President Joe Biden was given this same assignment to the Northern Triangle of Central America by President Barak Obama. On that trip, Mr. Biden told his hosts:
“Let me be frank, some in my own government and in the U.S. Congress have asked me, ‘How do we know this isn’t just going to be business as usual? How is this any different than anything that’s come before? Well, the president and I believe that this is the time that it will be different because the effort starts with a demonstration of political will from within the region.”
Well, not much has changed since 2015 because none of the four factors enumerated above has changed. Indeed, for the ordinary citizens, the situation has gotten worse.
Corruption is untamable from outside the heart and mind of the ‘hosts’ of the beast. It is an affection which can only be expelled by a more powerful affection. That more powerful affection is love of nation more than self and love of neighbors as self.
Sadly, this more potent affection is an elixir yet to be discovered in the Northern Triangle of Central America, and also in most of the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa.
‘The Expulsive Power of a New Affection’
So, what is it that can expel corruption and its seeds from these tyrannical regimes? Is there a viable antidote to the lethality of corruption?
Perhaps, there is no better exegesis of the idea about the most effective way to meaningfully change human unyielding selfish and lascivious nature than the remarkable message delivered by Dr. Thomas Chalmers about 200 years ago.
Titled, ‘The Expulsive Power of a New Affection’, Dr. Chalmers, a professor of moral philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and later a professor of theology at University of Edinburg delivered this masterpiece.
Whether or not you are a Christian, I invite our leaders in government and the private sector, and anyone struggling with this very difficult existential problem to read this extraordinary sermon. THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF A NEW AFFECTION
What Dr. Chalmers was communicating in that sermon is that if you are going to offload a destructive affection, i.e. corruption from our lives and from the society, not only do you need to offload it, you need to onboard something noble and more powerful.
The power of that new affection in addition to expelling the old damaging affection would also strengthen you not just to love in words, but to love in deed and in truth.
The People as Producers
The small City- State of Singapore, with zero natural resources was given no chance of survival by any of the development experts in the West when it separated from the Malaysian Federation in August 1965.
In his book, “From Third World To First; The Singapore Story: 1965–2000, pages 7 -8, the late founding father of modern day Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew stated:
“Our greatest asset was the trust and confidence of the people. We were careful not to squander this newly gained trust by misgovernment and corruption. The other valuable asset we had was our people — hardworking, thrifty, eager to learn”.
Until the leaders of corrupt regimes in Central America and Africa realize that the most precious asset of their nations are the people and their brains, there will be no decrease in the poverty and the suffering of the ordinary citizens in these nations.
It matters not, the size or duration of the largesse from the USA or any other philanthropist. The leaders of these failing nations must acquire a new mindset, imaginative spirit and loving heart for their nations and their people.
The challenges for the Biden Administration in this arena are twofold.
(a). How to make the politically and socially acceptable and “makes sense” path of more funding and investment secondary or even tertiary in the Administration’s strategy.
(b). How to persuade the leaders to imbibe a different frame of mindset and imagination without coming across as lecturing leaders of sovereign nations.
This is not an easy task as previous Administrations have discovered. Equally and probably more challenging is the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
However, with the challenge comes a golden opportunity for the Biden Administration to tell these leaders not what they want to hear but what is best for the populations in these poor performing nations.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, for more than half a century, The World Bank, International Monetary Fund, State (Foreign Affairs) departments in the West and scores of philanthropic organizations have undersestimated the intensity and immutability of the social, economic and healthcare subordination born out of the beast.
What should be abundantly clear to all sides is that human admonitions and external benevolence cannot reverse the catastrophic outcomes of deeply embedded poisonous affection of the above stated quartet which produces the beast — CORRUPTION.
