Corruption in the UK

In my last post I wrote about corruption in the Philippines. I think that one serious risk of commenting on such a topic is that it can give birth to a sense of superiority: “Aren't we great because we aren’t like them”. I have written this post in order to give some balance and challenge this all too automatic self aggrandisement. Some of what follows perhaps cuts close to the bone but I think it needs to. I cannot in fairness make comments such as those in my previous post if I am not willing to judge myself and my own culture just as harshly.

But first the positives. In the UK we do not have direct electoral fraud, our votes are counted correctly. Nor do we have public officials at the local level who take bribes. In our schools we do not have a corrupt examination system. Likewise our judicial system is, in general, run justly and our police are honest. The fact that aberrations from these norms are reported and criticised so heavily is reassuring. We can be proud and thankful for all of these things. What’s more in Britain we do have a righteous indignation which comes to the fore whenever we perceive things to be unfair.

We do, however, accept unfairness of a more hidden kind and maybe at times we are less honest and fair than we like to believe.

In the UK we have laws which set a minimum hourly rate of pay for workers. We consider, at least in theory, that each worker should be entitled to a certain minimum wage. Yet we do not apply these same standards to those who make the goods we import from abroad. Most of us (perhaps all of us) will buy electronic goods, clothes, foodstuffs and automobiles provided by workers paid far below the levels we would consider just if they were working in the UK. Often we allow those who make our luxuries to be paid wages which barely allow them to survive let alone live as we do. What’s more we tolerate, and perhaps even allow ourselves to be deceived by the argument which says that to pay these people anymore would be irresponsible or economically unviable.

We are all complicit in this crime, sometimes through ignorance but more often because we know how few of these goods we would be able to afford if we paid a far price for them. Is not such complicity a form of corruption? Is it not gaining an undeserved advantage at another’s expense? Can I fairly criticise the corruption of Filippinos who are themselves experiencing such injustices.

Let’s consider Education. We still live in a society which tolerates the rich buying privileged education. Is there any difference between this and paying a bribe to past an exam? Would not the Filippino students we teach have done a bit better academically had they been in smaller classes with better resources?

In our political arena there are legions of corporate lobbyists, special advisors and funded researchers whose reason for existence is to pressure elected politicians into making certain decisions, not because they are for the common good but because they will favour a select few with the means to employ these people. We must assume that it works because why else would so much money be spent on this industry. Again, is this not a form of corruption? Allowing the rich to benefit at the expense of the poor.

Here in the Philippines the most worrying part of the culture of corruption is how blind or uncaring so many people are towards it. Corruption here is an accepted way of life. Perhaps in a subtle way the same dynamic exists in the west.

Too many of us, I believe, have developed a certain slackness towards truth. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that the political and economic direction of our nations is far too complex a question for most of us to think about. There is a blurring and over-complicating of very important public debates which both disconnects normal people and distracts us from what is really important.  In a world where millions earn only enough to feed themselves we allow ourselves to be distracted by ‘Fake’ reality. Society would have us vote on the basis of Ed Milliband’s voice or Boris Johnson’s public demeanour rather than actual policies and facts.

The blurring of the public discourse means that, just like here in the Philippines, our common system of values has become skewed. We are amused rather than scandalised by Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant, we speak about company executives having ‘earned’ their exorbitant bonuses, and we too easily start to believe that time are genuinely hard because we can’t afford a new Ipod. We too easily accept the false alternatives offered to us and let ourselves be lulled into an intellectual slumber concerning matters of politics and economics. We accept the cultural lie that personal wealth should be our dominant God. Is not living in such a bubble of non-reality also a form of non-responsibility? and are we not culpable also for what we haven’t done to help others?

Before we are too critical of others corruptions perhaps we should stop and consider ourselves.