A friend of mine says that if anything, we should tolerate and accept corruption. Corruption is so endemic, so intertwined, with our lives that we probably cannot exist without it. Our way of life is so attuned to corruption that it has become normal for many of us.
Minor acts of corruption often give way to bigger ones; when we chastise an elected official for kabalastugan and kalokohan,we’re all forced to look inward and think about how much we do contribute to a culture of corruption. We really can’t cast stones, if that’s the spirit of good citizenship.
My friend is right, in a way: if a majority of us commit small degrees of corruption, then larger acts of corruption can always be justified as normal. Someone buying large properties abroad and refusing to declare them, for example, will always be framed by people who pay off fixers at a government bureau. Wala talagang malinis. So a cycle of institutionalized corruption continues.
For the first time in quite a while, a bout of temporary insanity forces me to quit whining, think of solutions, and work within the box.
