Why throwing money won’t fix our problems

Oct 30, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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…Peeping Tom 

Kaieteur News- You know, sometimes I wonder if the government’s economic strategy was dreamed up in a bout of fever.

The strategy goes something like this: when a problem pops up, toss a pile of cash at it and hope it goes away. If that fails, toss more. When the nation’s pulse races with outrage, they think maybe a little sedative made of pure currency will soothe us all. And yet, here we are, surrounded by money, but as a society, we’re not even remotely close to solving our woes.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love democracy. I’d sooner vote than willingly sit through an afternoon tea with my in-laws. But if I’m honest, I think we went into democracy the way a first-time bungee-jumper goes off the bridge: thrilled, terrified, and completely unprepared. We grasped at the glamour of democracy, but the fundamental values that make it work—human rights, free expression, an independent press—those are still foreign concepts. It’s as if we were handed a shiny sports car with no idea how to drive, and now we’re wondering why we keep crashing into the same problems again and again.

Take, for instance, the recent suggestion that we tackle corruption by prohibiting public servants from receiving gifts. Gifts, mind you, are not just a little bouquet for the holidays; we’re talking about everything from gold bands to trips to God knows where. I can see why they think this might work: in a movie, maybe. But if there’s one thing our society loves, it’s the idea of a little something extra as a reward for services rendered. This is now part of our bureaucratic culture, and no amount of laws can undo that. Expecting a simple policy to curb this is like expecting an umbrella to stop a flood. The flood of “favors for favors” has become an unstoppable tide, and it’s high time we accept that our real issue isn’t legislation—it’s values.

To understand the scope of the problem, picture this: the entire structure of our government bureaucracy has become a delicate ecosystem of transactions. It’s a world where everything has a price, from expediting a permit to getting a desk repaired. The unofficial currency of goodwill is an unspoken rule—without it, the machinery grinds to a halt. And let’s face it, in a culture where gifts have become the norm, “no gifts” policies are going to look as inviting as salad at a steakhouse.

And this, my friends, is where our fledgling democracy stumbles. The allure of democracy isn’t just the ability to vote every few years; it’s about a set of ideals. It’s about freedom of speech, the importance of an i9ndependent press, and valuing human rights as if they were the cornerstone of society, not a seasonal accessory. But these things are harder to achieve than they seem. We were so busy chasing after the image of democracy we forgot to nurture the values that sustain it.

Take free expression, for example. We say we want it, but then we punish those who use it. Reporters here work in a climate where simply asking questions can feel like an act of treason. Criticism is met not with thoughtful response but with icy silence or, worse, intimidation. And as for the press, its freedom is like a bird that can only fly when it’s told where and when it’s allowed to. We’ve engineered a society where the very tenets that should hold up democracy—freedom, transparency, integrity—are viewed as threats, not essentials. Which brings us back to public servants and this idea of gifts. As it stands, there’s an entire culture of gift-giving and gift-receiving that’s about as embedded in the system as coffee breaks and memos. To suggest we can stamp out corruption with a law is to ignore the fact that we’ve trained people to expect a certain “reward” for doing their jobs. It’s a system built on favors and owed favors, and it works because, deep down, it mirrors what we value.

Honesty? Sure, it’s great in theory, but if we’re being honest (no pun intended), we admire the cleverness of maneuvering the system more than we respect integrity.

You see, the issue isn’t money. It’s the fact that we’ve let our values slide into the background, assuming that democracy is all we need to function as a good society. And now we’re drowning in the consequences. We think we can slap a new law on corruption, but as long as people see personal gain as paramount, those laws are meaningless. Laws can punish, but they can’t change what people value. And people, unfortunately, value what they can get.

Until we reach a point where integrity isn’t seen as the punch-line to a joke, these policies are doomed to fail. We can build more schools, pass new policies, and paint every wall with reminders to be honest, but as long as our values are a secondary concern, we’re just moving the money around. It’s like redecorating a house that’s crumbling from the foundation up.

All the policies in the world won’t get us anywhere unless the people using them are committed to honesty. And you can’t pass a law for that. You can’t legislate human decency, no matter how many committees you form or how many memos you send. So let’s keep the money and start spending a little more on what really matters: rebuilding the integrity we seem to have left somewhere in our rush toward development.

(Why throwing money won’t fix our problems)

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• bureaucracy, corruption, Democracy, economic strategy, public servants

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