Day 86: Corruption or generosity?
Hello World-dreamers!
Every day we have nice interesting conversations with people. There is one of today which we want to share with you.
While still in Belgium, we noticed that people see Africa go hand in hand with corruption. One of the reasons is how stories are written in the media. Stories mainly focus on bad things when it comes to Africa.
We however see it differently.
In Ghana there is corruption, but it is certainly not as strong as in other countries if we look at in a global context. Ghana ranks 61 out of 175 http://www.transparency.org/country/#GHA.
More countries.
Belgium 15/175
Spain 37/175
China 100/175
Brazil 69/175
As we can see here, corruption is not an African problem but a global one. Even if it is low in Belgium, there is still corruption and maybe better hidden..
But why is there corruption? Why in Ghana? People are expected to give money when they see younger people at events.
Depending on your positions in the hierarchy you have to give a certain amount. The higher in the hierachy the higher the amount you are supposed to give. The president and other high officials give around 5000 Cedi and this decreases.
The same goes for people who come for help, the higher you are ranked and the more people come for help.
So as you can see, there is quite a lot of pressure on people. We are certainly not saying that all of the higher ranked people are corrupt or that what we have written here is an excuse but it helps to understand what contributes to corruption. In every country there are different reasons.
