Resident columnist Dickson Igwe
However, he fails to look in the mirror. For all the pontificating on corruption even making apologies for past misconduct, all is charade if there is no true change in national morality.
There is no change without a change in culture and social behavior. The lesson from countries battling with corruption and crime is that there is no true change without a change in the national mindset. This change is very difficult to achieve.
Corruption begins in the heart and mind. Corruption and dishonesty are personal choices.
Now when did the rot set in for the Virgin Islands? Some will assert at the change from an agrarian community to a tourism and financial services based economy.
Once upon a time, the Virgin Islands was a truly God-fearing community. Post Slavery and the Plantation, religion was a core component of community. It still is.
Today there has been an explosion in church building. However, is the fear of God still part of the DNA? In religious societies that are deteriorating morally, why has religion not been an influence on morality? That is a rhetorical question left to the reader to decide.
Morality in the Virgin Islands is religion and church, not any personal moral code. However, morality has never been worse with the explosion in single parent homes, gun crime, and fraud.
In countries like Venezuela and Nigeria observers will pontificate that the countries went south after the prosperity and easy money culture started by oil discovery.
Countries that grew prosperous over many decades of a slow hard slog up the mountain to the Promised Land were able to adapt better to affluence, and the successes better absorbed by institutions, society and culture. The preceding is simple hypothesis of-course, even fairy tale.
The fact is no one knows why some countries become corrupt to the point of national disaster and crisis and others are able to absorb prosperity with good governance, and civil institutions and structures that work well.
Countries in Northern Europe are far less corrupt than countries further south. Is there a geographical component to corruption? The answer must be no.
Russia is a northern Eurasian country that is one of the most corrupt nations on earth. Canada is on the same latitudes. Canada is far less corrupt than Russia.
Simple observation will show that there may be two factors in the corruption debacle. History and Government. Corrupt countries show a clear history of corruption beginning at the inception of organized rule: Southern and Central American countries including Post-Colonial Africa show a vast culture of corruption. This culture has never abated. It has been the sibling of tyranny and the cult of the strongman.
Is there something inherent in black and third world culture that drives corruption? That is a controversial and even upsetting assertion. However, countries ruled by black leaders with black populations appear to be more corrupt than white or Caucasian societies. Countries further south are much more corrupt than northern European countries that possess the best quality of life in the world.
The preceding assertions are all simple observation and speculation. However, these questions are worth asking.
Why would a Virgin Islands blessed with billions of dollars in national revenues over the past thirty years be grappling with runaway corruption and crime today, to the point of national crisis? Why is Nigeria, a country that has enjoyed hundreds of billions of dollars of oil revenues be termed the poverty capital of the world? Why is Venezuela in freefall after possessing billions of barrels of oil within its borders?
On the other hand, why do countries with far less natural resources and wealth than these countries enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world, with low levels of corruption and mismanagement?
The preceding is worth pondering.
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Dickson Igwe is an education official in the Virgin Islands. He is also a national sea safety instructor. He writes a national column across media and has authored a story book on the Caribbean: 'The Adventures of a West Indian Villager'. Dickson is focused on economics articles, and he believes economics holds the answer to the full economic and social development of the Caribbean. He is of both West African and Caribbean heritage. Dickson is married with one son.
