What account for the deplorable conditions on the continent of Africa Essay

What account for the deplorable conditions on the continent of Africa - Essay Example Throughout the continent of Africa corruption is rampant. In order to receive even the most basic services Africans must pay bribes. In order for companies such as Shell to do business in Nigeria (ranked 121 in the world by Transparency International1) a huge amount of money must be paid out to local officials to â€Å"grease the wheels.† In hospitals, patients may have to put money in doctors’ consulting books in order to be treated. In schools, students may have to pay their teachers for passing grades.2 All of these situations are commonplace. Studies have shown that Africa loses $150 billion a year due to corruption and that products cost as much as 20 per cent more.3 It is impossible to measure how much more developed Africa would be at this moment had not a culture of corruption existed there for so long. In countries with poorly constructed, inefficient, and non self-enforcing constitutional rules, opportunistic behavior (including rent seeking) are usually quite pervasive. In such countries, the rules that regulate socio-political interaction, have failed to adequately constrain the government. As a result, state intervention in private exchange is equally pervasive. Excessive regulation of economic activities creates many opportunities for rent seeking, including bureaucratic corruption.4 Many public servants in Africa may have power to allocate resources, but they make small salaries. It is very easy for them to make a lot of money on the side by taking payments from special interests. Plus, public servants may have poor relatives who they are also supporting. They may not simply take bribes out of selfishness, but possibly to help feed their extended families. Nevertheless, it is clear that more rules and guidelines are required for public servants in their dealings with the private sector. Enforcement of such rules is desperately required.5 John Githongo argues that corruption usually begins at the top of a country’s leadership, and

Gulliver's Travels Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gulliver's Travels - Essay Example Laputa is a fictional island made out of a kind of marble, ‘adamantine’ - adamant means stubborn, an indication of the king (Your Dictionary 2009) - that hovers above a bigger island called Balnibarbi. Gulliver spends some time there, but is dismayed by the blinkered views of the inhabitants, who are good with technology, astronomy, mathematics and music, but have not developed practical skills and are not sociable. His time there is spent chatting with servants and women, who he considers less important. He lumps women of all times and places together as being ‘not limited by any climate or nation, and ... are much more uniform, and can be easily imagined.’ (Swift 2003) But they are ‘less valid’ than the ones who matter: the scientists and thinking men, who have no time for him. Thinking them rude, he decides to leave. He is allowed to go with a gift of ‘about two hundred pounds English’ a sum which indicates not only the time Swif t writes in, but also his inability to break out of the English mold: perhaps because he thinks of his audience, or perhaps because he is caught within that scope. All the fancy imaginings he uses are a conscious departure from the customs, politics, costumes and language he knew. Descending to the lower static island, Gulliver is appalled by the lack of development he witnesses during a tour of the capital, Lagado. Compared to the place he has just come from, it is backward, unkempt, disorganized and in disrepair: a real Dystopia, even though the Laputians had strange ways of doing things. In a place about ‘half the bigness of London’, the people below appear so strange, and the soil so uncultivated, that he asks questions of his guide, lord Munodi. It turns out the reasons behind the sorry state of Lagado is that laws were put in place to ensure everything was done the wrong way around, by the divergent government. Munodi takes Gulliver to his own estate, which in comparison, is extremely well run. ‘...