How can we overcome corruption?
On the radio experts are talking about the excesses of corruption at all levels of society. I heard similar radio reports 30 years ago and probably in 20 years they won’t have changed much. Often the people who complain the loudest about such fraud are themselves complicit.
I ask my taxi driver: “What is your opinion: why is corruption so omnipresent from Kindergarten to police station?” Atilio Espinoza knows the answer: “We soak up this mentality with our mother’s milk!” With this statement the hard-working taxi driver wants to make clear to me that many bad habits are learnt in childhood.
The former president of the State of Apurimac once assured me: “Dr Klaus, when I started my presidential job I found that my predecessor had left chaos at every turn!” That same politician, who spoke so critically about other civil servants, is now in detention awaiting trial, accused of, yes you guessed it, corruption.
2,000 years ago Paul wrote to a group of Christians in Rome “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” But what does this sentence look like in practise?
A couple of months ago it came to light that a member of staff at the missionary hospital had cheated on patients for a long time. After he was sacked we could have said: “Never mind, let’s forget it, no one will notice!” But we decided differently. We called or wrote to more than 5,000 patients. All of the tricked victims, 296 in all, received their money back. In the presence of a person whom we trust, the corrupt member of staff had to call all the patients he had tricked, apologise and pledge amelioration.
Last Saturday he spent several hours calling the patients. Their reactions were positive across the board. Never in their lives had they experienced that a swindler apologised for what he had done, asked for forgiveness and paid the money back. An example of practical theology: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
