Jan
22
2008
Romania, Corruption and Justice
Much of what plagues Romania is corruption in every aspect of life.
People all talk as if they are against corruption, but they do things unintentionally that feed the corrupt mindset that exists. It was always amazing to me to see how people condemned the corruption in government and how they condemned all that was going on in others, but often didn’t see the corruption of their own actions.
The little old village lady who needs to see a doctor goes to the hospital, and when she meets the receptionist, she gives her a bottle of coke and a candy bar, to bribe the receptionist to do her job. Then she gets back to the doctor and must give him something too, on top of the standard price for the services offered. The little old lady doesn’t mean to do anything wrong. This is what she knows. It’s the way she’s always been brought up. To get something done and accomplished, you have to give someone a perk. There’s no other way to get “justice.”
And there’s where the problem lies. Even in obtaining “justice,” corruption takes place, which makes true justice all the more elusive.
It is difficult to live with this mentality, and often difficult to function in Romania without it. So I am not judging the Romanians for taking part in these actions. It is a society that in many ways could not currently function without it.
Romania will only grow in the future if the younger generations learn how to do business with integrity and purity of motives. I’m afraid those generations might still be far off.
I met one man in a train compartment, someone close to my age, who told me point blank that he cheats people that come to his store. When I asked him how he could live with that on his conscience, he said, “Hey, if you don’t cheat people, you can’t survive. I know some other guy is cheating me, so I’ll cheat the next guy, and he’ll cheat the guy after that.” It’s not hard to understand how quickly corruption spreads.