“the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Corruption can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs. – Transparency International

As a certain budding blazer politician – who I once had pay for my fabulous Oasis coffee in the most rude manner possible – will testify, I am very fond of social experiments. There’s no telling what you’ll find. From now to next Thursday, I’m going to walk up to ten random people and bus’ the following gyaff:

Hear na, I waan ask you something and please try don’t laugh or get vex. This is not vex story and is certainly not laugh story. You eva pay a police or pass a lunch money? Or between me and you, is pay yuh pay fuh yuh driver’s license right?

What do you think the results will be? Y’all think I gon get cuss? Don’t worry though. I’m generally too charming to get a busin’ from anybody. The most dem might do is give me a suck teeth and watch me like cow bus rope. In the meanwhile, feel free to answer the questions too. I give you my word that you will remain anonymous. So have no fear, leave a comment.

I feel like I’m stating the obvious but I’ll do it anyway: corruption is such a natural part of our culture in Guyana and the Caribbean that we laugh about it all the time, treat it like a pesky housefly and happily tell people about how we pass lil money here and there to get away or get through with something (in other words, it’s a confidence booster used to build that bad man image).

These days, with Bharrat Jagdeo (no is not my family) on the loose as Opposition leader and the Government pushing out their chests with every announcement of some case or the other of monetary “misappropriation” (a nice way to say teefing), it’s quite clear that grand corruption has been grandly happening for a long, long time. However, I believe that the high presence of petty corruption and our laid back attitude to it – as I am sure my social experiment will prove – is equally dangerous and equally responsible for increasing the difficulty of fighting corruption in a society like ours.

So what’s the difference between the thiefing politician and you who does pay de police or pass a lunch money? Not much you know. The thiefing politician is engaging in grand corruption and you are facilitating and encouraging petty corruption. The social cost? About the same thing.

Like everything, corruption is a choice. You have the power to choose. Say no to corruption culture. #NoCorruption

Need a little more info on grand and petty corruption? Click right here.