Despite the improvements within the last decade the vast majority of sub-Saharan Africa remains corrupt. Corruption is a complex phenomenon. The inability for the country as a whole to solve their own issues is indeed the reason the country till this day is considered a developing nation. But as much as sub-Saharan is said to be ethical, stats and numbers illustrate many forms of corruption. Corruption within the country’s policies, bureaucratic traditions, political development, and social history. The aim of this paper is to elaborate and construe the many forms of corruption being practiced in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, how it creates everlasting effects on the nation 's people specifically focusing on the Education, Healthcare, and …show more content…
The population of South Africa (sub-Saharan Africa) is currently 53,140,000 (CIA, 2016).However the population growth rate is one point thirty three percent as of 2015, according to the CIA Country report (2016). The Government type in South Africa is a parliamentary republic. Guyy Scott is the current President in sub-Saharan Africa. The legal system practiced is a mixed legal system of Roman-Dutch civil law, English common law, and customary law (CIA, 2016). The continent is often associated with war, disease, hunger and squalor. Africa is actually one of the poorest regions in the world and in fact millions of its inhabitants live in poverty, inequality, are unemployed, lack access to clean water and sufficient health care. Unemployment rate in SSA within the year 2015 was at twenty- five point one. Not to mention that the economic growth has decelerated in recent years, slowing to just one point five percent in 2014 in spite of it being an Upper middle Class (The World Bank, …show more content…
The salary that these Africans do receive is minimal. For this reason is why many are malnourished, live within impoverished communities and don’t receive the basic health care required. Consequently their expenses exceed their income by large. According to the World Bank the Median Income in SSA within the year of 2011 was four point six. Corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, beef, poultry, mutton, wool, and dairy products are commonly grown and used within this region (CIA, 2016). However as of 2015, thirty three point six percent of the population Sanitations facility accesses haven’t been improved within urban and rural settings (CIA, 2016 ). Essentially confirming the lack of involvement and funds allocated to crucial factors that are necessary in order for South Africa to thrive
In the book, The Jungle, the readers comprehend a traditional American story of the tragic lives of immigrants coming to this country in search of new life, and instead finding greed and corruption. People who came into America in the time period of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s experienced a whole new world not quite what they were expecting. Living conditions and homes were not treated as well as the lower class American homes were. Wages were at an all time low with a decreased purchasing power of immigrant’s money. Everywhere they turned, someone was there waiting to cheat them. The government, political machines, and even everyday merchants on the streets treated immigrants
Death and decay often convey corruption within a story. The use of this particular imagery allows one to make a connection between the natural world and the nature of people. Throughout Hamlet, a play, set in Denmark, which was written in the early seventeenth century by William Shakespeare, there are several instances where one sees decay depicting corruption. Though this play is filled with massive images of decaying nature, it is also filled with images of nature in its beautiful state. Because Hamlet portrays decaying and developing nature, it shows one that it is possible to maintain a sense of self in a world that strives on corruption.
Africa has long been a nation of conflict and strife. Certain countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have a prolonged history of corrupt leaders, violence and lack of resources. These conflicts often can lead to spill over and create wars in their neighboring countries. When a weak state has internal conflict it often spreads to surrounding weak states as it did with many of the countries in central Africa. This type of crisis will often involve the entire world in a variety of capacities such as militaries, foreign aid and the global economy. Congo especially has proved to create problems that continue to persist in the modern world and much of that is due to leadership of Motubu Sese Seko. “The conflict [in Congo] produced tremendous carnage: as many as 3.8 million dead and many more injured or displaced. Both phrases of the war (1996-97 and 1998-2002) involved domestic militias, a massive foreign invasion, and shifting alliances – with Angola, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe playing major roles. Even though the was has officially ended, peace remains elusive”(Atzili 2007 pg 141). One player’s internal conflicts spread through an entire continent and affected the whole world and caused enormous damage. All countries need to strive to maintain strong institutions to be a good global citizen and one of the keys to this is leadership.
What is generally misunderstood about Africa is the wealth available in its boundaries, and the misconception of the middle-class in the U.S. and other countries of a similar economic bent. Though nine out of the ten poorest countries are in Africa and all but three of the top twenty, there is a nearly zero homeless rate, and everybody seems to be doing just fine. However it used to be similar in every single so...
There are countries that are not as lucky as America, where people have their rights taken away from them, like in Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea has a very corrupt government. It has been said that the voting has been rigged so that the president will win the election as many times as he wants. Most of the power is in the executive branch, so the president has most of the power of the country and no one can say anything about what he wants to happen. He president will harass the opposing parties so that he will win (Williams). In the article Equatorial Guinea HRW (Human Rights Watch) says, “Corruption, poverty, and repression continue to plague Equatorial Guinea under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power since 1979”. The “...per capita gross domestic product...” for Equatorial Guinea is $30,000, but yet most of the people live in poverty. The “...Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE)...” rule the political system, you could say that it is a monopoly. The president of Equatorial Guinea will have a say in court cases. The court cases that are sensitive get brought to him and he gets asked what he wants to do (Equatorial...). We should care about Equatorial Guinea because arrest without reason, torture captives and give little rights to women.
Corruption consists in the illegitimate agreement between a corruptor and a corrupted, in which they abuse of their public power in order to obtain personal benefit. Bribery and corruption is something that has been going on for years. According to Allen, “officials perceive themselves as immune to any penalties for demanding and receiving bribes” which she states that it is one of the main reasons for bribery and corruption in underdeveloped countries. According to Transparency International, an organization committed exclusively to end corruption, three of the most corrupt countries in the world are Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan. This does not mean that corruption is only seen in underdeveloped countries. In international business, corporate employees often find themselves dealing with corruptors in foreign countries and, in most cases, they will give in.
The pocketing of profits by corrupt government officials shows characteristics of patrimonialism, which not only hinders the economy because these profits are the sole source of revenue for the nation, but also harms the democratic stability of the nation and can to some extent cause the regime changes of the nation. The civic conflicts of the nation are not handled by the government and not only do these conflicts drain revenue from the government, but shows the lack of mobilization in the government, possibly due to a lack of taxation, due to the resource curse. These claims show that the resource curse has affected the government and economy of Nigeria greatly as it leads to an ineffective and corrupt government with a hindered chance of democratization, with civic conflict that cannot be controlled by the civic government.
From the slight corruption and oppression in Liberia’s government to the unstableness resulting in two coups, to the current chaotic, unfortunate, state, Liberia has experienced some of the most unthinkable events in their government’s history. In the early stages of Liberia’s corrupt, unstable, government, events such as the fraudulent elections of 1927, the rice riots, and the birth of many protest groups would hinder Liberia’s chance of democracy, equality, and fairness in their government. In 1927, an election was held to replace, the current president, Daniel Edward Howard. King’s presidential success was a great scandal due to the fact that he said to have had 234,000 votes, meanwhile, there are only 15,000 registered voters in Liberia.
They go to bed hungry. They starve to death. They drop out of school to fend for themselves. “Poverty in Africa is not caused by a single issue, the cause of poverty in Africa can be linked to several factors. According to Samson Eyituoyoa, a Peace and conflict student at the European Peace University, poverty in Africa is caused by "corruptions, unemployment, poor governance, poor economy, population growth, illiteracy, wars and conflicts." There are however two main factors that contribute greatly to the cause of poverty in Africa; corruptions, and wars. In terms of corruption, "Africa is widely considered among the worlds most corrupted places” as said by Stephanie Hanson, the author of the article Corruption in Africa. The continent of its self is not corrupt, but its leaders and people in higher positions are. Corruption occurs when the governments fails to use the money that is meant for the countries correctly, instead of building their countries, they save the money for their own personal usage. In relation to wars, Africa is known for wars, either a war caused by the people rebelling against the governments, or war caused by one country fighting another
The existence of bribery and unethical behavior is rampant in the world market and may not change overnight. The question of bribery has been distilled in business literature as a question of ethics. In this situation at the airport with the customs officer, it is important to distinguish between business ethics and personal ethics. In a business ethics situation, the Foreign Corruption Practices Act would prohibit offering any bribe to the custom office – for example to free a shipment of goods that was lost in red tape (Pitman & Sanford, 2006). Most companies also have policies against bribery as well. In this situation, however the main issue at hand is that of personal ethics. When in a situation where your company is unknown and there is no business being conducted, normal business ethics and laws (including FCPA) do not apply only personal ethical standards.
Conceptualizing Corruption in South Africa Conceptualizing Corruption in South Africa Amr Taha El Baba Lebanese American University SPECIFIC PURPOSE: To persuade my audience that corruption could cripple the progress in South African societies. Crime and corruption are not relevant to the degree of poverty present in a country as some of you might think. Corruption is a social phenomenon that every society deals with, regardless of the level of development in the country. What makes corruption a dangerous social phenomenon is its ability to adapt to the conditions present in any country.
...rd but in the sense of Nigeria the corruption is amongst the elites and found at the highest level of federal power.
This essay will attempt to explore the relationship between the two from the definitions, causes, consequences and the solutions. Corruption can be defined as the abuse of public power for private gain. (World Bank, 2004) Corruption is attracting a lot of attention around the world, and is a growing international and regional concern. According to Corruption Around the world (Tanzi, 1998), in its end-of-year editorial on December 31, 1995, The Financial Times characterized 1995 as the year of corruption.
Growth in Africa is not enough for its people to grow, which is leading to poverty and hunger in Africa. Today Africa is one of the leading countries having poverty and economic problems. One half of the Africans live below the poverty line which leads to low human development in Africa. The main cause of poverty in Africa is a problem in its economic system and environmental factors. Because of poverty people of Africa remain hungry as they don’t have enough money to buy their food and their basic needs. Some of the African countries have less poverty rate than others due to good government and economic system in those countries. Most of the African is facing challenges to survive and keep their family healthy.
The majority of South Africans are unemployed and therefore can’t satisfy their needs and wants, and also their children’s needs and wants, thus more than half of South Africa’s children live in poverty.