Corruption exists everywhere in the world, so why does it freak me out in India?
Because it is pervasive, it is in your face, and people kind of shrug off preposterous acts performed by others,
I am ready to donate about 2000 dollars to any educational institution in India on the spot, but have found no takers for the last four years!! I will write in detail about my experience with my own school later. Overall, I found that there are four types of schools
a. schools owned and run by the government. They do not accept charity
b. Government -sponsored schools – a vast majority of schools fall in this category including my old high school. They receive government funding but are also autonomous.. Technically, they can receive charity. But most of the time, the teachers are already misappropriating government funds, so the external charity will reveal the internal corruption. Let’s say the government has given funds for ten computers, and only five have been purchased. Now if I donate money for ten additional computers, the cat will be out of the bag and some people will be in big trouble!!
c. “Charitable” private non-profit Schools : sounds like an oxymoron. These accept “donations” from parents before their children are admitted . Part of the donations are used to provide scholarships to poor students,, and the major part is appropriated by the owner and his network . Serious accounting problems persist here in order to exhibit the non-profit status. Some of these schools actually provide high quality education and their owners seem so happy to be able to provide such valuable service to the society (sarcasm!)
d. Finally a small number of private schools exist primarily in remote villages, and some of those are not controlled by political parties. I am looking for one for the last few years.
I am willing to donate 1000 dollars to charity every month, but it is not possible in India. Of course, you can dump your money to temples or large foundations, but I do not want to do that. Over time I found that most NGO’s steal either some or all of your money! On the other hand, India does not have the abject poverty that was all around till the 1980’s. We do not see beggars howling on the streets, or people scrounging for food on the side of the streets or hordes of beggars at the bus stations or tram depots – a common sight when I was around in the 70’s. So, I am slowly finding out needy people and giving them money , but it takes time and patience. Like everywhere else in the world, there are scammers galore.
A cousin and his family, and another cousin’s son have built their livelihoods on corruption, so I don’t interact with them any more – that’s two out of four cousins’ families that live in Kolkata. I do not have any other surviving relatives in kolkata any longer, except maybe second cousins and their families. My mother and sister have passed away.
Several people that I met and that turned out to be friendly, cultured and well intentioned individuals revealed to have their livelihoods entirely based on corrupt practices , so I do not hang out with them any longer.
It is strange that these individuals, including my cousins’ families are baffled by my aloofness and possibly take it as a sign of my arrogance and /or early dementia!!
My good friend’s elderly father, a wonderful lonely old man, wants to hang out with me, but I am not going to, because several years ago my good friend raped a woman in his own home when I was present there. ( I have no conclusive evidence of this , so I just scream silently about this now and then)
So it is not like – “politicians in Washington are corrupt, or that Wall street managers engage in corrupt insider trading – and they are 1500 miles away from my little cocoon in Lawrence, Kansas” , it is corruption in your face in India!!
Oh, I am not miserable, I have a lot of good friends in Kolkata to hang out with. But it has become my mission to point out how corruption is pervasive and expensive for the Indian society in a way that I never anticipated.
And no, I am not going back to USA any time soon! Food is good here, and my retirement funds go a long way, and I love the people I do hang out with.
Edit: I did not want to appear presumptuous in the above post. It is just that I do not have any inheritance motive, and very limited current expenditures and needs. So I just want to give away about 33% of my monthly income to charity – that comes to about $1000 a month. I don’t need it – in USA it will be easy to find people and organizations who will make good use of it. So far, in India, I am finding it hard to give it to non-corrupt people. I have succeeded in finding some people who will use the money, but much more remains to be done. I have no motive of showing off , or being obnoxious.