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Created 05-02-03
Last edited 14-08-20

Corruption
Or:  the Privatization of Government Extortion

The word corruption is often used for anything that is bad, yes even everything that is thought to be bad.

We use the term here a technical meaning,

Here, corruption means tapping the money flows associated with government administration involving government agents. The necessary condition for talking of corruption is the owner money (or another asset) changing hands (the government or a victimized citicizen) does not approve of it, but is unaware or powerless. For details of what is "corruption" and what is not, go to:  what is "corruption?.

corruption is not always bad, yes it is almost never bad for everybody!

We shall use the term righteousness as a shorthand for behaving in a non-corrupt manner. It is often thought that all kinds of righteousness are good. In fact righteousness is often bad, and almost always bad to someone.

extortion defined.............opposite trade

extortion badly organized: the money extorted seldom reaches the top in sufficient quantities to created the orderly society that in Europe was given birth by corruption

A small reward for "service" if if only the service of NOT using your official power annoying you corruption is privatization of government extortion. Often higher up one finds this the easiest way to keep a loyal military, police and bureaucracy. Obote to military: you want money? But don't you have guns? Why not get it?

Corruption as "brokerage". The "agent".
 

In Maersk story: bad organization of corruption

My Arrest by Immigration: is there crime among Serengeti animals? African hominides do the same, why call it crime? Its nature!

In Africa, extortion is privatized. Having an office means having been given the power to annoy people. The power has an earning capacity. That means that all officers police, military, immigration, custums, earn their money by extorting money from the citizens they happen to meet in a position where they could possibly annoy them. They are paid for not doing so.
Also, social security is privatized: families take care of its members. Those who are invalid and isolated from families make their own living by begging. In towns, they make a daily tour along shops, who have a tin can with some coins on the counter for the purpose. This works if you are blind, very old of very seriously cripple (limping with one lame leg and a stick is not enough).

That does not mean the government is not taxing people. But where that money is going nobody sees and nobody knows.

Road building and subcontracting
 

Methods of wealth acquisition:

begging (being smart)
swindling (being smart)
stealing (being smart)
extortion (using power)
robbery (using power)

(in short, anything but working)

Other terms

extortion
afpersing
afzetterij
afpersing
extortion, exaction
blackmail
rent seeking
surplus
'afromen
(roomde af, h. afgeroomd) overgankelijk werkwoord
cream, skim [milk]

Not only is corruption an unworkable term, so are good and evil. Those who try to teach western carpentry standards in Africa invariably have problems showing that what the African thinks is straight, realy isn't. If this problem persists for simple thinks like cutting wooden planks, how about morals?

In the West, one is inclined to think that ethics, morality is a difficult subject, opinions are likely to diverge just about every detail, and there is no way to discuss the isues to come to common conlclusons. In Africa, one sees people doing wrong, and no discussion is needed to explain:

The curious thing happening to the Westerner used to moral relativism is that, in Africa, he discovered there are general universal moral principles after all and society reduces to a near beast like state of poverty in all respects when the majority of a population simply lacks the brains to understand what these moral principles are and how they should be maintained.

Zie ook Xenophon
 

Road side "officials" see travel vicissitudes: borders, reflecting triangles, etc.

you fine me or you do not fine me, but you are not going to ask me two crates of soda!

Patrol boats, not to fight crime but to get money from the traders

About African hardwood tree protection: in the last century, the trees were cut near to extinction under western political and commercial leadership for supply to western markets. Then westerners come to argue for protection. Local political leaders explain them this will be unpopular and make them loose the elections. Westerners pay them to win those (that needs little money indeed), and some money to keep privately. Hard wood tree protection goes on its way (if for local politicians it is not enough just to lie is does). Hard wood prices go up as steeply as the protection is effective. Every body runs to the last trees to cut them.

Er is inmiddels overal een ruim aanbod buitenlandse waar. In Kampala zijn enkele "shopping malls" waar je eigenlijk bijna alles kunt krijgen. Daar kun je nog overheen als je weet waar de superspecialisten zitten (denk aan gespecialiseerde electronica, zonnepanelen, trage akkuus, Havanasigaren, Becam-internetsatelliettelefoon hardware, spruitstukje Yamacrossmotor 125X 1991 waterkoeling, osso buco, goudse kaas). Maar dat vind je uiteindelijk allemaal ook, tot inline skates aan toe, en het beschikbare asfalt hier is een ideale elfsteden oefening vol ribbels en potholes. De welvaart bereikt het asfalt niet. Wij willen allemaal een dikke auto om te rijden op de wegen die er niet zijn. Dat geldt ook voor het Ugandese rijkswaterstaat en zijn aannemers: die verdelen het wegengeld priv, kopen er dan dikke 4WD troopers voor en voegen zich scheldend op de potholes in de file. Zo denderen er onder de naam "Nijl" zeker genoeg kilowatten door Uganda naar beneden om heel Oostafrika elektrisch op te laten koken, maar de energie ambtenaren drukken het elektriciteitsgeld achterover, en kopen daarmee de de laatste bomen op ter verkoop als kozijntje of brandhout voor een kopje soep. Soms is er toch elektriciteit. Want er is een dam, en binnenkort gaat een tweede in bedrijf. Maar in de metaalbuurt hier in Jinja stelen lassers de olie uit de transformatoren, en als ze er dan mee willen gaan lassen is er ineens een week geen stroom, hetgeen natuurlijk een onverwachte teleurstelling is.  Kortom, zoals mijn vriend Bert Kerkhof en ik op geschikte momenten tegen elkaar plegen zeggen: ja, ja, de vooruitgang is niet te stuiten, en de achteruitgang ook niet....Met bovenstaande wil ik maar zeggen is dat dat dus niet alleen in Nederland geldt, maar zelfs in Uganda, hoewel dat toch een veel fatsoenlijker land is.

Road Safety

Main problems:

1. Insecurity cause by police. Drivers can do nothing if they do not pay the police, they can do anything they want if they pay the police. Police only controls

2. Drivers had to buy their driving license. There is no check on driving capabilities. Bad drivers who pay get a license.

3. Drivers do not know the traffic rules.

4. Police does not know the traffic rules.

5. Drivers can be as  drunk as they want. There is no check.

6. Some police nowadays get from benevolent western countries echo speed meters. It is very hard for them nowadays to find places where road quality indeed allows for driving faster than maximum speed. This is usually at places where maximum speed is set unexpectedly and unreasonably low. There, you will find them with their fresh western tools to earn some money. Off course, this does nothing to enhance road the dreadfully low road safety in east Africa.

In this light, especially the fierce police control on safety belts become rather ridiculous: drunken drivers use safety belts to keep sitting upright thus have nothing to fear (from police, that is).

Coca cola does not leave road safety monitoring to police "How am I driving? Call /// //// ////"

In Europe, especially in the Italy and France, police treats negroes decisively less polite and more violent than whites. No one can deny that. But the negro police in African countries does the same! Clearly, even negroes realize negroes should be discriminated against.

In sum: one of a number of the first measures to improve road safety should be to abolish police altogether.

Lake safety

Business over tarmac strangled by police. At the lake there is still a thriving free market. This is now quickly coming to an end: Patrol boats paid by aiding western countries. Shipbuilders asked to put a foundations for heavy canons. No doubt, the boats will carry RPG7 systems. Used for government piracy on the lake, strangling business.

Lake Crime Stories

 

Some Of My Standoffs with Corrupt East African Public Officers and Their Cronies, and
the development and refinement of the
Ideal African Public Officer Flic Flac (IAPOFF).

Politie
De helm in Uganda: dames mogen ook een cavera, achterop geen helm, blanken aangehouden
De gordels "are you going to pay us"???, het 2 crates of soda incident.

Documentation task of Police: House owner brings confused man to Police office who was trying to climb his fence. He get a receipt: Date: ....Received: One fool From: .....Address.....

Getting my motor cycle driving licence.
In Uganda, you first buy a learner's licence, then you do (=buy) an exam, then you buy your driving licence.
For my learner's licence the "vehicle inspector" sent me home to come back tomorrow, the useal way of saying he wanted some money. But I went (on my motorcycle!). On the second and third day he did the same. On the fourth day there was another officer. He saw me for three days in a row in the visitor's book and said: "you are coming for your driving licence?"
"Yes", I said quickly.
"Drive off the compound here, go left, go left at the crossing, enter the compound there drive back to this place and park under the tree".
I did so. He signed a paper. As soon as I was around the corner I took the paper and saw I had my paper for a definitive driving license, not the learning license. Though the path to actually having the licence in my personal pocket was still going to be elaborate, I had a unexpected lucky shortcut t a decisive moment...

 

See also corruption

Illegal: Roadside officials

Illegal: Morals

Corruption in Western countries compared: KUB

They keep screening, inspecting, annoying and harassing you, coming and going as they please, and no one will give you any document of clearance. The law does not effectively protect you against these organised government gangs: they act in a minute and you can sue for years. You spend a lot of money but if you win such a legal procedure, you get nothing out of it. Next time they come back to harass you again they will pretend not to know much of the history of previous government assaults. They aspire regular and returning operations, as a farmer aspires to milk a cow not once, but on a regular basis. Security circles are widely suspected to be involved in robberies initiated on information obtained from searches and inspections by security.
No one thus far got anything from me, simply because that would only increase the attraction my dhow apparently already has: in 10 months we had 5 screenings, the 6 on-lake screenings/harassments not included, all government, I have seen no private pirate yet.

The problem of government officers is this: they are thugs, armed thugs, but you cannot shoot them. It is not allowed. You cannot arrest them and call their bosses. The bosses either are aware of the questionable operation and have ordered it, or they know they will have their share of any booty acquired and take their side. You can call higher officers. They can settle it, but they will want money too. The higher you go up the ranks the more you pay. So, 1. Best: do not pay and just risk to be harassed, jailed or even shot. The only thing they will waste of you is some of your time (and theirs, but they have plenty, it is the money they lack). 2. Worse: pay the little monkeys. 3. Even worse: pay the big ones to chase the little ones. 4. Worst of all: go claim your civil rights. If you raise your stakes to ever bigger monkeys, in the end the government is behind them. It has even tanks, fighter jets and rockets obtained from "helping" western countries. If you want even to acquire the power to go over that, you will have to set up your own government in some region (Whites only, otherwise you will sink in the same imbecile modes of government operation immediately). But then you will be covered, nay totally submerged, under the protests, moral indignation and scorn of foreign white political correctness. Thus Africa is trapped and there is no way out. The degeneration of Africa is caused from outside. That is done by giving them limited technology like cars, some obsolete military weapons, electrical power, communication, which, even in its limited extent,  is already far too much for their limited brains to handle. But this degeneration will not be stopped from outside because it is not a global problem: chaos and immorality keeps purchases in Africa cheap, and there are no indigenous talents there that could concoct any international threat of the type known from all other parts of the world. Managing Africa: provide primitive technology, just enough for them to understand how they can use it to keep harassing each other. This harassing of each other is always takes place inside countries, not between countries. Keep in mind that wars between the African countries have always been scarce indeed: for ruling elites, exploitation and extortion of their own political domain is already overstretching their organisational and technical capabilities, so there is no incentive to international war in Africa. Weapons are for internal use (apart from some stealing in a destabilized neighbouring country like Congo without territorial ambitions, or fighting your own rebels after they sought refuge over the border). Hence the paramount importance of internal security organisations ("ISO"). African government elites always support each other, their interest is to discipline and prey on their own populations, not to annoy colleagues of other countries.

Philemon hospital
Philemon is in Mwanza main hospital to bring a bar fight victim. While there, he hears a man entering with his 9 months pregnant wife. She is very ill. Suddenly. The nurse asks money first. He says this had happened so suddenly that he forgot. Let her start helping his wife, he will go home for the money. The nurse refuses. During the discussion the wife dies, lying on the waiting room floor, between the other waiters. The man leaves the hospital, comes back with a panga and starts cutting everyone in hospital uniform. Police is called. They come and seize the man. He tells his story. The dead pregnant wife still down there on the ground. Heavily bleeding nurse is not denying.
"He has the right to do this!!!" a police officer shouts to the bleeding nurse: "Look what you did!!!"
The panga man went into jail and the policeman got fired. His wife is also police, so he is still living in the police quarters, telling everybody his unchanged opinion of police: people who are treated like this man have the full right to go to hospital with a panga and cut everyone in hospital uniform. This is normal. No police issue. They should let him!

Philemon ferry:
A private private ferry got no entry to Bukoba harbour. Government and lake safety chimps pocket from the government ferry Victoria (from colonial times) and, though overcrowded 300% with passengers still not able to process the traffic, competition was thought detrimental. But Victoria broke down. Millions of dollars of spare parts, donated by the West of course, under way to Dar es Salaam, disappeared. There is no concrete perspective on the Victoria returning into service. The private ferry now is allowed in the harbour.