What would you do as a student to reduce corruption?

Answer 1

Mubeem, I think an answer to your question depends on the type of corruption you see in daily life and where you are.

If you are in the US( as the answerers before me assumed), the corruption you experience on a daily basis is probably pretty minimal, and limited to things like people cheating on homework or fudging an employee report for self-interest reasons. You might be able to help reduce it at your school by lobbying the school for participation in a service like Turnitin.com to evaluate cheating, or by helping organize an ethics-awareness event at your school.

Sometimes people try to bribe police officers (which doesn't usually work) or government officials (again, doesn't usually work, largely because the "price" of US officials is pretty high and because they have too much to lose and because we have a lot of regulatory infrastructure looking for that sort of thing). These kind of pieces of corruption you don't have much power to deal with, except to report to the authorities every time you experience or know of them.

However, if you aren't in the US or another developed nation, you've got an entirely different scenario on your hands. You may, but probably don't, have any real legal recourse. In some countries, corruption is a way of life, and there's nothing immoral in taking a bribe for helping someone make an appointment because that's how everyone feeds their family. Unfortunately, endemic corruption such as this stymies economies and completely incapacitates governments, so even though the individual action is helpful to the individual and definitely not out of place, it creates a net burden on society.

As a student, perhaps you can organize a "say no to corruption" group on campus. Work to raise public awareness of the detrimental effects corruption has on people in your community. Create friendships with people likely to go the politics route, and foster in them a sense of how necessary for development it is that people stay clear of corruption. Help them understand that there are a few things that are necessary for a corruption-free life.

(1) Rule of Law.
Without solid rule of law, any attempts at reducing corruption will come to nothing. The judiciary must be free, independent, and corruption-free or there is no rule of law.

(2) Clear and Effective standards
People want to do the right thing. Unfortunately, what "the right thing" is they often don't know. For example, I'm in an organization that stores soda in a common-area refrigerator. Some people were consuming the stored soda whenever they felt like it, others reserved its use for organization events. Nobody was really sure what the appropriate use was. We met and decided the soda was for organization use, but anyone could have a can any time they pleased provided they put a small donation in a cup for it and told someone when the soda was almost gone. Implementation of a clear policy lead to people knowing what to do and acting on their knowledge (and a future soda-buying budget for us!).

(3) oversight
Of course, someone could empty out the soda money cup. There's no oversight. Any time you have sums of money handled (particularly larger than a few dollars), there has to be accountability for all of that money. Audits, investigations, and true consequences are necessary to maintain the integrity of the system. You have to be able to try people for acting in a corrupt manner.

(4) public support
People (everyone) has to understand the benefit to acting with honesty and not with corruption. People cannot be punished for failing to offer bribes or turning in corrupt officials, but instead should be rewarded for behavior in accordance with integrity. They need to understand that vote-selling is a primary mode of corruption that in the end simply ends representation based on results.

The United Nations released a great paper on this topic. You should take a look at it.
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/gpacpublications/cicp2.pdf

Best wishes!

Answer 2

Understanding and implementing ethical standards in everyday life is essential. Also, gaining knowledge and applying those ethical standards to others (such as in voting), a student can provide checks and balances to reduce the event of corruption.

Answer 3

VOTE! Keep up with the news with as many valid and un biased sources you can find. Speak UP! Many people are afraid to speak up since 911 and were told that it is un-American to speak up. Read the constitution and know your rights. Help others become aware of them too. Speak UP! In order for the citizens of the U.S. to avoid having corrupt leaders, we must make ourselves aware of the things our candidates are involved in. Participate in discussion even with the candidate him/herself by phone, letter and even e-mail. We can not afford as a Nation to have a corrupt president or any congressmen for that matter. Make sure your state does not have electronic voting machines. Have more precincts to help voting become timely and more volunteers who will count the votes properly. Think Think Think - Ask Ask Ask Then Think and Ask some more and oh ya! SPEAK UP!

Answer 4

I think that a student wouldn't have the "wear with all " to know corruption if they where holding hands. Similar to politics that exist today.

Answer 5

End compulsory schooling. That way, only individuals who want to go to school will go, which will force the schools to stop sucking and start being useful and interesting. Privatization is also useful, because it provides competition and forces public schools to try and do better. (Although, since they aren't worried about funding, this doesn't seem to be working.)

Answer 6

I would learn how to contact my representatives, and I would do so whenever I learned of the need to remind them of their responsibilities. And I would find a watchdog organization that I trusted to notify me when my input was needed.

Answer 7

Reiterate the concept of integrity and truth in scholarship.

Answer 8

Have everyone who belongs to the Democratic party admitted to a mental hospital.

Answer 9

Vote!

Answer 10

corruptian..

well

pray for sincerity of the good heart and it wouldn't be around any student / person