Historically and experientially, we were conditioned to accept corruption in government when we witnessed how even the most blatantly corrupt people got away with it. Well, externally, they seemed to get away with it.
They may have suffered extreme humiliation for a while; forced to live in exile and demeaning circumstances for a time; incarcerated in hospitals, vacation houses or deluxe jail cells for years — but in the end, they bounced right back and resumed their corruption.
They regrouped. They regained power. They survived… then thrived again. To steal for another day.
Remember the apologue of the frog that was slowly boiled alive? We Filipinos are like that — we were slowly but surely conditioned to accept corruption in smaller doses, in tepid, lukewarm water — until we got so used to it that even when the water had already become boiling hot, we accepted massive corruption in government as an SOP, a necessary evil — if you wanted to do business with government.
Corruption had became a given. It was part of a rotten system that you just couldn’t fight.
Because corruption is infectious. If you’re an underling, an ordinary salaried worker, and you see your boss suddenly wearing expensive things, expanding his house, buying new, flashy cars — your aching desire would most probably be to get your hands on those expensive things, too. Plus, your boss doesn’t seem worried at all that he’ll get caught. So you join the mafia in your office. And you get to buy your first brand new car.
But greed is insatiable. Greed eats you up. Greed blinds you to the consequences of your greed. That’s the curse of Greed.
I suppose the initial shock of being exposed, publicly shamed, grilled, and interrogated on nationwide TV is a gut-wrenching, hypertensive, nerve-wracking experience that will surely wreak havoc on one’s whole body.
One’s health is most often the first to go. When you’re in torment 24/7, your heart goes on over-drive, your BP shoots up, your system goes haywire, your brains get fried. You might have the ability to show some composure, but inside you, you’re a convoluted mess.
Everything around you is falling apart. Your family is being tormented 24/7 by the same horrific nightmare you’re gasping through. Your spouse and children are hounded and mocked. Your cohorts are frantically jumping ship. Like rats in a labyrinth, you’re all in a panic to find a way out.
Will you end up languishing in jail? Your family held hostage? Murdered? Forever scorned in the Hall of Shame — dragging down your descendants along with you?
I’ve seen the consequences of corruption and greed, first hand. All that dirty money caused broken marriages, broken families. Children of corrupt people became alcoholics, drug addicts, incurable gamblers, sexual deviants, abusers and killers, social pariahs. Some became critically ill, mentally imbalanced, suffered nervous breakdowns, and eventually buried in debt.
When these things happen multiple times within the same family, seemingly without end — you know that these are consequences meted out by God Himself.
One may escape the law. But one will never escape God’s wrath.
“The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children for the sin of the parents up to the third and fourth generation.”
(Numbers 14:18)
That’s why, decades ago, when my husband was offered a position to be a board member of a major government corporation, he flatly refused, even if his name had already been submitted to the top.
You see, while he was being vetted, he got a phone call from a businessman who had contracts with the said government corporation. The man told my husband that a very expensive luxury vehicle was going to be delivered to our house the next day — just to welcome him into the fold. The man said they chose a blue vehicle because my husband was an Atenean. Apparently they had done their background checks.
The man said they didn’t need anything in return because all their collectibles had already been paid.
My husband refused the vehicle, of course, and told the man that it was useless to give him a gift because he was refusing the offer to be a board member. The man was utterly shocked.
When my husband got home from the office, he told me that very weird, unnerving story — then he shook his head and laughed.
He said, “I refuse to put myself in a situation where I know I’m going to get tempted like that — again and again. What if I don’t refuse the gift, the next time?”
That was one of the wisest decisions my husband made in his lifetime.
The ROI for choosing a life of hard work, godly stewardship, and integrity are out of this world! I am sure our children will attest to this.
