We throw the word corruption around like sand on a beach. This renders it irrelevant and does not contribute much to any discussion as far as I can see. Attempts to have serious discourse quickly deteriorate as the mud slinging escalates, both sides losing ground and eventually having accomplished nothing except perhaps, even more dislike for each other. So, I looked around and came up with something that may prove more useful. I found a list on Wikipedia that clearly outlines favourable conditions which PROMOTE corruption. I thought that instead of doing the “PUP is worse than UDP but UDP promised to be different” thing again, we could actually use an objective  standard by which to gauge the situation. It is a lot to think about and absorb all at once, perhaps even more so, as we are more than hungover on a Saturday morning 🙂 but I found it very useful in putting our situation into perspective. I hope that as we read through the list, we can identify these issues and in a very non-partisan way, acknowledge that which is blocking our bid for success as a nation.

It is argued that the following conditions are favorable for corruption:

• Information deficits
  • Lacking freedom of information legislation. For example: The Indian Right to Information Act 2005 is perceived to have “already engendered mass movements in the country that is bringing the lethargic, often corrupt bureaucracy to its knees and changing power equations completely.”^[12]
  • Lack of investigative reporting in the local media.
  • Contempt for or negligence of exercising freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
  • Weak accounting practices, including lack of timely financial management.
  • Lack of measurement of corruption. For example, using regular surveys of households and businesses in order to quantify the degree of perception of corruption in different parts of a nation or in different government institutions may increase awareness of corruption and create pressure to combat it. This will also enable an evaluation of the officials who are fighting corruption and the methods used.
  • Tax havens which tax their own citizens and companies but not those from other nations and refuse to disclose information necessary for foreign taxation. This enables large scale political corruption in the foreign nations.^{[13][citation needed]}

• Lacking control of the government.
  • Lacking civic society and non-governmental organizations which monitor the government.
  • An individual voter may have a rational ignorance regarding politics, especially in nationwide elections, since each vote has little weight.
  • Weak civil service, and slow pace of reform.
  • Weak rule of law.
  • Weak legal profession.
  • Weak judicial independence.
  • Lacking protection of whistleblowers.
    • Government Accountability Project
  • Lack of benchmarking, that is continual detailed evaluation of procedures and comparison to others who do similar things, in the same government or others, in particular comparison to those who do the best work. The Peruvian organization Ciudadanos al Dia has started to measure and compare transparency, costs, and efficiency in different government departments in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has received widespread media attention. This has created competition among government agencies in order to improve.^[14]

• Opportunities and incentives
  • Individual officials routinely handle cash, instead of handling payments by giro or on a separate cash desk—illegitimate withdrawals from supervised bank accounts are much more difficult to conceal.
  • Public funds are centralized rather than distributed. For example, if $1,000 is embezzled from a local agency that has $2,000 funds, it is easier to notice than from a national agency with $2,000,000 funds. See the principle of subsidiarity.
  • Large, unsupervised public investments.
  • Sale of state-owned property and privatization.^{[citation needed]}
  • Poorly-paid government officials.
  • Government licenses needed to conduct business, e.g., import licenses, encourage bribing and kickbacks.
  • Long-time work in the same position may create relationships inside and outside the government which encourage and help conceal corruption and favoritism. Rotating government officials to different positions and geographic areas may help prevent this; for instance certain high rank officials in French government services (e.g. treasurer-paymasters general) must rotate every few years.
  • Costly political campaigns, with expenses exceeding normal sources of political funding, especially when funded with taxpayer money.
  • Less interaction with officials reduces the opportunities for corruption. For example, using the Internet for sending in required information, like applications and tax forms, and then processing this with automated computer systems. This may also speed up the processing and reduce unintentional human errors. See e-Government.
  • A windfall from exporting abundant natural resources may encourage corruption.^[15] (See Resource curse)
  • War and other forms of conflict correlate with a breakdown of public security.
• Social conditions
  • Self-interested closed cliques and “Good ol’ boy networks“.
  • Family-, and clan-centered social structure, with a tradition of nepotism/favouritism being acceptable.
  • A gift economy, such as the Soviet blat system, emerges in a Communist centrally planned economy.
  • Lacking literacy and education among the population.
  • Frequent discrimination and bullying among the population.
  • Tribal solidarity, giving benefits to certain ethnic groups

In the Indian political system, for example, it has become usual that the leadership of national and regional parties are passed from generation to generation^[16][17] creating a system in which a family holds the center of power. Some examples are most of the Dravidian parties of south India and also the Congress party, which is one of the two major political parties in India.

It is alarming just how many of these conditions exist in Belize. For the whole article, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption

After all the rubbish being thrown about last night, I figured we need to read this again. When churches spew biblical quotes reinforcing hate mongering and calling for death of homosexuals, they DO become responsible for inciting the terror now being spread, unlike what several people tried to say. This is the consequence of your words and gay bashing. Eat crow and re evluate. Everybody’s watching you.

Dail Dingleberry 02-09-12

I think Aria and I are both getting a little emotionally spent at this point…writing every day means a heavy commitment to reading a lot, discussing even more and then formulating a concise bunch of words that appeals to our audience. That said, we are not going to quit, not by any means; but, lawd a massi, as one of my friends says it, this is truly trying. I suppose we were prepared for opposition and discord, even outrage. What we weren’t prepared for, I don’t think, is the hatred. Aria and I are similar in that way. We have a keen sense of what is fair, what is right, what is just. We cannot stand aside and watch when others are attacked and belittled, demeaned and now, actually physically assaulted. Where is the Church now? Why have the leaders not come out against this crime? this sin? One doesn’t have to look far for direction on this matter. Jesus didn’t ascribe to the morality of the day, you know, stoning of the immorals; and, in fact, told religious bigots that the prostitutes would enter in heaven before they do. He preached tolerance of the ‘immoral’ you know, ADULTERERS, PROSTITUTES AND HOMOSEXUALS. He socialized with them and even made some of them APOSTLES…I’m just saying, if you are feeling lost and unsure of how to proceed…Jesus has been showing you for, oooh, a couple thousand years.

Here is an edited version of the video Amir originally posted. He had to remove his school affiliation b/c they suspended him for that…HERE IS THE LINK! And THANK YOU AMIR for standing up for your rights!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OFlpBTErHs&feature=youtu.be

Sooooooooo…..some lil birdies been tweetin’ round heah, dat you out there don’t know what to do with us twocans. Apparenty, you can’t tell if we are PUP or UDP. What is there to figure out? We been done said it ’nuff times. WE PURPLE. Nuh because we ride the donkey of the day, but because we been beat up and broken by the both a y’all. We is tyad a di games. We is tyad a di lies. We is tyad a di corruption. We is tyad a di destruction. Both parties are rotten to the core. Things need to be turned out and over and rebuilt. That is what we have said and what we will keep saying until it gets friggin done.

Now 🙂 Have I made myself crystal clear? Good.  Don’t be scared of us.  Nobody is paying us. We make not a coppah. We can’t be bought, threatened or squelched. Fus of all, ah tu big fi mek anybody squelch me, LOL, and second of all, we are independent. We aren’t vying for a scholarship or a job or a seat.

Go forth and spread the birdflew http://www.twocanview.com