What kind of society do we live in?
I am friends with a former senior St Lucia government official and top businessman there who, when he heard about the gross corruption rampant here, said business-state corruption riddles Caribbean societies.
Why?
My friend said that in small societies where everyone knows everyone else corruption becomes almost inevitable, because friends tend to do favours for friends.
Word on the street here is that corruption happens precisely because of this phenomenon. Friends and relatives and other folks with inside access to state officials, tend to request favours of various kinds.
In such a small society as ours, where state officials and rich business folks rub shoulders so easily, how could we guard against corruption, especially in a society where organized crime is so embedded and so widespread?
One Member of Parliament told me last year that this society has a core group of business elites who sit on Boards of companies. They rotate every now and again from company to company, but this insider elite group maintains tight control over the established private sector. This elite core group maintains control of the banking sector, for example.
Even financial donations to political parties that fund their electoral campaigning come from a small core of financiers. These financiers are bound to come knocking for favours once the government is in power. Could the state official say no to a guy who dropped a million dollars on the campaign desk at Freedom House?
In small societies, people build friendships easily. And friends tend to do anything for friends.
A friend, the wisdom proverb says, sticks closer than a brother.
Indeed, it is who you know that paves the way for getting up in life, in certain societies. In such societies, meritocracy cannot take root, because merit gets pushed to the back seat in favour of a friend or someone who one knows.
So this thing about who is your friend means a lot. It means being able to rise in society, or having to live a mediocre lifestyle.
‘Vital Friends’ is actually the name of a book. Written by Tom Rath and published in 2006, it quickly became a New York Times bestseller.
Rath asks in his first chapter: ‘Who expects you to be somebody?’
The author encourages us to cultivate worthy friends, to surround ourselves with “vital friends” who are sound human beings – people who believe in us, push us to achieve, encourage us to live for worthy goals, and stand by us no matter what.
Sad it is that in the small Caribbean societies, we experience corruption, because we ought to cultivate a society where we hold each other, our friends, accountable for sound public ethics, moral strength and good conscience. We should be friends of value to each other.
Maybe because our Caribbean societies are small and poor, we throw ethics, morals and good conscience out, and go after financial gain. The almighty dollar rules, and friends who could line our pockets become friends indeed.
In building our society, each of us has to aim for the best that we could be. I must want to grow as a person, in my character and humane values.
And so if this is my goal, then I must cultivate vital friends who surround me to lift me up, to bear me on their shoulders and champion me. I want friends that care for my development as a person, not just my financial state.
We harbour a society that has deteriorated so badly that it seems state officials have friends who encourage corruption, poor ethical behaviour and terrible moral choices, because international reports blast this society as highly corrupt at state level.
In fact, most citizens agree that our society suffers from moral bankruptcy. And of course we blame the government, because government is corrupt, with only “their own people” benefiting from the state windfall. That allegation dogs both this and the previous administration.
One way to reform our society’s ethical foundation is to build our personal space into a society of worthy friends. Our friends, family and people we associate with, such as in the workplace, make up our personal society.
And each person could cultivate his or her personal society into a fruitful garden that contributes good to the wider society. To achieve this we have to choose our friends carefully.
Who are my friends? What kind of conversations do they carry on? What activities do they enjoy? Do they work to see me be the best that I could be? Do they work hard for me to realize my potential? Do they care about character development?
Or are they people of base passions and vile values? Are they toxic, or do they bring good sense to my personal social space?
Am I being such a friend to my friends?
These are some of the questions we could each of us deal with as we seek to play our role in building this Guyanese society – a society that now spans the global village.
To build a personal life of worth and value, one has to cultivate a society of worthy and valuable friends, people who are of good conscience, valuable knowledge and sound character.
“Building on your vital friendships can improve countless facets of your life if, and only if, you dedicate your attention to the positive roles people do play in your life,” Rath wrote.
The personal space of each citizen makes up the national space of the nation.
So if we carefully cultivate our personal space as a healthy social environment where our “vital friends” become shoulders on which we could stand to get a more comprehensive view of life, the wider society benefits.
Rath provokes the discussion in his book with questions like:
* Who picks you up when you are down and need someone?
* Who knows how to push you to do more – to achieve more?
* Who are your vital friends?
Rath quotes the late US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt leaving the world this timeless advice, one we would do well to heed as each of us works in our personal social space to build the society of the Guyanese nation: “Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships”.
In other words, if the Guyanese civilization is to prosper and grow, we must each cultivate healthy relationships, harbouring vital friends who elevate us to higher goals and nobler values.
Taking such responsibility for building our personal social spaces, for choosing who are our vital friends, could be the key to stamping out national corruption and building a Guyanese nation of sound ethical and moral values.
