Dear Editor,
A resident of New York has an unusual economic development plan to harness what he says is one of Albany’s most abundant renewable resources: political corruption. The museum is the idea of Bruce Roter, a professor at Albany’s College of Saint Rose, who is now raising money for the museum, which he envisions as both an educational institution and a tourist destination that focuses on the state Capitol’s reputation for corruption. It’s meant to be satirical and entertaining, but grounded in the rigoirs of research, education and museum science. Roter sees school groups visiting.
Mr Roter says the museum will have a “perpetual revolving door” in the Lobbyists Lobby, and a self-guided ‘Follow The Money’ tour.
“The museum’s purpose would be to combine humour and history to teach children and adults some of the sordid tales of corruption from New York’s past,” he said. The museum will also sponsor an annual essay contest for high-school students, to answer the question: “What is political corruption and why should we care?”
“With this contest, the Museum of Political Corruption is taking this step onto the national stage to begin an important discussion on what constitutes political corruption and why we should care,” said Mr Roter.
And Professor Philip Mark Plotch believes that as long as human nature includes greed, envy, and a lust for power, there will be political scandals.
Editor, I believe Guyana needs a museum of political corruption because we have had our share of it. And the good thing is, we don’t have to spend money to build such a museum; I know the perfect building ‒ the Marriott Hotel. We can rename it ‘The Marriott Museum of Political Corruption.’
I know many locals and tourists would go out of their way to visit such a museum. It will bring in a lot of money for the tourism industry.
We will have to come up with some names for the rooms. Here are some suggestions.
- ‘Guyana: A National Cesspool Of Greed, Duplicity And Corruption’
- Kickbacks
- Bribes
- Show me the evidence of corruption
- NICIL
- Top-up
- Lunch money
- Secret bank accounts
- Deceit
- Underworld crime
- The criminal state
- Cheated out of
office
- Hypocrisy
- Moral deterioration
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Pantlitz
