11/05/2017
THOUGHTS ON YOUTH AND CORRUPTION:
It sometimes seems that the youth have grown accustomed to corruption forming a part of our daily lives, without it even being noticed any more. Youths are confronted with many challenges that could lead them to adopt unethical practices from their communities, social media and even from entertainment. Many are left feeling uncertain about what is important, what is right and wrong, and what they should stand for in life.
These challenges often exist because of a lack of good role models that practice ethical behaviour. There are few platforms for young people to address socio-economic challenges, which results in young people accepting corruption as inevitable, even though corrupt people are already stealing from the next generation, just as they are stealing in our generation.
It seems to be becoming a norm in our communities that, in order to be successful in life, you need to be corrupt (involved in bribery), or you "must know someone" or many other forms of corruption, and if you refuse to do so, you lose.
Our society experiences corruption on a daily basis. Through Unashamedly Ethical youth engagements it was learnt that in government sectors like Traffic Departments, Home Affairs, Law Enforcement Officers and many other departments it becomes difficult to access services if you are not corrupt. This leads to youth compromising their own values because they want to survive.
We cannot leave behind the private sector, social societies and many other community structures, including community leaders and members. Young people are increasingly tolerating corruption because they fear standing up to corrupt leaders as they lack role models that stand against corruption within their communities. Those who benefit from corruption only care about self-enrichment and do not care about the broader society.
We all know that corruption leads to many bad things, like poverty, substance abuse, a high rate of unemployment, poor service delivery, and untrustworthy leaders, to name but a few.
We believe that Unashamedly Ethical is the one tool that our societies can utilise in addressing all these social ills. Unashamedly Ethical makes it clear that the rise of ethical leaders is of paramount importance to our communities.
We all need to take a public stand for ethics, values and clean living within our communities, and this can be done by becoming active signatories of Unashamedly Ethical movement.
Our youth need to be educated more about the full impact of corruption in their lives and communities, in order for them to create new weapons to combat corruption within their own societies. One way of doing just that is by joining movements that already exist such as Unashamedly Ethical, and in doing so joining hands with other people who are taking a public stand again corruption.
Our youth needs a platform like Unashamedly Ethical, where they can discuss the importance of adopting a lifestyle of ethics, values and clean living. We hope that young people will join the Unashamedly Ethical movement and start doing the right thing right now!
