Where once the very name Rolls-Royce, the British aircraft engine maker, was commonly used with pride as an adjective to describe something or someone of 'top notch in quality', it would appear that the name has lost its integrity and the connotation has gone in the opposite direction.
The latest story that has emerged from Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company alleged to be engulfed in bribery with Rolls-Royce, has been attracting media and public attention. The reports so far are talking BIG money, in fact so big it would be hard if impossible to shove it under a low sitting table and go unnoticed. From what's been reported so far one gets a picture of a marble exchange game amongst school kid, only they are dressed in stripy suits.
News like this is bound to get our blood boiling, evident already in people's comments, reactions and even public marches on the streets of Brazil, with placards reading "BASTA!" It would appear we have had Enough!....but have we Truly?
In general, we are fairly quick to point fingers and cry 'Despicable!' And yes, these acts indeed are contemptible.
However, what if there is more to corruption than we care to see?
Think Corruption and almost immediately images pop up of dictatorships, crooked politicians and large corporations, nepotism, certain people in power infested with deceit, corrupt media pockets, legal system bloated with fraud, favouring public enterprises vs. your every day Joe public....
But does Corruption fester in every darkened nook and cranny?
"They say that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world, but they forget that corruption of the human being was there light of years before it, for there is no need for prostitution if we were not first corrupted in some way" (Serge Benhayon, author and philosopher)
Almost foolishly, or perversely it is perhaps deliberately so, we stop at the aforementioned images about corruption and we lose the 3D picture, we numb out our 6th sense and we do not take the 380 degree (spherical) view of where we stand as a one Humanity in regards to corruption.
Let us not be blinded by our own ignorance, apathy and detachment and let us see corruption for what it truly is and the extent to which we have each contributed to the distortion of truth that plays out in all our lives.
Corruption is a widespread, forceful, mutating man-made and man-fed virus that is in just about everything - our schools and education system, hospital, surgeries and our health systems, pharmaceutical, charities, local clubs, shops, cafes and food industry, work places regardless of their size or net worth, whether in the music or fashion industry etc...you name it, the C word is there.
The problem is that whilst we have developed a distaste for grand corruption, we choose to remain oblivious to the minute manipulations that are constantly going on in and around us.
Corruption comes in all shapes and sizes, gradually putrefying decency and destroying integrity. It goes way beyond and is far more damaging than the classic assumption (like the alleged Rolls Royce example) that corruption mostly involves copious amounts of money exchanged for agreed 'favours'.
The fact is that every time one of us does or says something that distorts the truth and turns it into something that is not, then our complicity with corruption in one area of our lives, laces every area by virtue of the fact we are the same person expressing. Ahh, the insidious scourge of corruption is far more pervasive than we care to see.
Corruption is a true enemy of our evolution.
To begin the process of eradicating corruption we must shed light on all that has been sitting in the shadows for eons. And it is We the by-standers and our own indifference to corruption who are the 'perfect' partners in crime to corruption. As long as we keep sitting in our 'royal boxes' watching through our tainted binoculars and not calling it out for what it truly is, we allow Truth to be perverted so that it makes it much harder for people to discern what's true and what's corrupt.
Every single lie told is corruption.
Let's applaud and celebrate those journalists who go out of their way to expose corruption. Imagine if that wasn't available!
But is it not high time we put our 2 pennies worth in the same anti-corruption bucket and embrace the big R word - R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y, take BASTA placards to our own homes and start sweeping clean our own thresholds before we take the brush of purity and honesty further out and into our streets? Let's turn the index finger to that one main game changer - ourselves.
The Rolls-Royce can regain its previously held status, all they need to do is bring Truth to Engineering.