Marchâs Theme is Corruption
Our March theme is Corruption, chosen by our Monterrey chapter and illustrated by Violeta HernĂĄndez.
Corruption can start innocently, like favoring someone you know over someone you donât. Or recalling a gift they once sent, and repay them with a project for that sweetness. Corruption is a spectrum, rewarding social connections and financial advantages over the rules of fair play. It exists in every society and every institution.
Some people survive through corruption, the labyrinthine bureaucracies where they live making it literally impossible otherwise. But while they survive, others perish. Rising plumes of toxic chemicals, collapsing buildings not constructed to code, we owe the calamities all around us to those who cared more about profit than people and gain over the greater good.
As social anthropologist Lucy Koechlin notes, âA world without corruption is a powerful idea. But it doesnât appear out of the blue.â It takes courage to speak out. To demand transparency and accountability. To strengthen whistleblower protections and the rule of law. To break up corporate concentration while organizing coalitions of people to reset the balance. What will you do to hold power to account?
We asked you, In what arenas do you feel the effects of corruption? Hereâs what you shared:
đ States of Corruption
âMy work is focused on highlighting socio-economic, governmental and environmental corruption in the USA. I made this piece, titled Pay Me, in 2019.â â NUCOSA, Oregon, U.S.
âZephyr Teachoutâs talk âWhat is Corrupt?â at the TEDxBinghamton University conference helped articulate for me why corporate concentration makes for a corrupt society. This market structure allows mega-corporations to conceal their complex economic activities from the state and consumers and leaves the small businesses that supply them too scared to speak out and incur the wrath of the leviathans. But more importantly, Teachout explains what got us here â and what tools we have already to stop them.â â Annie Yi, Washington, D.C., U.S.
âIâm sharing my hand cut collage art titled “Untamed Embrace.” Corruption: the candy (food) can corrupt us, the wild animals as man’s corruption of the animal world, the bomb above the couple suggesting people corrupting each other…the bird’s feather falling to me represents disturbance of peace (incorruptability).â â Nancy Kumpulainen, Lake Worth Beach, Florida, U.S.