Can an honest person be corrupt? Yes

Here's an email exchange with a colleague on a mailing list. My answer is that yes, you can be a personally honest person but you can be totally corrupt at the same time. I hate corruption and have written about it frequently as in here, and see a search here.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

________________________________

From: Bhaskar Dasgupta [mailto:bdasgupta@gmail.com]
Sent: 18 August 2007 09:12
To: xxx@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Indians are honest people: Reader's Digest Test


xxxxx

Very interesting indeed but I found it very ironical.

There have been quite a lot of studies done on corruption. If you see where it arises, it always arises when there is a process to be negotiated, short-circuiting that process will unfairly benefit somebody and finally the process/results are not transparent. For most of the day to day interactions between 1-2-1 citizens, these conditions do not hold.

But when the state gets involved, corruption takes hold. If the mobile phone was switched to some element of a public good, such as electricity, or railway reservations (pre computerisation) or licences, then you would see the results at the transparency international website, with just these honest people giving bribes and taking them.

That's the irony.

cheers

bd


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There is now proof that Indians, although they are poor, are among
the most honest people in the world.

I am aware of the corruption in India, and have frequently thought
about it. I had concluded that Indians are inherently very honest,
however the system has been forcing them to engage in corruption to
survive. The system has been corrected to some extent, and as a
result, corruption has declined, although India has along way to go
to implement a totally fair system.

I should mention that corruption is not India's greatest problem. An
ineffecive system is worse than a corrupt system.

xxxxxx

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Reader's Digest Conducts Global Cell Phone Honesty Test

What will you do if you notice a mobile phone left unattended and
ringing in a shopping mall lobby? Would you answer the call? In case
you do, will you spare some time and trouble yourself to return it?
Alternatively, just cut-it, keep the tempting new handset in your
pocket and walk away? Some most populated cities in 32 countries were
selected to observe how people behave in such a situation.

Reader's Digest, a widely read magazine, conducted an informal
honesty test by leaving 960 mobile phones, at select busy public
spots, in each city. The "Global Cell-Phone Honesty Test" reveals
that almost 68 % people gave it back.

According to Reader's Digest , the test was conducted concurrently in
32 countries. Researchers observed the mobile handsets from a
distance after leaving it as "lost" at a place. Handsets were brand-
new, mid-priced models with tempting designs. Researchers were
observing for three possible types of human responses. One may decide
to return the phone or keep the phone with himself. He may also
decide to make a call later, on the pre-programmed handset number,
the third possibility.

Beguiling findings of this "Global Honesty Test" represents some
natural human instincts in a different way. "The average return rate
was remarkable 68 percent, or about two thirds of the 30 phones we
dropped in each city." said Conrad Kiechel, Editorial Director,
International, in a press release on prnewswire.com.

See results at


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Mumbai is in the top 5. 24 of the 30 phones were returned in Mumbai.

Only Llublija (29 returned), Toronto (28),Seoul (27), Stockholm (26)
proved to be more honest.

Thank you, people of Mumbai.

xxxxxx