Corruptababble

What and who is responsible for Africa woes? Corruption and bad governments are often cited, but Brendon and Yolanda, two young South Africans, dare to disagree – and they set out to dispute myths in their new movie – Corruptababble.  The movie will be shown at a film festival in the UK this Sunday, but you can get a preview in this article and on this page (video preview and a brief description).

Some notable quotes from the article:

There is also no evidence of any correlation between levels of development and corruption. In fact, far from corruption holding back development and keeping people poor, it would be possible to draw the opposite conclusion from the figures. As Yolanda suggests in the film, China features way down as ‘unclean’ on Transparency International’s ‘corruption perception index’ and ‘bribery propensity’ tables – yet China’s growth in the past ten years, and its capacity to deliver millions from poverty, is unprecedented.

Really? I can start listing many studies that show the impact corruption has on the poor and development generally, but then again…there was this one Turkish journalist who said it best after tens of thousands died in shoddy buildings during an earthquake – “corruption kills people, not earthquakes.”

Another one:

This view of Africa, as unethical, incompetent and in constant need of Western supervision, is perpetuated by everyone from the Bono-Geldof bandwagon to free market stalwarts – and it directly impacts on aid flows and investment and justifies ever greater aid conditionalities.

True, perceptions do play a role, and bad perceptions tend to stick with people.  But the pressure is on Africa to change the way the world thinks about the continent and show that business can and should be done there.  And while there have been notable changes in the economic and political environments recently, and investment opportunities are there, much more remains to be done for investors to flock.

Finally,

The obsession with corruption demeans autonomy and democracy and justifies new levels of regulation, interference and control. This obsession should be given no credence and its part in development discourse cannot be taken seriously. Rightly ridiculed in our film, the obsession with corruption is no more than childish babble.

There might be too much obsession with corruption, but obsessing over it doesn’t necessarily mean doing much about it.  Or does it?

Either way – agree with it or not – this might be an interesting movie to check out.