Dear Editor,
“A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” Theodore RooseveltTHE financial meltdown that led to the Great Recession in the U.S.A. was orchestrated by Wall Street crooks, decorated with M.B.As and other degrees. In many countries, some of the most shameful schemes of corruption, nepotism, fraud, theft, bribery, financial malfeasance, and misuse of public assets and funds are daily being perpetrated by degreed rogues holding key positions in government and in corporate entities. It is not uncommon to hear of highly certified individuals (such as doctors, lawyers, accountants etc.) being involved in various illegal and corrupt schemes and enterprises. It is also public knowledge that some Guyanese professionals (mainly lawyers and real estate agents) have been jailed (or are awaiting sentencing) in the United States for various financial crimes. This is an unnecessary burden on the Guyanese community here, which has been recognised for its industriousness and dedication.
The expectation is that university-educated individuals would have some modicum of morality; at least enough to compel them to shy away from wrongdoing. Also, the common notion is that highly qualified managers and key executives in organisations would be paradigms of integrity, setting the values and tone of the corporate culture, and they would be the least likely individuals to commit any fraud or wrongdoing. The actual reality is far different. Many see no harm in using their skills, knowledge, persuasive ability, access to companies’ records and financial statements, and their power and authority, to mask their nefarious and corrupt deeds and make them appear as perfectly acceptable. In many instances, it can require the investigative and forensic skills of a team of highly trained individuals to reveal the criminal nature of their activities. Once they have taken that ‘first step’, there is then no limit to their attempts to deceive, cheat, and commit various crimes. Their professional ethics then become subservient to their dark world of fraud and corruption, and soon they acquire that obsessive drive to concoct various creative and exotic schemes to further their greed. An uneducated man caught stealing is immediately jailed; these “educated” rascals can steal for decades, hiding under the cloak of their professional “respectability” and (like corrupt priests and pandits) taking advantage of the trust we place in them. But they cannot escape from the hands of time; when caught the shame and the decline is most steep and rapid.
It is shocking and strange that so many highly qualified professionals seem to have a definite proclivity to commit fraud and various other forms of wrongdoing. On a deeper level, there is not much of a mystery here. Central to the ‘core values’ of these individuals is the concept that ‘greed is good’, greed is beautiful and highly beneficial; greed must be nourished and expanded, because it is the bedrock of material advancement, wealth, fame and social status. For many of them, greed is not only morally acceptable; it becomes the motive force of life itself, the drive that is the causative factor in all progress and advancement. So many books have been written and so many seminars held where greed has not only been promoted, but where it has also been literally deified. When greed takes such a strong foothold on their consciousness, it is but an easy step, a quite natural progression, to engage in various illegal activities, to be blind to the feelings and pains of others, and to exploit others for their own enrichment. Also, when greed has become the key driver for action and for life itself, then it matters little whether one is highly qualified or not; the path to evil and infamy is assured. This is so beautifully hinted at by the great spiritual master and poet, Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote: “The greed of gain has no time or limit to its rapaciousness. It has pity neither for beautiful nature nor for living human beings. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life.”
Yours sincerely,
CECIL RAMKIRATH
