My original plan in the PhD program was to study something along the lines of Asians in the criminal justice system, crime mapping, or neighborhoods policing.  Issues that I was familiar with as a prosecutor.  I ended up studying corruption for the next 7 years.  In both the government and private sector as well as their intersections. I thought this was an anomaly but it makes sense looking back. It tied up a lot of threads that were coming together even if I didn’t really know or understand it all then.

The dots connect. They somehow do.

And also as more unfolds.

At heart, corruption is the abuse of power and authority.  I witnessed so much of this in my life – from the country I was born in, this one, my work, church, so on and so forth.  It is really difficult to combat much less prevent. My birth county has one of the best anti-corruption frameworks in the world but it has been misused for political purposes. Many of the anti-corruption initiatives worldwide do not have a lot of teeth. They are often paper tigers that hunt down the small prey.

At the end of 7 years in my program, I was asked to teach a course on the topic.  I declined.  I didn’t understand it well enough. And I read pretty much every paper and book published on corruption within a significant period of time. I even wrote a published chapter in an international book and also presented another paper at a conference.

One of the main difficulties in fighting it effectively is the lack of will.  They often label it as political but it’s way more than that. It is also about courage and unbelievably integrity.

And something that will sound incredibly obsolete – the inherent evil of human nature.  I wrote my dissertation on how environments affect effectiveness of leaders and controls.  It wasn’t pretty.  I saw all this play out in real life as well.

As I realized over the course of studying, observing, and practicing in the field, I think it’s really about right place, right time, right person. We can talk and theorize about legislation, campaigns, institutions but it’s about the person having access to the light switch and ability to turn it off and on that makes a ton of difference.

Or really the indifference.

I will make my way
Through one more day in hell

I will hold the candle
Till it burns up my arm
Oh, I’ll keep takin’ punches
Until their will grows tired
I’ll swallow poison, until I grow immune
I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room

How much difference does it make?
How much difference does it make?