In the ninth book of Meditations, Aurelius argues that we, as humans, should be moderate, sincere, honest, and calm. If someone rumors that you are not good and virtuous, dismiss such notions with your integrity and morality, and use good humor to disarm these people.2
Having said this, nowadays, because of the rampant graft and corruption, Filipinos lose hope for our government. Some of us also accept the truth that maybe, our government will always stay like this until time ends. The people believe in this because of the piled issues faced by our current politicians. Several politicians are involved in various criminal cases which make us doubt and lose trust in them. However, this hasty generalization should not pollute our minds. Not all of them are the same. Presidentiable Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago serves as a spark of light in these dark times because she tries to gain the hope and trust of the public again and attests that not all politicians are alike. Through her dedication and commitment as a politician, we could say that the “Iron Lady of Asia” deserves to
…show more content…
Corruption is one of the main reasons why some of us do not trust the Philippine government anymore. The idea that all politicians are rich because they steal the money of the people are now instilled in the minds of many of our countrymen. While this may be true for some politicians, Sen. Santiago started anti-corruption campaigns that would investigate the corrupt. Sen. Santiago was in charge of the investigation about these politicians, “It was Senator Santiago who in effect started the national plunder investigation (which is now a historic scandal). In December 2012, she revealed that the senate president had used Senate funds to give away cash gifts. Every senator received P2 million as a Christmas gift, taken from public funds, except Senator Santiago and two others.”1 She also tries to seek the gradual abolition of the pork
Political corruption is one of the significant themes in the novel “The House of the Scorpion.” Political corruption is the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Everyday political figures and governments who we rely on to protect us betray us. Whether it is by bribery,extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, embezzlement, criminal enterprise, drug trafficking, money laundering or human trafficking, political officials or governmental systems we look up to have dabbled in corruption here or there. However, the corrupted governments inside the novel do not differ from our everyday government such as: the American government because both governments inside and outside the novel prevent people from leaving the country, make illegal deals with people and corporations for favours and both have become a country in a state of regression.
Corruption is an individual and institutional process where there is a gain by a public official from a briber and in return receives a service. Between the gain and the service, there is an improper connection, (Thompson p.28). The two major categories of bribery is individual and institutional corruption. Receiving personal goods for the pursuit of one’s own benefit is personal fraud. An example of individual distortion is the financial scandal involving David Durenberger. Organizational corruption involves “receiving goods that are useable primarily in the political process and are necessary for doing a job or are essential by-products of doing it,” (Thompson p.30). An instance of institutional fraud is the Keating Five case. There are also times where there is a mixture of both individual and organizational corruption in a scandal. An example of this diverse combination is James C. Wright Jr. actions while he was the Speaker of the House.
"Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people I have ever known." (Page 60)
Politicians many times have been found guilty of corruption. They use unethical techniques to get higher positions in an election, to gain more money, votes or to lay hands on ungotten wealth. Corruption exists in the police force, in law and order and even in the management of the Olympic Games.
Many people know about or have witnessed this corruption taking place and numerous attempts to rid of it have been made. It is not an easy task attempting to bring justice to where justice should be made. There ...
Our political system has always been incorporated with corruption; it is functional to the system. The system’s flawed manner is to reproduce itself. Corruption has plagued society. It is the torment of the people, the land weeping, and the disorder of society. These three political leaders started off with accomplishments that were great and benefited our nation. But all three were overshadowed by their mistakes and scandals. This in fact has led to my conclusion that history does not repeat itself but instead counterpart each other that each led to suffering.
When it comes to renunciation, "no pain, no gain" is what I've slowly, reluctantly, inexorably come to believe. And when Pete opted for scholarly monkhood, I think he was just trying to outsmart his pain. . . . He'd calculated that by considering the physical world "illusory" and burying his nose in metaphysical texts he could go on doing something comfortable--while his ignorance and sufferings and hometown and troublesome family just fell away like so much excess poundage. Obviously l question his calculations: to slough off half a self in hopes of finding a whole one is not my idea of good math.
Marcus Aurelius was a famous philosopher in 121 through 180 C.E. He lived a hard life and even though he was surrounded by crowds he was considered a recluse. He was known for his kindness and mercy. The last years of his life were spent on a military campaign. It is said that these years were the hardest and loneliest. However, instead of becoming bitter and angry Aurelius wrote The Meditations. This was a diary or journal of his personal thoughts. He believed that by writing this it was his duty to his soul. The Meditations, is a popular piece of stoic literature. In this paper I will be describing how Aurelius used stoicism in book two of The Meditations and what I liked and did not like about what he said.
The article that BBC New of America has provided, gives information on an archeological dig in which the tomb of a general was found. The general was Marcus Nonius Macrinus, a favorite of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Macrinus helped the emperor achieve many victories in Europe. The tomb was discovered where construction work was taking place, and was mainly preserved by the Tiber River. It is said to be the greatest Roman discovery in the past twenty to thirty years.
People of the Philippines have recently elected Rodrigo Duterte as their president. Duterte had a very outspoken campaign that focused heavily on ridding the country of corruption. His plans of eradicating this corruption may seem very unorthodox to many and even immoral to others. During his presidency, Duterte aims to abolish drugs at any cost, at the same time breaking ties with the US while strengthening relations with China.
This essay will attempt to explore the relationship between the two from the definitions, causes, consequences and the solutions. Corruption can be defined as the abuse of public power for private gain. (World Bank, 2004) Corruption is attracting a lot of attention around the world, and is a growing international and regional concern. According to Corruption Around the world (Tanzi, 1998), in its end-of-year editorial on December 31, 1995, The Financial Times characterized 1995 as the year of corruption.
Philippine politics is the birthplace of promises of great guarantees and additionally the reason for huge dissatisfactions gainful of poverty, poor justice system and low quality of education, agriculture and economic rate.
I would like to show you today, how corruption could cripple the progress in South African societies by empowering criminal organizations and keeping the lower classes poor, and then I shall provide judicial solutions that revolve around empowering the public financially and legislatively to overthrow the tools of corruption.
Corruption and fraud is a relevant topic in South Africa and will continue to be so until it is able to be limited. Corruption is committed mainly by people in power as they neglect and take advantage of this power in order to better themselves at the expense of others. Fraud and corruption is the wrongful or criminal deception that results in financial or personal gain. Government officials, police officers and some unexpected individuals such as law officials have been known to commit corruption and fraud. There have been cases of corruption in the 2014 elections and the political parties have seen that it is something the community is concerned over. Each party has addressed this concern and suggested ways in which to limit this corruption. Not only is corruption morally wrong, but it causes trust problems between the community and people in power, the people who are meant to help society. (1)
A. A. The Philippines People, Poverty and Politics. New York: The New York Times. St. Martins's P, 1987. 1-225.