jessa

Reflections on becoming

A frightening degree of corruption

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Image by Gama. Films on Unsplash

Something shifted in me when I came of age. Probably because my interest in current affairs has grown, the blatant corruption in the Philippines now troubles me beyond belief in a way it never did before.

Watching the Katakot-takot na Kurakot (Alarming Corruption) documentary series made greed and human evil all too real to me because they are my experienced reality.

What haunts me most is what I still can’t fully comprehend (probably because of my naivéty towards the present evils) is how people can maltreat others and take advantage of the poor and defenseless without remorse.  How does someone look at a struggling family and see only an opportunity? How does that happen to a human heart?

When humanity is stripped away from man, he becomes like an animal.

With all the things that’s been happening in the Philippines, the oppression of the poor and the perversion of justice, Ecclesiastes 5:8 became alive to me.

If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them.

Ecclesiastes 5:8 [CSB]

Don’t be astonished, it says, as if this pattern is as old as power itself. And maybe that’s the most troubling realization of all—that this isn’t new. It’s just finally, fully visible to me.


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