THIS PETTY CORRUPTION

A few days ago, I was faced with a challenge. I came face to face with a man that looks to be in his fifties and behaved to me like he has been the master of the national game for most of his time. I had to get something very important within his area of work yet he refused to assist me, though that is what he is paid for. It was something crucial for me to get.
“I can not work myself for nothing” was all he told me and this convinced me that the old man needed his ‘tea’. I went on to struggle to retrieve my work but I did not manage. A look at him, and I could get an expression that seemed to mock me; ‘Learn how to understand our language; learn to read the signs.’ This was a challenge. He would then go to the aid of others that, I believed understood him.
I was further convinced that he needs something by a friend at the next piece “if you have something, then give him. At least it is better than having to do the work again and the time is up!”
The masters of the game wait and see you trapped and then go on to make their advances. But I learnt I was not alone. My other friends had gotten in a similar fix in one way or another and had made it by doing what appeared that time as a necessity, the needful. “This is rampant and at times you just have to be pragmatic and do it.” This was Robert’s comment.
How will the office that is to stem corruption and similar vices help people caught in this situation? I believe there are many out there who are found in such a fix. I also believe this type of behavior is entrenched in the higher echelons of our public system. Many a time, the ordinary citizen finds himself in a position where his beliefs and principles are threatened. When one succumbs to such type of pressure, will he be as guilty as the one who corrupted him? Will he serve the same term behind bars with his nemesis?
My friend Robert and the gentleman at the next piece as much as you do know that it pays to part with a coin than to miss out on the bigger work you should have done. Now you know the problem. The old man may continue taking his ‘tea’ and as well go to the bank at the month’s end to take his pay!!