Anna Hazare and over a billion people

In the past few days we have seen an interest in standing up against corruption: most educated indians who have been following the news have clearly shown that this has affected them clearly, even if not deeply.

This is commendable; such a mini-revolution is exactly what we need at regular intervals to light the fire for a big one. For someone as Anna Hazare, such passion is inspiring. On the other hand we have to realize where this corruption starts stays and affects the most of us: in the roots; In everyday life; and in the smaller things that don't take the least of our time.

Yesterday I had mentioned to somebody, that standing up for an india where corruption doesn't exist is great but we have to understand that this has to come truly from within. Each one of us has to stay strong when the smallest of the things demand corruption - such as bribing the traffic police when we are caught cutting lanes or signals that we shouldn't have in the first place. In a situation such as that we might be tempted to bribe, our short term weakness will get the best of the idealist in us.
Then there is the problem of having systems in place: if you don't bribe him, your license is confiscated or you have a record and go to the police station, which will probably get a good part of your day. Now why wouldn't one bribe? And this is just one example of the many systems that aren't in place which eventually leads to and paves the way to corruption.

This then becomes a chicken and egg story - but the bottom line remains that we need to stay strong and not lose vision of the long term goals: to eradicate corruption at the level of the common man. I say that because every country has some sort of a perverse government, through lobbying or otherwise, and that's intrinsic to humanity. But developed countries at least have systems in place that focus on the well-being and betterment of its people. When the common man can spend time doing what he really ought to do - leisure and work - the roots of corruption can be mitigated as much as our nature allows.

That said, props to Anna Hazare for making it known; props to the people who, although may or may not understand what Anna is fighting for, they stand for it; and props to the media, even if they're doing it for the TRPs, they're doing it and its helping.

We can hope that the generations after ours will remember this event and learn from it.