How often have you, yes, YOU, reader, had to be a corrupt person? Been compelled to pay a few rupees, Euros or dollars more to make your life easier, and had to oil wheels, pat arses and grease dirty palms because there was no alternative.
Not that many, I would hope, but it still leaves bile in the stomach and a feeling that your essence has been sullied. I especially get that feeling when the Goa Police pull me over on my bike demanding a bung for whatever offence they decide I may have commited.
But imagine if you had to bribe people all the time, especially when it came to receiving a public service that should come for free. Such is India and even if such a culture appears embedded, it is only when people refuse to pay and stand up against it that it can be destroyed.
So, step forward NGO (non-Government Organisation) 5th Pillar with one of the Great Ideas of the 21st Century. 5th Pillar’s idea is simple. Rather like the Bank of England or the Federal Reserve it is printing money to forestall the problem, and unlike our financial institutions, it is proving to be rather more successful.
The organisation prints ZERO rupee bank notes that are then handed over to any venal official who demands money for doing their job. The idea was originally conceived by a visiting Indian professor at the University of Maryland, who realised how widespread bribery was and wanted to do something about it.
While the NGO’s website has rather too many stories that tell of corrupt officials who instantly throw their hands in the air and beg forgiveness for their sins after being presented with the notes, even this cynic can’t argue with the essence of the idea – shame them into action.
After an initial print run of 25,000 notes, the NGO has now distributed more than one million bank notes and it is this collective passive resistance that not only echoes Mahatma Gandhi’s silent rebellion, it confirms it.
So it is now incumbent upon me to get hold of some of these banknotes and try it out for myself, but I’m still not convinced yer average Goan rozzer is going to buy it.
So, watch this space… if it goes wrong, please send money to Anjuna police station to get me out of nick. Sometimes the old ways work best.
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
