Blameless
Everybody knows that corruption is rife in Portugal. Now the President of the Lawyers Association has gone on the record to say so, to be promptly called by the Attorney General to clarify his statement.
Fortunately Jose Socrates has cleared the air by stating categorically that the members of his government are not involved. So it must only be all other parties, prior governments and levels of the State structure that are corrupt (I dare not use the word "bent"). That's a relief!
1 comment:
The Portuguese people have lost faith in the ethics of their political system, but also contribute to the general "bending of the rules". Corruption, in Portugal, may well be endemic, if not part of our culture already and "way of doing things". It is largely to blame on factors such as a judicial system that is slow and lenient, and soft penalisation; a media culture that is not interested in promoting investigative journalism and prefers to focus on the banal; the promiscuity between public officers and local governments and economic elites. The public acknowledges that anyone powerful enough and with the right "connections" can always get away, which is backed in many instances by reality. If we look at the number of criminals that have managed somehow to get out of jail with little penalisation (people ranging from peadophiles, to entrepreneurs and mayors), we understand why the Portuguese look at justice in the country with sarcasm. But a "get-rich-is-what-matters" mentality, where who has money is respected highly regardless of how s/he made it, is both consequence and cause of the corruption pervading public life.
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