Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Glenn, what an interesting and exciting question you pose to me today. I’ve been part of the fight for the rights of the people for many, many years now. And I have contributed personally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars to the poor of the world, the starving ones of the world, those hit by the disasters, being the tsunamis to the earthquakes to the droughts to the floods and God knows what else. And it’s really fascinating to watch how the money are being distributed. Remember back in the, thirty years ago when we collected enormous amounts of money for the starvings in Africa? Where you come from? We collected enough money to be able to feed the entire nation, entire continent of Africa. Did the money arrive there? No, they didn’t arrive there. Somebody kept them. You and me, by contributing we made people extremely wealthy. I mean, literally so wealthy that you could see the oozing of the wealth out of their pockets. While those money we intended to be given to these people never arrived. Do you think that’s right? I pray to God that you don’t think it is right. What can we do about it? You do something about it. As I will do tomorrow and today. Absolute corruption everywhere. Not only in Germany, not only in the United States, not only in Capetown, South Africa, not only in New Greenland, everywhere else. Tremendous, tremendous corruption. So what are we going to do? What do you want to do, Glenn? I will help you. Whatever you decide to help mankind I will stand next to you.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Anthony Arnove: I think the current economic system is absolutely corrupt. But the question of corruption can sometimes be individualized. It can be seen in terms of individuals who are seeking to personally benefit by going outside of the bounds of normal economic behavior, engaging in collusion, lying, deceit, in order to advance their own personal interests. And so we often have under capitalism regulation of individual or corporate behavior to try to single out certain actions as being beyond the bounds of the acceptable operation of the economic system. But the reality is, corruption is inherit in our economic system. Our economic system encourages individual greed, competition, and systematically encourages corruption, deceit, in order to maximize profit. So it's not a question of individuals. It's not a question of a few bad apples. It's at the root of the system. So, in terms of thinking about an alternative of how we dismantle the economic system, I think we have to look at who has power under the economic system. And the irony that Karl Marx pointed out – it's appropriate to think about Marx given where we are today in Germany – and given the world that we confront which matches so much his description of the Communist Manifesto of what globalization was beginning to produce in his time and certainly has proven so true today – is that you have to understand that under capitalism the people who seemingly have the least power, the working class people, actually have a tremendous power. They make the profits that keep the system running. They produce the goods. They run the factories. They transport the goods. And if those people withhold their labor; if those people organize their collective power – individually they may not have power, but collectively they have a tremendous power – they can transform the system. They can dismantle the system. They can build something new in its place.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Anuradha Koirala: The economic system is corrupt inherently. Well, but we should not try to dismantle the system, but direct it. Dismantling is destruction, so we should try to correct it.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, the current economic system which has come to be dominated by the interests of corporations, a handful of monopolies, yes, it is corrupt because it is not built to cater to the needs of the people. It is built to cater to the interests of these corporations. And it is really about understanding those power structures and the way the economic system works, whether it is the so-called free trade liberalization, deregulation which all sounds good; but this is really about a few people, few corporations having more and more control of this world. So, as long as we understand this economic system that despite it being called free, for example free market policies, is not really free, but it is about colonization, it is about extracting the resources of the many to basically cater to the interest of few, we will have an economic system which will not reflect our needs, our aspirations, our desires for a different kind of world. So, I think in terms of dismantling it, we have to a) understand this economic system. This economic system is about few people gaining control over our resources. 2) Acknowledging it that we as consumers by keeping quiet how we actually sustain that economic system. And 3) it’s about gaining our citizen power: that the governments have to be about what we want them to be, to make them accountable to us, and that they need to regulate on behalf of the citizens, of the people, as well as the planet itself. So, I think it is about understanding this economic system.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Ashok Gangadean: Again, the current economic system is ambiguous because it’s complex, it’s not just one system at work, there are multiple economic systems according to the culture and consciousness. Ego-based consciousness, ego-based cultures, ego-centric which carry this fragmenting, objectifying, reductive attitude between oneself and others and everything and objectifies that kind of economic system is inherently corrupt. The culture of ego-based culture is corrupt and corrupting in contrast to the kind of awakened culture that all our great wisdom, traditions have been teaching. So, the question of what is corrupt and not corrupt, what is just, and inherently right, and right-minded is going to depend upon these two cultural realities. So, a holistic integral culture that is not corrupt will not be violating the needs of the people across the planet so that dismantling is a word perhaps I wouldn’t use. I would rather say to the extent that the dominant cultural force is ego-based, it does reflect the corruption inherent in ego-centric culture making across the board because ego-centric culture is corrupt in terms of being of whole human being, in terms of being integral ourselves, in terms of relationships between one another, in terms of the relationship between cultures and religions where there is abysmal violence, all of that is symptomatic of the fundamental distortion and corruption in ego-based culture, so that what has to be dismantled, as all our great teachers have taught, is not so much to be dismantled, de-constructed, but transformed creatively into more integrative whole and compassionate ways. And, that is a great challenge we face on the planet at this time in terms of moving from an unsustainable economic way of life which is corrupt in an economic and cultural way to a form of culture that is truly sustainable and based upon the human values of compassion and care. And, that’s which is what the dismantling or transformation of the old economic dysfunctional way will be.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: The current economic system favors the consolidation of wealth into the hands of a few, and therefore you're going to have some wealthy people who are also very powerful people. To the extent that our economic system allows this disparity of wealth and distribution of wealth and resources into fewer and fewer hands, then we can say that the current economic system favors the wealthy and favors the sustenance and maintenance of their positions of domination, control, and wealth. And that these wealthy people would not be supportive of dismantling the system that allowed them to achieve that state. So we really need to look at the reformation of our market fundamentalism that has really deregulated the free market and see how we can reform as well the financial institutions that also support the distribution of wealth into the consolidation of fewer and fewer hands at the expense of the many. So we need to look at reform so that the distribution of the world's resources and the wealth that is generated from it become more balanced.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: It is more those within the system who corrupt it. However the systems based of ownership of marketing of products. It functions well but can go corrupt, extremely corrupt. Because of the intentions of the people within it, the intentions of those people within this economic system is to gain more wealth, to hoard that wealth, to control the resources that they can profit off of these. So, in some way, it is very hard to separate those that are within the system and the system itself. And if those that are operating within the system are corrupting it then it could be looked at that the system is corrupt. To dismantle the corporation, the corporate rule, is not to dismantle necessarily economic system but put back in place the checks and balances of corporations. To revoke the status of personhood that they’re claiming, you’re not taking responsibility for. This type of change comes in many different forms, yet the main power lies in those who make the choices to support the corporations by purchasing their products. In the beginning, corporations were setup as a way to benefit the whole. But systematically, through different laws and riders in different governments, they have removed this checks and balances to a now they have full freedom and actually are controlling a lot of the laws and they can benefit from this way. So we need to return back to its original intention and get the people who are corrupting the system accountable. And remember to breath deep.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Benson Venegas: The economic system is not inherently corrupt, but it's carried out by people. People are easily corrupt, if they're driven by their financial interests and not by values. So the point here is that what we really need to change is not the system. What we really need to change or what we really need to improve, is people values. The way people perceive their responsibility of their actions, into the current economic situation. For instance, if everyone would follow the law, probably everything would be easier. If everyone would be - have values around the things that they're doing regarding to their economic - in their economy, probably would have a fair, or equitable, more democratic, and transparent situation that would allow a broader, and just development around the world.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Beverly Schwartz: Again an economic system in itself cannot be corrupt. It's the way an economic system is used. And there are multiple economic systems. There is not one that does all, that takes care of all, that is single around the world. So it is up to the people to see economics differently. What I think here in this question is an economic system might mean the earning of money and the taking of wealth. And so it is not that you dismantle a system, it is that you change the way a system works or what you do with a system. And again, if you have a values-based economic system, then in fact it is not corrupt, if it's based on human values and human needs. And so maybe it is the way we use it and the solution to inserting values in economic systems that is the answer, not the system itself.

by Beverly Schwartz

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Bora Cosic: Every system is corrupt in some sense, especially economic systems, primarily nowadays, when big economic happenings take place. Off course this increases the profit in an appealing way and simulates people in to the corruption. Breaking down those systems with force brings no good, we already know to what this leads. It could be possible to reform those systems with some genial idea, even that genial ideas are rare. I believe it’s better to force reform through increscent of conscience. This also might be a romantic idea. But I believe that, conscience as global position of human race should slowly increase.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Brian J. Weller: Great question. Yes, I believe it is fundamentally corrupt, and we can dismantle it by returning the economy to its roots through economic localization. That means by producing what we – by consuming what we produce and producing what we consume locally. This should be for our basic needs like food, water, energy, shelter and so on. Re-localizing our economy is the way to dismantle this. We do this, of course, by shifting to renewable forms of energy, local agriculture and local democracy that’s decoupled from corporate influence. In a nutshell, we’ve got to achieve local self-reliance and then have interdependence between communities living together for their mutual needs. The problem, of course, is that the current system is so embedded and so resistant to change that by opposing it, it fights back, and this is a very important idea. When we try to resist something, it tends to persist. So, how do we dismantle it? Not by trying to change it, but by creating something new that we can shift to. There are many different approaches now being experimented with around the world. One of those is called BALLE, and BALLE is the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) originated in the United States and it’s been adopted by many communities around America. Where I come from in Willits, Northern California, we’ve adopted that. In fact, our Chamber of Commerce has adopted that and I’m very proud of our town for doing that. So basically, when decisions are made by those who will bear the consequences of those decisions, then we will return to a true sense of scale. Maybe that’s the heart of this question, is how do we return back to a sense of scale, a sense of locality? In a sense, we need to re-engineer our economies and I believe we do that best through economic localization. Thank you.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Catherine David: More precisly corruption is the result of a disfonction of the system, as it escalates it becomes a reason of a disfonction of the system and I think we should not confuse these two ways but we have to analyse that in some cases corruption becomes a reason for a disfonction but it is not the one and only reason of all the disfonctions which is a way to present things which is always easy and seductive for some officials but which is irresponsable.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

China Keitetsi: I think the more voice, the more you would win. But those fighting set on such a case is - You should make it personal. You should have passion and you should do everything with love, then you will win. For example, in the world or in poor countries again, there is a big corruption. If you don't know the other person, you can't be this person, or you can't get to this site. Even in politics today, in some countries it's corrupted. There is no pure leaders. It's about politics of the pocket. It's about politics of being rich. It's about politics of being - with power it's no more clean politics, so such a thing should be fought before you win it, before its dismantled, you shouldn't stop.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Constantin von Barloewen: Corruption is a fact of the politico-economic situation. There is here in Berlin the NGO(Non-Governmental Organization) Transparency International, which sets up complete statistics of the world-wide most corrupt states. One must admit that the European States are comparatively less corrupt, also the industrial nations and that the corruption in Russia is massive, in the former Soviet Republics, in Africa, in Latin America as well. One can only proceed systematically and concretely. The World Bank always reports that an amount of billion dollars is lost per year by corruption in the states of the so-called periphery. One knows that for instance, in Chad the World Bank had to lock up credits, because the presidents did not use the investments and its credits of the World Bank for social and education programs, but for a purchase of a massive weapon industry. Just in the past few months, it was successful with great effort in Chad to use the credits from the World Bank and the monetary funds for social education programs and not for the buying up of a weapon industry. Corruption is a fundamental malady, which causes world-wide billions of damage, in all states of the world. I also think of Burma, the dictatorial regime in Asia. One can proceed only systematically and again and again, and I mean what Transparency international does, as a NGO, which tries statistically to measure and to give reference points, really deserves respect, large acknowledgment. People should support it.

by Constantin von Barloewen

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Cornel West: There is no doubt that the corporate globalization of the world is shot through with levels of corruption and graft. There is no doubt about that. So many of our governments are systems of legalized bribery, normalized corruption in terms of those politically elite being beholden to corporate economic elite. The question for me is not so much dismantling it; it’s a matter of trying to restructure it, to recast it, to both reform and in the end revolutionize and, of course, corruption is something that can go hand in hand with any movement, with any group, with any institution. It’s precisely why strong mechanisms of accountability and answerability have to be in place to keep track of all of us who often have proclivities toward corruption. It is, of course, the corruption of individuals that had to do with the kinds of choices, the quality of character, the kind of virtues that we have and are willing to act on. Then there’s corruption of systems that make it highly tempting, that make it seductive till we individuals become part of ways of life that somehow sidestep accountability. So, corruption is always a challenge. It’s always something to keep track of; but without those strong mechanisms of accountability that ought to go hand in hand with democratic globalization from below, that corruption will become more and more a part and become more and more integral to our corporate globalization that is now wrecking such havoc on too many, even as some of our mainstream intellectuals are singing the praises of such corporate globalization.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 10:40:00 AM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: In the point of view as an indigenous person, economic system are not inherently corrupt, but it’s the people who are making the economic system who are in their own way very corrupt. So, the question really is, how do we dismantle the system? The question is really hard because for me it’s not the system which is corrupt; it’s the people. And, therefore, we have to address the problem according to the source, according to the roots. And the people who are making the economic system are the ones who’s corrupt. And, for me, there is really a need to give value orientation especially to our economic planners who are making the systems and perhaps try to encourage a system that promotes good values on our leaders. So, for me, I still have 18 percent left on the confidence that our economic system still has hope to work and not much in a corrupt way so that if our political leaders, our economic planners will design in a way that it will benefit their constituents, then it will become favorable to everybody. And sometimes if it’s systemic and the problem is systemic, it’s really hard to dismantle it.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas