You know how in court someone is asked to swear to say the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? This usually doesn’t give you too many options. You cannot say less than the truth or add to it. I think great thought must have gone into wording this oath. Corruption has many definitions and angles to it. Corrupting something may involve reducing it or its purpose or adding impurities to it such that at the end of the day, it cannot be referred to as ‘the something, the whole something and nothing but the something’. Some things can also be counterfeited or forged to give an impression or expectations that are unreal or significantly different from the original. For purposes of this discussion I am going to refer to hell as the place reserved for the devil and his angels and that he roams all over earth and hell freely with no major visa or entry/exit restrictions. I am not inviting or welcoming any arguments or heated discussions about his itinerary or movement patterns or even whether he prefers hell or earth as his headquarters. I do not think any other creature is passionate about corruption or forgery than this guy. In fact I believe that if we got this guy, it would probably be as big a blow to corruption and counterfeiting as we would like to believe the death of Osama was to terrorism.
So what are the things that the devil corrupts or forges? Today I want us to look at three things that were intended for good by their creators, either God or man. Have you noticed that people do not forge things that are worthless or worth very little? Even when people forge money, the hardly will forge coins or low denominations. You will hardly hear of fake tissue paper going around. If a man engages in forging a ten shilling coin he probably has worked enough to just be allowed to get away with it. Most of the cases of currency forgery involve the high denominations like the 500 or 1000 shilling notes. People will forge highly precious minerals like gold or silver. Nobody will forge dung. In the same way, the devil has chosen to forge or corrupt only what is precious in our lives.
1. Power
Power is a good thing, In leadership, one can influence the direction of a family, an organisation, a nation, a continent or even an entire civilization depending on how they make use of the power their position comes with. However, recent events in Egypt, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire and Libya have highlighted for us the dark side of power. Power seems to have gotten into the heads of some leaders to the extent that they have ended up not being different from the leaders they once rose against. It has been said many times, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There are times I have discussed bad leadership in our country and in the world at large, but later in the privacy of my thoughts, it has become clear that I would probably not be different from the leaders I condemn should I end up in the same position of power and authority. It would not be surprising to hear of a Danzo Primary School in every district, a Danzo Street or Avenue everywhere. Without submission to a sort of accountability structure, we would all lean towards autocratic and iron-handed rule.
2. Drugs
As we speak I am in the middle of a course of antibiotics. These drugs, I have been told are supposed to help the body fight an infection. But in a discussion with a doctor last week, he explained that many people do not follow advice about taking antibiotics. Doctors usually insist that you take the entire dose in the stipulated time whether it is 3, 5 or 7 days. Some people will stop taking antibiotics as soon as they think they are feeling better and don’t bother to complete the dose. If you have and maintain such a habit of not completing your dose, the body gets used to the drugs and their effects are compromised. There are some people who now have to take really strong antibiotics for them to be of any help. Many drugs, especially pain control drugs can only be dispensed on prescription simply due to the tendency to misuse or abuse them and also due to the high risk of addiction. I heard of a guy who would go to a local pharmacy and from the back office he would consume a whole bottle of cough syrup to start his day. I won’t even talk about the hard drugs like cocaine and heroin that are ravaging our youth and giving the like of Dr. Frank Njenga (The National Coordinator of the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse Authority, NACADA) sleepless nights (pun intended)
3. Sex
Wooooi, this one has so many way of corrupting it that I will even leave you to give us examples of how it can and has been corrupted. Adultery, fornication, prostitution, sodomy, pornography, rape, bestiality, the list is endless. I actually found a site that lists 35 types of sexual sin and perversion. I did not even want to go through the entire list lest I learn things that I am better off not knowing (!). I won’t even put the link here though I know you will google it! The media and advertising industry has taken advantage of the fact that sex sells and put all manner of sexual innuendo in their products, Whether you are advertising phones, healthcare, car batteries anything really, when you feature a semi-nude model on your billboards, they will make heads turn. Ban Maina Kageni and Mwalimu King’ang’i from talking about sex and perversion within and outside marriage and they would lose their market share of the morning radio industry (is there such a thing? Oh well, you know what I mean).
When we go to the root cause of all there abuses and corruption of good things, it is likely that the devil will bear the brunt of accusations and that is why I believe that if PLO and his team started with him, the ultimate Big Fish, storming hell and any other hideouts he may be in, the rest of their work will be much easier if not altogether unnecessary. Though I have said before that we are responsible for our actions, I think there are some cases where we would be right in saying “the devil made me do it”.
What other things can we fairly accuse the devil of corrupting?
Tuendelee kuongea
I can explain it... here are my 5 good excuses 