Page 25 - TheMoralOfYourStory

24 CHILDART THE MORAL OF YOUR STORY
CREATING JUST
SYSTEMS
SOHAIL INAYATULLAH
UNESCO CHAIR IN FUTURES STUDIES
METAFUTURE.ORG
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
My parents asked me to drive my motorcycle The story
to the restaurant, Shalimar, to pick up food
for the family. Once I had the meals in my was about
backpack, I started to drive home. On the
way, a policeman waved me down. I had
forgotten to turn the motorcycle lights on. compassion
I was thankful that he had notified me. But
then he insisted I go with him to the police first, not anger,
kiosk. There he asked me to pay a large
fine–$300–straightaway. I told him I was 16 not revenge. behavior that does not create a better society.
years old and did not have the money. I only
had three dollars. He said that was fine, but
I needed to pay him directly or I would lose
my license, and this would go to the courts. I
started to give him the cash, but he insisted
I do so underneath the table. I now suddenly
felt I was in some bad Bollywood or Mafia
movie.
I drove home excited to tell my parents of my
journey and my excellent negotiation skills.
My father, however, was furious. He gave me
a long lecture on how countries could never
become fully developed until corruption was
weeded out of society.
Years ago, when we were leaving our home
nation for my father’s job at the United
Nations in Southeast Asia, the customs
officer refused to give our family exit visas.
My father queried him. Eventually, he said
he was angry that when my father had
returned from Geneva years ago, where he
ARTWORK AKHTOTY NURTANOVA AGE 08 KAZAKHSTAN
APR-JUN 2021 25
had worked for the UN, he had not brought back a television
for the customs director. He now wanted the full bribe or the
UN position in Southeast Asia would disappear into the air.
We had already packed our belongings, given up our home,
and bid our farewell to friends and family. The customs officer
had us.
He also showed my father an intelligence report that
suggested that my elder brother had been spying for a foreign
government. My brother and I had merely been playing sports
with the children of the ambassador. At twelve and fourteen
years old, we had no intelligence-gathering capabilities. At
our age, basketball was far more important. My father did
not give in. Corruption was not on.
Luckily, one of my father’s former students had risen to a high
rank in the government. When he was told of the attempt
by the customs officer to extort funds from my father, he
intervened, and we were given the exit visas.
I have been fortunate to live in areas where petty corruption
does not exist. Yet, there is systemic corruption that allows
the wealthiest to not give their “fair” share back to society.
These rules ensure that systems of inequity continue, and that
nature and the poor bear the brunt of economic development.
In my childhood, my mother told me stories of the Prophet
Muhammad. In one, a man enters Muhammad’s tent. After
a failed assassination attempt, he is now at the mercy of the
Prophet, who must decide his fate. The Prophet lets him go.
For my mother, the story was about compassion first, not
anger, not revenge. And in instances of corruption in our home
country, my mother would remind us that it is poverty that
creates corruption. The person may or may not be good, but
for sure, external conditions, often poverty, move us toward
Recently, the head of police of one nation was attending
one of my presentations on the futures of law enforcement.
There was a conflict in that nation between leaders. I asked
him who he would arrest. He told me, privately, that he knew
which one was corrupt, but that in arresting this man he would
lose his job and become subject to the full apparatus of the
corrupt system. There was nothing he could do. Retirement
was just around the corner. He had a lot to lose by making
the choice he felt was morally correct. The challenge for this
police commissioner is universal. It is not just individuals but
also systems of corruption that are the problem.
As a 16-year-old I should not have had to negotiate a driving
fine. Either I should have been fined or warned to turn my
lights on. We need to create a future–a system of trust–where
there is no need for transactions to be under the table.
Morality is both individual and collective. We need rules and
a deep underlying story that supports all of us doing the right
thing as much and as far as possible. Individuals can make
a difference by their uncompromising behavior. They can
show compassion for others who are unable to. We need
to create systems of rules that ensure no one will be put in
morally compromised situations.
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