u/ZambianDude

In my country, we’re seeing a cycle where corruption starts at the very top (tenders, proxy companies, political patronage) and is 'greased' at the bottom by citizens paying for basic services just to get by. We’ve reached a point where we don’t just deal with it we’ve normalized it and often defend the very people exploiting us.

​To those living in other parts of the world, especially in developing nations:

​Is this 'normalization' the same in your country?

​Are there any movements or personal choices that have actually made a dent in this culture?

​How do you push back without putting yourself at risk?

We’ve normalized a system where corruption isn’t just an event it’s a lifestyle. From the top, we see the systemic rot: tenders awarded through proxies, CDF funds drained, and public contracts given to party loyalists instead of those with merit. And at the bottom, we’ve adopted it too: paying to skip lines, paying for services, and calling bribery "ka something."

​We’ve reached a point where we don’t just accept these systems; we defend them. We defend politicians who exploit us, and we navigate the civil service by paying our way through. Why have we made peace with a reality where our national progress is sacrificed for personal "connections"? At what point do we stop saying "that's just how it is" and start demanding a system that actually serves the citizens?