Be Happy – Be Lucky.

Normally we consider luck as fortune occurring beyond our control, without regard to our will, intention or desired results. When we do not get our desired results in spite of our efforts which we may treat to have been made best out of our capacity, we feel that our luck is not working or we are unlucky.

There are two senses - a prescriptive sense and a descriptive sense. In the prescriptive sense, luck is a supernatural concept that there are divine forces prescribing certain events to occur very much the way we wish or according to the laws of physics which prescribe that certain events occur. It is the prescriptive sense that people mean when they say they "do not believe in luck". In the descriptive sense, luck is a word people give after the occurrence of events which they find to be fortuitous.

We can say that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. You too can create your own luck . Yes you do. I know you might think that luck is just something that happens randomly or by chance. But it's really not.

Luck happens when you believe that you're lucky or when you have thoughts that lead to being lucky. Luck is really something good that happens to you unexpectedly. If you want to be lucky then you have to think and believe that you are lucky.

You create Good luck when you focus on the positive, when you're optimistic and when you believe that things will work out (or that you're lucky). Bad luck happens when you focus on what is wrong, when you don't think that things will work out, when you don't trust your subconscious mind and higher powers, or when you continually complain about your state.  Bad luck comes from negative thinking that you've created and planted on your subconscious mind and this negative thinking leads to more and worse luck. Things don't go your way because you don't believe they will. So you need to end up creating bad luck. When things continue to get worse, you blame it on luck. But it's really not luck.

It's the negative thinking that you carry. It happens because you've trained your mind to look at what's wrong and you've directed your subconscious mind and to bring you more bad luck and you keep telling your subconscious that you don't want thing to work out.

But it is not what you want.  You want to be lucky. You want things to work out. You want a better life. Negative thinking keeps holding you back. It destroys any chance of success, happiness or a better life. You'll never be "lucky" if you always focus on what's wrong. Those negative thoughts, views and beliefs destroy your success. They create more and more bad luck.

You may want to make more money, lose weight, be healthy, get a new job, meet the right person and achieve your goals. But you won't because those limiting and negative thoughts block your success. You attract more misery and more failure. The cycle continues. It's not really about luck. It's all about what you think and believe. Your subconscious mind follows your thought patterns and beliefs. It simply responds and creates situations that mirror what you believe and think.

When you continue to look at the worst in a situation, think you're unlucky or have a pile of negative thoughts and beliefs you continue to create more and more misery, struggle and failure. Your subconscious thinks that's what you want. So that's what you get. You keep having more "bad luck."

Now you can turn things around. You can go from feeling (and believing) that you're unlucky to being lucky so that you get what you want. You simply have to direct your subconscious mind so that it's positive, optimistic, and open minded. So that you get your subconscious mind to bring you exactly what you want.  Scientists have proven that people who are optimistic and positive have better luck. They also did better in life. And those who are negative or pessimistic have more bad luck, and struggled in life. A group of researchers recently found the following:

Those who are optimistic and positive and  believed they were lucky... enjoyed life, earned more money, were in stable jobs and relationships, had things go their way more often, won contests and prizes and were generally lucky - things just worked out for them. Those who had a negative attitude, were pessimistic and did not think they were lucky struggled with money changed jobs more often had poor relationships.

Science has proven that you do create your own luck. When you're positive, optimistic and believe that good things happen - you'll enjoy life have more success, make more money and you'll be happier. The choice is yours. Get rid of the negative thoughts. Start being more optimistic. Believe in yourself. Believe that things will work out. Direct your subconscious mind and your inner powers to bring you exactly what you want. Put an end to the negative thinking that's destroying your life.

How to bring out yourself out of your pessimistic thinking that you are unlucky is very easy. First, you will have to give your pessimistic thinking by concentrating upon those past acts and results which had brought out positive effects upon you, your prosperity and happiness. You need to analyze why those good times got lost. You will have to motivate yourself. Please remember when you are in bad times as you feel, none other than yourself will motivate you.

What do you mean with motivation? It is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; a psychological drive that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas.

Second, you need to distress yourself. If stress is over your mind, you can not bring any positive solution into your mind. This too makes you unlucky to your prospects. Julie is a manager in a high-volume call center, and her job is very stressful. She interacts every day with angry, upset customers, she needs to keep her team members calm and productive, and she has to meet tough customer satisfaction goals.

Despite these pressures, Julie is known for her professionalism and her composure. She's kind to everyone on her team, she stays cool in tense situations, and she makes good decisions, even when she's under pressure. Julie has mastered the art of surviving and thriving in a stressful role.

Many people experience stress in their jobs. You might feel stressed temporarily because of a project deadline, or because of seasonal fluctuations in your workload. Or you might experience long-term stress due to the type of work that you do, because of a difficult boss or co-worker, or because of office politics.

Job stress has a number of negative consequences that, if left unmanaged, can affect your health, productivity, well-being, and career. For example, a study has found that  professionals who work in high-stress environments are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and high cholesterol - all of which increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Long-term, unmanaged stress can weaken your immune system, it can cause chronic muscle pain or sleeplessness, and it can contribute to obesity. It can also lead to a number of psychological conditions, such as anxiety or depression, and it may cause relationship problems with others on your team. You may feel burnout which is a likely consequence of long-term job stress. Emotional exhaustion, lowered productivity, and higher absenteeism can all result from this.

Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme cases, even death. The strategies discussed here are for guidance only. You should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if you have any concerns over stress-related illnesses, or if stress is causing you significant or persistent unhappiness.

Why You Should Control Stress

There are many good reasons why you should control workplace stress. You'll be more productive and creative at work, you'll have better relationships with family and colleagues, and you'll produce higher-quality work. You'll also be healthier and more energetic as a result.

When your job is stressful most of the time, stress can have a negative impact on your health and productivity. There are many warning signs that you're experiencing high levels of workplace stress, including:

·         Frequent headaches/muscle tension.

·         Persistent sleeplessness.

·         Ongoing irritability.

·         An upset stomach.

·         Low morale/depression.

·         Prolonged difficulty concentrating.

·         Weight loss/gain.

·         Continued loss of interest in work or hobbies.

·         Social withdrawal.

Let's look at several ways that you can manage the stress in your role and bring about luck in your life.

Identify Causes

Before you can wish for luck, you first have to know what causes you to be unlucky. Perhaps it may be result of your over stressed working or stress due to no work at all or unsatisfactory working conditions. 59 percent of professionals report a heavy workload as their leading cause of stress. There are other common causes too which may bring about stress over your mind and finally, you may get depressed and feel unlucky. Some causes of stress include:

·         Workplace pace and unrealistic deadlines.

·         Persistent bullying and abuse.

·         A difficult boss or colleague.

·         Long work hours.

·         Poor management.

·         A lack of autonomy.

·         Poor work/life balance.

·         Meaningless work.

·         Career concerns (no upward mobility, or a lack of job security).

·         An unhealthy work environment.

·         A lack of resources.

Keep a diary to understand what causes you to feel stress or unlucky in your job. Once you've identified the factors that contribute to this status, you can then take appropriate steps to manage them.

Think Positively

Your attitude plays a major role in your level of luck, no matter what kind of work you do. You can choose to approach tasks, responsibilities, and people with a negative attitude or you can choose to approach your work and relationships with a positive mind-set. Although the amount of work is the same, the impact on your health and well-being is profound.

Positive thinking acts as a stress buffer. Whenever you catch yourself slipping into a negative frame of mind, make an effort to think positively instead. This might mean challenging your negative thoughts with rational, fact-based thinking, or using affirmations to boost your self-confidence. It will definitely bring luck to you.

Calm Down

Stress can often cause you to stop breathing for several seconds, even though you may not realize it. When you're feeling stressed, practice deep breathing exercises. Deep, slow breathing floods your body with oxygen, slowing your heart rate, relaxing your muscles, and helping you focuses. You might also want to practice yoga or meditation after work, both of which are effective methods of managing stress.

Frequent daily breaks and regular vacations are also important for reducing work stress. Even a long weekend can help you de-stress after a tough week. When you do take a break or go on vacation, leave work at work; taking a "working vacation" or constantly checking email while you're gone won't give you the time that you need to rest and recharge.

Manage Your Time

Your job might be stressful because of your workload or project deadlines. You can lower your stress levels and improve your productivity by learning to manage your time and priorities more effectively.

Distractions in the office can be a major source of stress. These distractions can come from well-meaning colleagues, from constant phone calls or emails, or from general office noise. Minimize distractions by closing your office door for short periods of time, by turning off your phone, or by listening to white noise to drown out people's conversations.

Exercise

Regular exercise is one of the best ways to manage a stressful job. Daily exercise helps you cope with stress; it also boosts your memory, creativity, IQ, and productivity.

You can fit exercise into your schedule in many ways. Wake up earlier and exercise before work, take a walk on your lunch break, or use a standing desk while you're at work. Remember, any additional movement will help you manage stress and live a healthier life. Take frequent breaks to move around and let your mind rest. Try taking several five- or 10-minute walks during the day; it might not sound like much, but this exercise and fresh air will give you time to rest and recharge.

Manage Priorities

Conflicting priorities can be a major source of workplace stress, especially when you have to push important work aside to focus on less important, but urgent, tasks. You also need to choose the right tasks to work on. Some tasks require a lot of time and energy, yet they have a low impact, while other tasks have a big impact, but require little effort.

If you're working on a project that seems overwhelming, break it into smaller steps. This allows you to accomplish one thing at a time, instead of trying to take everything on at once.

Increase Autonomy

Autonomy is the freedom to decide how to accomplish your work. Professionals who work in roles with low autonomy often experience more stress and dissatisfaction than those with greater autonomy.

Speak with your boss about your current goals or projects. Where appropriate, ask for the freedom to choose how you accomplish these goals. This could include working from home one day a week, or choosing who you want to work with on your next project.

Assess Resources

Look at the work that you do. What are your biggest frustrations? Where are your bottlenecks? Where are you most inefficient? These situations often point to a lack of training, tools, resources, or help - all of which can contribute to workplace stress.

Make a list of what you need. Let your boss know what you're lacking, and explain how these items will help improve your productivity and effectiveness. If your boss can't provide the resources that you need, think about how you might be able to negotiate for them with others, or acquire them on your own.

Find Meaning

What do you love most about your job? What gives your work meaning? These questions might sound simple, but they're important. If you know what gives your work meaning, it will help you manage the stress that goes along with it.

Everyone experiences the feeling of being lucky or unlucky from time to time when there is some result favorable or unfavorable  But that is the result of your efforts only. If due to wrong results, you get stressed, you need to shelf out that feeling first to bring about luck in your life. The opposite feelings that is you are unlucky may create stress in your mind and long-term stress can lead to a number of health problems, including high blood pressure and a weakened immune system. It can also contribute to heart disease, obesity, anxiety, and depression. To overcome, you need to recount yourself and feel lucky even in the beginning by mentioning to yourself that you are going to win in your efforts.

Be Happy – Be Lucky.

Be Happy – Transcend Your Poverty Consciousness Forever.

We know that everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence. After every night, there is a day. At the end of a tunnel, you usually find a ray of light. If for some reason, you find yourself to be in mid of many troubles, that does not mean that those troubles will remain always there. Sometime, troubles make you aware of the circumstances why they have come about, if they are there in result of your wrong decisions and/or you have mismatched your resources with your targets.

Similarly, poverty is a choice that we make everyday without our active knowledge.  It's the choice to be uncreative, feel limited in resources, thinking inside the box, smaller than life, deeply powerless, incapable of receiving love, and not believing that anything is possible.  Poverty thinking is a disease and an unconscious choice that is based in the ignorance of our true power.  This unawareness is the one deciding factor as to whether someone continues to remain broke and struggling for another year, or starts to shift their energy into receiving a new source of income next week.

The moment you choose to believe in any poverty based thought, you start thinking more small, limited and negative thoughts about life.  It has a snowball affect to it, where you begin to attract more limiting thoughts based in that misunderstanding.  When negative thinking becomes your habit, you begin to invent thoughts that support your old poverty minded thoughts.  The repetitive cycle of poverty thinking is a social disease that festers and feeds upon itself. 

Every time we identify with the poverty mindset in other person who thinks there is "not enough", we slowly inherit and mirror their disease.  By accepting the limiting beliefs of others, we forget our original abundant nature, and stop realizing who we really are, are all-powerful beings.  The moment we can understand the foundational lie that poverty is based upon, and take full responsibility for the suffering we are creating through our choices, then we can begin choosing a new path and acting from a new mindset to create a new world.

It's good to know that poverty thinking is not our original nature. Our real inherent nature has no boundaries or limitations on what is possible and what isn't. This original abundant mind is something we were born with, and is rooted in knowing that we are all absolutely loved, free and totally abundant.  Poverty consciousness is a limiting mindset that was inherited by your community in order to be accepted, fit in, and welcomed into the social norm. We often would rather be accepted by others than seen as an outcast who is believing they are bigger, better and richer.  If your friends, family and community never had any poverty thoughts on any level, you wouldn't have it either.  You would only know how to be creative in ways where you'd think anything is possible, and know deep down that abundance was your birthright.

When I connect with people who are struggling financially, I always find there is one thing they have in common. They all continuously choose to support their old limiting thoughts and negative beliefs around money.  Rather than actually doing something radically different and exciting to move through them, people live and hide underneath their excuses.  They become cowards to discovering their real power, hiding behind their pride, rather than revealing and healing their feelings of fear, self-judgment and financial intolerance. Each time their mind unconsciously creates this pattern of choosing a desperate needy response to life.  The habit becomes so natural that they have to something very radical to alleviate this perpetual addictive state of financial frustration.  They have to accept the fact that they are following their old excuses, and now choosing to live a life that is continuously moving through the fear.

Remember, the impoverished mindset is one that continuously resists fear, controlling the emotions and creating distractions so they do not have to feel their fear.  This type of controlling energy tends to say NO to life, denying new ideas, opportunities and people.  It abides in a feeling there is never enough to go around, and we must compete, suck it up, and live a life of compromise if we are to survive.  It thinks you must stick to doing your duty, live in obligations, always work hard, struggle to survive, and not think too big just so we don't upset others.  It's in this very uncreative approach to life that people escape from their true power and get to be irresponsible for their real life purpose which is to know themselves. 

Poverty thinking is the one disease that can completely destroy the great potential of love and joy your life contains.  People continue choosing to play small, helpless, lazy, abandoned, unloved and unwanted because there's nothing they can do about it and it is their "destiny".  It's actually a very selfish self absorbed way to live, never considering how to help out others, and thinking only of yourself and how your desires, wants and needs are not quite fully met.  Poverty consciousness is perhaps the most unconscious, self destructive and addictive pattern that people have which will ruin their chances at enjoying their life. 

The poverty mindset can be brilliant in the way that it will rationalize things, thinking that by consuming fewer resources we are thus helping the world out and saving our planet.  By spending less money we become wealthier and less dependant on money or the world for our survival.  Of course, there is a grain of truth in everything, and the best path is to create a world of total sustainability within a conscious loving lifestyle.  Yet the intention of holding back out of fear and not fully honoring your true power is the greatest loss of all.  If you're constantly holding tight onto money, you're creating struggle and strive within yourself and always feeling that you don't have enough.  This manifests in many forms, one will show up as your inability to contribute your full unlimited unbounded joy into your community. You cannot show up for a wild free abundant loving life purpose if you are holding tight onto anything and living in fear on any level. 

The feeling of being poor is so terrifying for some people that every thought and action becomes about avoiding that experience. Many people in this world choose to become insanely rich based out of their deepest fear of being broke.  This avoidance however morphs into another type of poverty consciousness, as it never allows the mind to relax and rest into its divine original nature.  Any type of non-relaxed fear based thinking is going to have a feeling of poverty connected to it on some level.  Be aware that poverty consciousness is a very sneaky beast and it can show up in your life in a large variety of forms.  It may be as obvious as feeling you don't have enough money to pay your rent each month, the paranoia that someone may rip you off, the idea that there is only one soul mate in the world for you, or the idea that you have to eat everything on your dinner plate, even if you are not hungry.  Just know that if any thought is formed out of fear, it is based in some level of poverty thinking.

The first step to transcending poverty consciousness is to find out exactly where it is showing up in your life and in your thinking.  It is only through the awareness of these negative thoughts that you can liberate your mind from repeating them.  The moment a limiting thought flows through the brain you must step back from it, see it from a distance, and don't emotionally buy into the story that accompanies it.  When you are able to identify exactly where, when and how you emotionally fall into your poverty stricken belief system, then you have a chance at moving beyond it.   Yet, you must keep a very close watchful eye on poverty thinking if you're ever going to get beyond it.  When you can see how you justify being stuck, poor, or happily struggling then you'll be able to find a way to invent a new story about how good it feels to no longer live in a world filled with excuses. 

People often tell themselves that its easier to remain stuck in just having enough to survive, than to own up to the fact that they are a super powerful manifesting being who can have anything they desire.  If they owned that empowering thought, it would either mean their whole life was some sort of failure or they were a completely stupid and ignorant person.  So people make up all sorts of wonderful "feel good" stories about their poverty, saying that it is more holy to be poor, or its not ok to take "too much" and this takes up their energy for remembering we have an infinite supply of creativity, love, energy and consciousness available.  These are the ingredients which actually create money! 

 Living in poverty consciousness is living a lie, based in deep denial to knowing the magical manifesting potential energy inside you.  The consequences for continuing to believe in such a deep misunderstanding are the experiences of struggle, pain, desperation, and lack.  The more money you feel you don't have the more busy you become to fulfill this need.  Poverty thinking creates an energetic distraction from knowing your intimate connection with the source. The mind is obsessed with being right, and for it to admit how its choosing each day to remain stuck manifesting more poverty stricken situations, would completely destroy it.

No matter how rich or poor you are (even if you're a gazillionaire) the ego/mind will be addicted to wanting more.  It will always tell you that you need more and no matter how hard you try, you can never completely satisfy the demanding desiring ego. Its purpose is wanting, wanting, wanting and wanting more wanting!  This incessant wanting creates the feeling of poverty.  So it is important to remember that our ego is not designed to know what true satisfaction is, this is the purpose of the soul and discovering your spiritual nature.  The mind doesn't have the time to be curious about this divinity inside you.  It wants you to believe it is a lie, and that you need more stuff if you ever want to be happy. This lie that more things equals a better life is very deep, and if accepted over time it may cause you to lose sight of your source of true happiness, which is in your life purpose and spiritual nature.

To completely break away from poverty consciousness you simply have to commit your life to a new way of being.  You have to totally retrain your brain to believe that anything is possible.   Perhaps the most hidden secret to transcending poverty consciousness is also the most powerful one which is this.  Ultimately, when we can truly relax into the core of our worst feelings of poverty, the peace found in that relaxation contains an unstoppable resource of abundance, love, healing and creativity inside it.  It is only through facing our fear that we can be released from it.  What happens this is we find a state of total emptiness inside that also contains our greatest fullness.  We do nothing and merge with everything. 

It comes down to dropping out of the head and into our heart, that we finally relax, and discover the natural state of abundance inside.  The heart contains the greatest freedom that is truly freeing and life enriching.  The feeling of great abundance naturally comes when you live from the heart and abide in feelings of gratitude that are already there. Check it out and see for yourself!  Imagine what would your week be like if you lived from your heart, and only practiced gratitude for the life you already have?  It is first through accepting the idea that you are enough that can later manifest into the experience of having enough.  If you're thinking for one minute about what you don't have, it means you've missed 60 seconds of feeling loved, rich, and abundant about what you do have.

Poverty thinking is a cheap way of getting scraps of love, which ultimately end up costing everyone in the end. It can be very enticing to stay in as other people around you don't want to leave their habits, and thus will give you tons of extra sympathy when you're broke and struggling in the dirt with them. It is all about believing in the lie that you are not an all powerful manifesting being that creates all suffering.  This lie is the greatest sin one can ever make.  It is the original missed mark of mankind, and is causing you to miss out on the deep source of joy that is at the core of your being. You need to revamp your attitude and mould it towards becoming a rich person as to how you would deal with yourself, others and judicious treatment of your resources without being jealous with other’s progress. You need to learn how the other one got success while you had the same set of circumstances around you. If you lack something, you must try to gain that and you will transcend your poverty consciousness soon.

Be Happy – Transcend Your  Poverty Consciousness Forever.  

Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 2)

Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 2)

Continued after previous post Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 1)

Despite these weaknesses, the global coverage of these data-sets has led to their widespread adoption, most notably by the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

In response to these criticisms, a second wave of corruption metrics has been created by Global Integrity, the International Budget Partnership, and many lesser known local groups, starting with the Global Integrity Index, first published in 2004. These second wave projects aim not to create awareness, but to create policy change via targeting resources more effectively and creating checklists toward incremental reform. Global Integrity and the International Budget Partnership each dispense with public surveys and instead uses in-country experts to evaluate "the opposite of corruption" – which Global Integrity defines as the public policies that prevent, discourage, or expose corruption. These approaches compliment the first wave, awareness-raising tools by giving governments facing public outcry a checklist which measures concrete steps toward improved governance.

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country/territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 - 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries/territories included in the index. A cursory look at the status of the various countries indicates that the growth of population and per capita income plays a vital role in the level of the corruption in the respective countries.

The following were found the top ten countries in 2011:

Sr.No.    Country              Score     Population       Per capita income   Density

1            New Zealand      9.5         44,39,400       $36,648              16.5/km² 

2            Denmark            9.4         55,43,453       $37,151              128/km²

2            Finland               9.4         54,10,233       $36,236              16/km²

4            Sweden              9.3         95,14,406       $56,956              20.6/km²

5            Singapore           9.2         51,83,700       $59,711              7,315/km²

6            Norway              9            50,02,942       $53,470              15.5/km²

7            Netherlands        8.9         1,67,40,554    $42,183              404.5/km²

8            Australia             8.8         2,27,08,496    $40,234              2.8/km²

9            Switzerland         8.8         79,52,600       $43,369              188/km²

10          Canada              8.7         3,48,97,100    $40,541              3.41/km²

Of SAARC countries, we find the ranking as below:

38          Bhutan             5.7       7,20,679              $6,112                 18.0/km²

86          Sri Lanka        3.3       2,02,77,597         $5,673                 308.5/km²

95          India                3.1       1,21,01,93,422    $3,694                 369.9/km²

120        Bangladesh      2.7       15,25,18,015       $1,790                 1,033.5/km²

134        Pakistan          2.5       18,04,73,000       $2,787                 226.6/km² 

134        Maldives         2.5       3,17,280              $8,731                 1,102.5/km²

154        Nepal              2.2       2,66,20,809         $1,388                 199.3/km²

180        Afghanistan      1.5       2,55,00,100         $956                    43.5/km²

The big five powers do have the following status:

16          UK                 7.8       6,22,62,000         $36,605               255.6/km²

24          US                  7.1       31,42,35,000       $48,386               33.7/km²

25          France             7          6,53,50,000         $35,613               116/km²

75          China              3.6       1,34,73,50,000    $8,382                 139.6/km²

143        Russia             2.4       14,31,17,000       $16,736               8.3/km²

In India, Mr.Anna Hazare with his team and Baba Ram Dev took up this issue and launched movements at great length. Among other measures, Right to Information Act and the proposal of a Lok Pal Bill are in the same direction. At international level, in the 1990s, initiatives were taken at an international level (in particular by the European Community, the Council of Europe, the OECD) to put a ban on corruption: in 1996, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, for instance, adopted a comprehensive Programme of Action against Corruption and, subsequently, issued a series of anti-corruption standard-setting instruments:

• The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption.
• The Civil Law Convention on Corruption.
• The Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption.
• The Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption (Resolution.
• The Recommendation on Codes of Conduct For Public Officials.
• The Recommendation on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns 

The purpose of these instruments was to address the various forms of corruption (involving the public sector, the private sector, the financing of political activities, etc.) whether they had a strictly domestic or also a transnational dimension. To monitor the implementation at national level of the requirements and principles provided in those texts, a monitoring mechanism – the Group of States Against Corruption (also known as GRECO) (French: Groupe d'Etats contre la corruption) was created. Further conventions were adopted at the regional level under the aegis of the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA), the African Union, and in 2003, at the universal level under that of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

If we go through the roots we find that amongst all circumstances, some of the following are also responsible for the rampant corruption:

Information deficits

• Lacking freedom of information or Transparency.
• Lack of investigative reporting in the local media. Some of the media employees promote paid news.
• Contempt for or negligence of exercising freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
• Weak accounting practices, including lack of timely financial management.

Lack of measurement of corruption.

• Tax havens which tax their own citizens and companies but not those from other nations and refuse to disclose information necessary for foreign taxation. This enables large scale political corruption in the foreign nations.
• Lacking control of the government.
• Lack in civic society and non-governmental organizations which monitor the government.
• An individual voter may have a rational ignorance regarding politics.
• Weak and slow pace of reform.
• Weak rule of law.
• Weak legal profession.
• Weak judicial independence.

Lacking protection of whistleblowers.

• Lack of benchmarking, that is continual detailed evaluation of procedures and comparison to others who do similar things, in the same government or others, in particular comparison to those who do the best work.
• Non-availability of the opportunities and incentives.
• Public funds are centralized rather than distributed. For example, if $1,000 is embezzled from a local agency that has $2,000 funds, it is easier to notice than from a national agency with $2,000,000 funds.
• Large, unsupervised public investments.
• Sale of state-owned property and privatization.
• Government licenses needed to conduct business, e.g., licenses, encourage bribing and kickbacks.
• Long-time work in the same position may create relationships inside and outside the government which encourage and help conceal corruption and favoritism. Rotating government officials to different positions and geographic areas may help prevent this.
• Costly political campaigns.
• Interaction with officials creates the opportunities for corruption.
• War and other forms of conflict correlate with a breakdown of public security.
• Social conditions
• Family-, and clan-centered social structure, with a tradition of nepotism/favouritism being acceptable.
• Lacking literacy and education among the population.
• Frequent discrimination and bullying among the population.
• Tribal solidarity, giving benefits to certain ethnic groups.

How should we fight against corruption?

We can take all the steps whatever be necessary to eliminate this illness. Some suggestions are given below:

1.  The Indian Right to Information Act 2005 is perceived to have already engendered mass movements in the country that is bringing the lethargic, often corrupt bureaucracy to its knees and changing power equations completely. It should be made more popular and implemented effectively.  Other Countries which do not have so far, may also have such laws.  .

2.  Using regular surveys of households and businesses in order to quantify the degree of perception of corruption in different parts of a nation or in different government institutions may increase awareness of corruption and create pressure to combat it. This will also enable an evaluation of the officials who are fighting corruption and the methods used. The Peruvian organization Ciudadanos al Dia has started to measure and compare transparency, costs, and efficiency in different government departments in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has received widespread media attention. This has created competition among government agencies in order to improve.

3.  In the Indian political system, it has become usual that the leadership of national and regional parties are passed from generation to generation creating a system in which a family holds the center of power. Some examples are most of the Dravidian parties of south India and also the Congress party, which is one of the two major political parties in India. Such practice should not be promoted further so that opportunities to other competent persons be available.

4.   We may reduce the role of the state in people's lives by using the Internet for sending in required information, like applications, First Incident Reports, proceedings of the courts and tax forms, and then processing this with automated computer systems will reduce the interaction with the government staff. This may also speed up the processing and reduce unintentional human errors.

5.    All the financial transactions of every single penny must be documented.

6.    Holding Unaccounted money in hand, bank account or invested in some tangible/intangible assets be declared as an offence with severe punishment. It should be confiscated immediately and deposited with the treasury as soon as it is traced out. Those who are found to be keeping unaccounted money must be fined so terribly that they may not repeat the offence.

7.   Taxation be simplified to ensure a reasonable and transparent tax structure, backed by clean and clear enforcement and the tax/duties rates be kept so low that a general person may easily afford.

8.      Accounting of public expenses be kept open to all.

9.      Reasonable Ceiling over the real estate holding be enforced.

10.  Introduce state-funding as part of election reforms to avoid the high cost of elections and candidates' dependence on money, which make them to compromise them from the very outset.

11.  Liberal and contemporary laws be framed in easy language so that citizens can understand and respect.

12.  We should ensure to minimize discretionary powers of ministers and bureaucrats to reduce scope for misuse of such powers to favor some, especially in lucrative areas such as award of government land. Where discretionary powers are unavoidable, there must be sufficient checks and balance. After a deal is done, the relevant documents should be put up on the Net.

13.  Government and PSU staff, judiciary staff and police be paid market-indexed salaries commensurate with their responsibility to minimize the 'need' for bribes.

14.  Gambling of any kind, lottery and all those methods which ensure easy money or flattened margins on the goods/services being traded must be eliminated.

15.  Police reforms and stronger judicial accountability be introduced within a shortest time frame before the frustration of the public burst out.

16.  The businessmen if they are found to be indulged in bribing officials or unfair trade practices like unusual profit margin, black marketing, hoarding, cutting down the measurements, packing quantity etc and/or adulterating be blacklisted for not less than 10 years and barred from Government Contracts.

17.  Transparency and stricter scrutiny of government tenders/orders, including auction/sale of public-owned assets should be ensured.

If you feel necessary, kindly add up your suggestions to the above list and ensure that we must follow them if we want this earth to be heaven for all.

Live and Let others live peacefully and happily. Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption.

Be Happy – Join Crusade Against Corruption (Part 1).

Undoubtedly, we are continuously proceeding ahead in achieving advancement of our civilization. Though it is a natural process of development as the necessity is the mother of the inventions and discoveries, we need to make efforts also to meet our growing requirements. With the passage of time, we have developed our requirements to the new heights, providing them new dimensions and classification – individual requirements, family requirements, community requirements, national requirements, global requirements and so on. Accordingly, our methods also change from individual to individual, community to community and country to the country.

Some time, our individual requirements prevail over other requirements and this step creates problems for others. Our greed or ego enters in and there starts differences. Some time, we reconcile and sit peacefully. But when we do not reconcile, we try to settle the disputed matter through many forums or methods like being polite in our exchanges, employing money and other materials/channels in the process, using force/threats etc. to create pressure and/or being diplomatic. It is also true that while settling the matters/differences, one party may feel to get some injustice and the other party may feel happy. Here too, in spite of having settled, the aggrieved party does not sit coolly unless that lacks sufficient resources to follow up. If really, there is some injustice which has been accepted due to pressure or coercive measures adopted by the opposite party, it won’t bring the desired peace of mind.

What do you mean by the word “Injustice”? It is an unjust act which affects someone or some other ones in social, financial and/or emotional terms, an act that inflicts undeserved hurt, involving unfairness to another or violation of one's rights.  Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Injustice of any kind is injustice. Even rigid justice is also injustice. But injustice never rules forever.

When the criminal court system was established its intent was to punish the guilty in a humane way and to set the innocent free. From personal experience I observe that the court system is now not about innocence or guilt. The court system is about whom you know and money, usually forcing most people into an involuntary plea. How would you expect that you are going to have fair play in getting justice? Those who get benefits out of turn appreciate judiciary overwhelming. Why does judiciary not take action against majority of its officers and employees who take bribe or do not perform their duties properly when they understand that even a minor slip or mishandling on their hands can cause terrible losses to the persons who come for seeking justice? The corrupt practices carried on in the corridors of the judiciary temples have made the process so costly that the poor people never feel easy to go to judiciary for justice. There are millions of cases pending for disposal but neither the judiciary or the Government is serious to take action for early disposal. Those who have got influence get their matters settled as per their convenience. Money and terror too prevail over the judiciary, it appears.

In Criminal Justice,   the most   important   real - world fact about our criminal justice system is that   a person accused of crimes enjoy no advantages, no matter how many rights the courts and legislatures have apportioned them. For the overwhelming majority of cases, they have no opportunity to exercise any of their rights. Instead, these rights are plea-bargained away.

First of all if you don’t have friends in high places i.e. police, lawyers, politicians, and judges then basically you are up a creek without a paddle. It has been proven time and time again that police, judges, and politicians can be in one’s pocket for the right price. Which brings me back to taking a plea, without these people in your court, your life is left in the same peoples hands In “Criminal Justice”, because the accused have robust rights, formally it would be too expensive and time consuming actually to permit them to exercise those rights, and as a result defendants are compelled to bargain them away.

Rights are now just an illusion created so that you believe you are going to be treated fairly. If the prosecutor could not threaten defendants by “upping the ante” so the court reasoned, there would be fewer guilty pleas and the system would collapse. So the prosecutor can bring even higher charges against me if I don’t plead guilty to my original charges. It makes sense in a corrupt system. Mankind must put an end to injustice, or the injustice will put an end to mankind.

Injustice with you means you are not getting what you actually deserve. Why do you not get you deserve? It means that in the process of delivering you the goods, there must have been some corruption involved either in calculation of your eligibility or in the delivery process itself. We need to find out where it is hidden.

Corruption means requesting, offering, giving or accepting, directly or indirectly, a bribe or any other undue advantage or prospect thereof, which distorts the proper performance of any duty or behavior required of the recipient of the bribe, the undue advantage or the prospect thereof. This may be called bribe, kickback, or you can call it as “Baksheesh”.

Embezzlement is also a form of corruption. It is outright theft of entrusted funds. It is political when it involves public money taken by a responsible public official. A common type of embezzlement is that of personal use of entrusted resources; for example, when an official assigns public employees to renovate his own house.

Corruption creates trading in influence, or influence peddling in some countries. This refers to the situation where a person is selling his/her influence over the decision process involving a third party (person or institution). The difference with bribery is that this is a tri-lateral relation.

In government it takes place when an elected representative makes decisions that are influenced by vested interests rather than their own personal or party ideological beliefs. The use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain and misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality are the other forms of corruption. . It can be difficult to make a distinction between this form of corruption and some forms of extreme and loosely regulated lobbying where for instance law- or decision-makers can freely "sell" their vote, decision power or influence to those lobbyists who offer the highest compensation, including where for instance the latter act on behalf of powerful clients such as industrial groups who want to avoid the passing of specific environmental, social, or other regulations perceived as too stringent, etc.  

Philosophically, corruption is spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. An illegal act by an officeholder or bureaucrat constitutes corruption if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribe, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking etc.

Corruption differs at various places. For instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve more than 1 trillion US dollars annually. A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, you can say it "rule by thieves".

Corruption poses a serious challenge. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.

Corruption comes up in the shape of Patronage too. Patronage means favoring supporters, for example with government employment. This may be legitimate, as when a newly elected government changes the top officials in the administration in order to effectively implement its policy. It can be seen as corruption if this means that incompetent persons, as a payment for supporting the regime, are selected before more able ones. Many government officials are often selected for loyalty rather than ability. They are almost exclusively selected from a particular group.

Favoring relatives (nepotism) or personal friends (cronyism) of an official is a form of illegitimate private gain. This may be combined with bribery, for example demanding that a business should employ a relative of the official controlling regulations affecting the business. This is also the practice of corruption getting popular now-a-days.

In democracy we find Electoral frauds. It is an illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. Also called voter fraud, the mechanisms involved include illegal voter registration, intimidation at polls, and improper vote counting.

Taking kickback is another form of corruption. It is called as an official's share of misappropriated funds allocated from his or her organization to an organization involved in corrupt bidding. For example, when a politician who is in charge of choosing how to spend some public funds gives a contract to a company that is not the best bidder, or allocate more than they deserve. In this case, the company benefits, and in exchange for betraying the public, he receives a kickback payment, which is a portion of the sum the company received. This sum itself may be all or a portion of the difference between the actual (inflated) payment to the company and the (lower) market-based price that would have been paid had the bidding been competitive.

Another example of a kickback would be if a judge receives a portion of the profits that a business makes in exchange for his judicial decisions. Kickbacks are not limited to government officials; any situations in which people are entrusted to spend funds that do not belong to them are susceptible to this kind of corruption.

In the private sector, corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments themselves, the management cost of negotiating with officials, and the risk of breached agreements or detection. Although some claim corruption reduces costs by cutting bureaucracy, the availability of bribes can also induce officials to contrive new rules and delays. Openly removing costly and lengthy regulations are better than covertly allowing them to be bypassed by using bribes. Where corruption inflates the cost of business, it also distorts the playing field, shielding firms with connections from competition and thereby sustaining inefficient firms.

Corruption also generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Officials may increase the technical complexity of public sector projects to conceal or pave the way for such dealings, thus further distorting investment. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations, reduces the quality of government services and infrastructure, and increases budgetary pressures on government.

Corruption facilitates environmental destruction. Corrupt countries may formally have legislation to protect the environment, it cannot be enforced if their officials can easily be bribed. The same applies to social rights worker protection, unionization prevention, and child labor. Violation of these laws rights enables corrupt countries to gain illegitimate economic advantage in the international market. It should not be permitted otherwise.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has observed that "there is no such thing as an apolitical food problem." While drought and other naturally occurring events may trigger famine conditions, it is government action or inaction that determines its severity, and often even whether or not a famine will occur. Governments with strong tendencies towards kleptocracy can undermine food security even when harvests are good. Officials often steal state property. In Bihar, India, more than 80% of the subsidized food aid to poor is stolen by corrupt officials. Similarly, food aid is often robbed at gunpoint by governments, criminals, and warlords alike, and sold for a profit. We have seen many examples of this nature.

The scale of humanitarian aid to the poor and unstable regions of the world grows, but it is highly vulnerable to corruption, with food aid, construction and other highly valued assistance as the most at risk. Food aid is directly and physically diverted from its intended destination, or indirectly through the manipulation of assessments, targeting, registration and distributions to favor certain groups or individuals. Elsewhere, in construction and shelter, the corrupt people find numerous opportunities for diversion and profit through substandard workmanship, kickbacks for contracts and favoritism in the provision of valuable shelter material. Thus while humanitarian aid agencies are usually most concerned about aid being diverted by including too many recipients themselves are most concerned about exclusion.

Corruption is not specific to poor, developing, or transition countries. In western countries, cases of bribery and other forms of corruption in all possible fields exist: under-the-table payments made to reputed surgeons by patients attempting for out-of-turn surgeries, bribes paid by suppliers to the automotive industry in order to sell low-quality connectors used for instance in safety equipment such as airbags, bribes paid by suppliers to manufacturers of defibrillators (to sell low-quality capacitors), contributions paid by wealthy parents to the "social and culture fund" of a prestigious university in exchange for it to accept their children, bribes paid to obtain diplomas, financial and other advantages granted to unionists by members of the executive board of a car manufacturer in exchange for employer-friendly positions and votes, etc. Examples are endless. These various manifestations of corruption ultimately present a danger for the public health; they discredit specific, essential institutions or social relationships.

Corruption also affects the various components of sports activities (referees, players, medical and laboratory staff involved in anti-doping controls, members of national sport federation and international committees deciding about the allocation of contracts and competition places). The recent Common Wealth Games Scam in India is one of its burning examples.

Fighting Against Corruption:

There are many forms of corrupt practices affecting us in many ways. Measuring corruption statistically is difficult if not impossible due to the illicit nature of the transaction and imprecise definitions of corruption. While "corruption" indices first appeared in 1995 with the Corruption Perceptions Index CPI, all of these metrics address different proxies for corruption, such as public perceptions of the extent of the problem.

Transparency International, an anti-corruption NGO, pioneered this field with the CPI, first released in 1995. This work is often credited with breaking a taboo and forcing the issue of corruption into high level development policy discourse. Transparency International currently publishes three measures, updated annually: a CPI (based on aggregating third-party polling of public perceptions of how corrupt different countries are); a Global Corruption Barometer (based on a survey of general public attitudes toward and experience of corruption); and a Bribe Payers Index, looking at the willingness of foreign firms to pay bribes. The Corruption Perceptions Index is the best known of these metrics, though it has drawn much criticism and may be declining in influence.

The World Bank collects a range of data on corruption, including survey responses from over 100,000 firms worldwide and a set of indicators of governance and institutional quality. Moreover, one of the six dimensions of governance measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators is Control of Corruption, which is defined as "the extent to which power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as 'capture' of the state by elites and private interests." While the definition itself is fairly precise, the data aggregated into the Worldwide Governance Indicators is based on any available polling: questions range from "is corruption a serious problem?" to measures of public access to information, and not consistent across countries.