There’s something about Scotland and its people that takes hold of you. Once you go, it never really leaves your heart. Look at how Heather Brooks, an investigative journalist from Edinburgh, Scotland cleaned house at the Houses of Parliament in London. Here’s how her Ted Talk description puts it:
Brooke uncovered the British Parliamentary financial expenses that led to a major political scandal in 2009. She urges us to ask our leaders questions through platforms like Freedom of Information requests — and to finally get some answers.
Another international crusader who succeeded in busting up corruption on an even larger scale is Peter Eigen. Here’s His TedTalk and introduction.
How to expose the corrupt – Some of the world’s most baffling social problems, says Peter Eigen, can be traced to systematic, pervasive government corruption, hand-in-glove with global companies. In his talk, Eigen describes the thrilling counterattack led by his organization Transparency International. (Filmed at TEDxBerlin.)
I hesitate to use international examples for two reasons. The first is because my focus is on local corruption – that’s the place that most of us are most impacted and can make the most difference. The second reason is that our first instinct is usually to shy away from that which we don’t like, or that which is ugly. One of the ways we do that is to dismiss it as something that happens somewhere else: in a developing country, or at a national level, or in a foreign country. The truth is that human nature is the same everywhere. Corruption that occurs in other places can very easily occur in our own backyards. Solutions that occur elsewhere can also be applied to our own situations.