Originally dreamt up by a group of friends working for NGOs,
is Mexico City’s Corruptour a good way to teach about corruption awareness?
By; Ringo Bones
The Corruptour probably gained exposure after
representatives of the BBC joined the tour back in August 2017 and given the
much-needed exposure of its existence, I now wonder why every major
metropolitan city in the world doesn’t have its own version of this. In short
it is a very effective – and educational way - to spread awareness about
corruption, not just to Mexicans and the neighboring countries, but to every
concerned citizen of the world as well.
The Corruptour was
dreamt up by a group of friends working for NGOs. “Everyone knows about
corruption but imagine it is a monster,” says Patricia de Obeso, an organizer.
“We’re trying to break it down and explain how it’s done.” The tourists, a mix
of Mexicans and visitors from elsewhere in Latin America, do not buy tickets,
but are asked for donations.
The Corruptour is not the only gimmick for drawing attention
to a problem that is indeed a monster (on average, Mexican households spend
14-percent of their income to pay bribes and meet other corrupt demands). The
Mexico City tour was inspired by a similar one in the north-eastern city of Monterrey.
The “Mexican Corruptionary” – published in 2016 – offers definitions of 300
corruption-related terms. A góber covers up for policemen in the
pay of organized crime; a hueso (bone) is a bribe paid to get a public-sector
job that itself offers bribe-taking opportunities. In 1996, the word
“corruption” appeared in 27 Mexican headlines, according to Mexicans Against
Corruption and Impunity, a think-tank. By 2015, with newspapers reporting on
police who had taken part in the massacre of 43 students and on allegations
that the president’s wife had bought a house from a government contractor, the
number of corruption related headlines had jumped to 3,500.
