Reader response "Composition #6"

Wilkin – De La Rosa

ESR 098

Prof. Maria – Jerskey

11/16/10

Composition #6 (Revised)

“Corrupt Politics”

            The short story “One of These Days” illustrates that the more power a person has, the more corrupt he or she becomes. It is a very common act in political leaders. When they get power they change their behavior. They become dishonest, immoral, and start to do illegal actions.

I know someone named Carl Simpson. He had been an excellent teacher and professor in different schools and Universities in the Dominican Republic. He had been described as an honest and responsible person. He also had an impressive background. But these things have been tarnished since he started to get certain state’s positions such as Secretary of Education which is his present position, Dominican Port Authority director, Executive Director of the Airport Department, National Congress Member, and others.

            There is a new law in my country for politicians or people who gain or get any position in the state. It says that each person who gets a position needs to declare his or her fortune before getting it. It is to ensure that this person is not stealing money from the state after he or she gets the position.

Starting with the law I mentioned above, the journalist Nuria Piera has made some investigation about Carl Simpson, and it has shown that he has made some corrupt acts and illegal transactions in some of his positions. For example, Carl Simpson declared $300,000 dollars in fortune, when he started to work to the state. However a recent investigation by Nuria Piera shows that a house he has in San Cristobal costs more than the fortune he declared at the beginning of his position. Also, the transaction of this house was not clear. When he reported the price of the house, he reported $120,000 dollars, when this house really costs over $300,000 dollars. That is to say he did that in order to pay less tax. Moreover Nuria Piera discovered that when he was Dominican Port Authority director, there was corruption in his administration. Some companies did not pay their taxes in customs. To sum up his administration did not report many entries that were made and reported by checkers in the customs. The most impressive part is that despite making these intolerable acts, the government continued to offer new positions to him.  These are few examples of Carl’s corruption and abuse of power within the government.

As we can see Carl is a big example of people who are honest and have an excellent background before getting power, and then become dishonest, immoral and make illegal actions after getting it. It is what many countries are experiencing nowadays: corruption, abuse of power, and dishonest people within the government.