International Anti-Corruption Day is observed every year on 9 December, since the passage of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on October 31, 2003.

1. No to corruption, no to materialism
International Anti-Corruption Day is observed every year on 9 December, since the
passage of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on October 31, 2003. The
slogan for this day is “no to corruption”. In terms of celebration it is successful, but in
terms of result this campaign is a total failure.
Now time has come to reassess this high project. Objective assessment will tell us that
this failure is due to wrong diagnosis. Corruption is not an independent feature, it is the
result of materialism. People want to acquire more and more material goods, so they
adopt corrupt practices.
The root cause of this evil is materialism. Materialism has led to unchecked greed. But
this kind of greed is not workable in this world. Man is subject to the natural law. And
according to the natural law, every man and woman has a very short period of their life to
live in this world. According to survey, the average age of man is sixty years. It is the fate
of every human being that he is born as a child, then enjoys youth, and at last old age.
Finally, he faces death. In such a situation, no one is able to utilise the wealth he tried to
amass through corrupt practices.
If you live on need, it is good. But if you try to fulfil your greed, then that is not
achievable for anyone. Greed is against the law of nature.

2. This state of affairs tells us that on this planet earth, only controlled materialism is
feasible. Uncontrolled materialism or absolute materialism simply cannot work on this
planet. One who follows his greed and tries to amass wealth through corrupt practices,
will finally get nothing except tension and soon thereafter death.
You have to accept this reality. We have to adopt a culture that is workable. Keeping this
fact into consideration, one can say that the call for ‘no to corruption’ is not going to
yield any result. It is better to adopt the call: ‘no to materialism’.