Corruption

Former police general Oleksiy Pukach on Jan. 29 after being convicted of the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. Although Pukach implicated former President Leonid Kuchma and his former chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn in the murder, they have not been charged. Pukach was sentenced to life in prison. © AFP

    I got really depressed yesterday evening for no real good reason. I had come across a story about a murder trial in the Ukraine and no one had commented yet, so I thought I would comment. I mean it was a pretty good story and I thought it deserved a comment, but mostly because no one else had commented yet. Some big time web sites get hundreds of comments. I won't comment there, I mean who's going to read 300 hundred comments just to get to my pearl of wisdom? Shoot, I will seldom comment if there are more than a dozen comments. So anyway I commented on this story, and then a couple of trolls dumped all over me, and then I got really depressed. Like I said, no good reason. I hate trolls. If they identified themselves it would not be so bad, at least then I would have somewhere to focus my anger, but trolls by definition are anonymous. Stupid trolls, hiding behind their stupid handles, spewing insulting garbage. Death to trolls! Allah Akbar!
    Anyway. The story is about how a court in Kiev sentenced former Police General Oleksiy Pukach to life for murdering journalist Georgiy Gongadze. The General claims he did it under orders from higher ups, but the court wasn't interested in that part of the story. I thought it was pretty good that they persevered (13 years!) long enough to get this conviction. The trolls took exception to my comments, which, after I got over being depressed, got me to thinking.
    The higher ups never get caught, much less indicted, convicted or punished. That's the way it's always been and that's the way it probably always will be. Oh sometimes they suffer a fall from grace, but it is usually for some politically motivated nonsense, not a real crime.
    The thing is, the court, by convicting the actual perpetrators is sending a message to all those who might consider committing a similar crime on "orders from above". They might be loyal to the higher ups, and they might get paid well, but if they get caught they are going to suffer the consequences. Their superiors, protected as they may be, will not be able to help them. That should give the thugs a little something to think about. It might even dissuade them for committing a crime.
    Corruption is contagious. Western civilization operates as well as it does because it is constantly striving to stamp it out. That's why we come down hard on petty criminals. We need an honest base to build on. If you have an honest base, you can build on it. If your base is corrupt, well, you look like Haiti or Afghanistan. You can't build anything substantial on mud.
    The weird part is that when I went looking for the trolls comments just now they had disappeared. Did I imagine the whole thing?