Displaying items by tag: Corruption

Thursday, 17 September 2020 22:11

Haiti: teachers on strike

Teachers in Haiti have refused to return to classrooms, even taking to the streets to protest a lack of pay and safe working conditions. This was already a problem and the pandemic made it worse. Haiti runs in cycles. Their government gets money. Sometimes it doles it out and sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, police work for months without payment. Teachers can work for the entire school year without payment. Theft has become an expected part of the culture. Haiti with Love has been sharing the Gospel with parents who bring in their children for burn treatment. People are very open to listening when they realise that the reason people are helping their babies is the love of Christ. They ask, ‘Who is this Christ who provides all of this help? Tell me about him.’ Pray for the Burn Clinic, and also for Pilgrim House which provides homes for homeless people.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 17 September 2020 22:07

Peru: Christianity, corruption, economy, pandemic

Perú's parliament will impeach President Vizcarra for blocking an investigation into mis-use of public funds. He swept into power with an anti-corruption agenda. He denies ‘moral incapacity‘, despite audio recordings of him misusing funds. They have provoked a public outcry in pandemic-stricken Perú which now has the highest Covid death rate per capita in the world. Perú's economy is also struggling to recover from the three-month shutdown of the mining sector due to coronavirus. Pray for lawmakers to ensure corruption is replaced with honest reliable leadership. Pray for wise business transactions and a speedy economic recovery for commerce and industry that has seen quarterly GDP plummet by over 40%. Pray for successful strategies to halt the spread of coronavirus. Meanwhile missionaries are working to reach the thousands of Chinese migrants now settling in Peru: pray for believers from their ministry (see).

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 13 August 2020 20:14

Lebanon: PM and entire government resign

Following the devastating explosion in Beirut last week, on 11 August prime minister Hassan Diab resigned. A professor of sociology has said, ‘Lebanon is facing the most dangerous moment in its history. The options are grim. If there isn't a serious will from the international community to create strong structural changes in Lebanon, we are going towards civil war. There is no alternative. It's very unfortunate to say that in this country we don't believe there is rock bottom any more.’ What a new Lebanon would look like nobody knows, but getting there will not be easy. The country is entering a period of political darkness. Protesters want root and branch reform. The state of emergency declared on 5 August brought the army onto the streets to prevent freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. They also can now enter homes and arrest anyone deemed a security threat. Pray for corruption-free candidates to stand for selection in a completely safe and authentic change of leadership election.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 06 August 2020 22:48

Kazakhstan: church buildings confiscated

The authorities in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan ordered the confiscation of the buildings of both Grace Presbyterian Church and Agape Pentecostal Church, which is building a place of worship on the same site. City authorities claim the land is needed for a new kindergarten. But officials refuse to explain why they cannot find another site for this, despite two possibly suitable other buildings being in the same Baikonur District of the capital. The move to confiscate both churches' property was initiated by the Construction and Residential Policy Department. It is unclear if corruption is a factor in the confiscation decision. Local media reported on 17 July that an unnamed former head of the Department is being investigated over the alleged embezzlement of 200 million Tenge (£363,733.80).

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 30 July 2020 21:07

Hong Kong: politics and church

At least twelve well-known political opposition figures, veterans, and lawmaker activists have been barred from running in the legislative council elections; the government warned that more hopefuls, including further lawmakers, could still be banned. Hong Kong's pastors are in the spiritual trenches of this growing fight. More than one million Christians are choosing between the ‘blue’ pro-government camp and the ‘yellow’ opposition. Most young churchgoers support the pro-democracy protests. Pray for God to protect and show the pastors His way forward, as they lead the church through the current struggles. Pray for young protesters facing moral dilemmas: ‘As a Christian, violence is wrong, so can I throw bricks? An oppressive government is also wrong, shall I break laws to protest against injustice?’

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 23 July 2020 22:02

The Gambia: making the hyena pay

Yahya Jammeh, the Gambia’s brutal former dictator, may soon lose his vast mansion in Maryland, in a much anticipated step by the US Department of Justice. He paid US$3.5 million for it in 2010 with funds stolen from the Gambian people. In 2017 he fled to Equatorial Guinea. In the short time since Jammeh was ousted from office, the country has shown progress in many critical areas. There are encouraging signs that the repression and violation of basic rights that marked Jammeh’s time in office are slowly being changed by a commitment to democratic norms, good governance, and the rule of law.

Published in Praise Reports
Thursday, 11 June 2020 20:58

Global: police corruption

George Floyd’s death sparked protests against racial inequality and police abuse around the world. Black Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. Transparency International reports that police abuse takes many shapes and forms, and is not unique to the US. In the first two weeks of lockdown in Nigeria extrajudicial killings enforcing the regulations claimed more lives than the virus itself. Across Africa, people think the police are the most corrupt group in their country, 47% of Africans believe that most or all police are corrupt, with 28% having paid a bribe to a police officer in the previous year. Pray for improved tools for citizens to report abuses by law enforcement officers. The police also earned the highest bribery rates in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa. Innocent people should never have to fear for their life or their livelihood when they encounter a police officer. See

Published in Worldwide

Asia’s youngest democracy is grappling with political instability that has hampered efforts to reduce poverty, stamp out corruption, and develop its rich energy resources. Though the prime minister had tendered his resignation after failing to pass the budget several times, he withdrew his resignation to help lead the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, and has called for a state of emergency while approving a $250-million fund to fight it. As this mostly Catholic nation recently celebrated Easter, we stand with them and declare that Jesus is ‘the resurrection and the life’ over East Timor. We declare that traditional and nominal religious following must be shaken off, and speak of a coming to life of real and loving relationship with the Saviour. See also

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 28 May 2020 21:19

Global: coronavirus corruption

Transparency International warned of the dangers of funds for the response to the coronavirus crisis being misappropriated. On 26 May more stories confirmed the validity of these concerns. In Bolivia, the minister of health was removed from his post after the government paid over the odds for ventilators that were not even fit for purpose. In Italy, the head of Sicily’s coronavirus response has been put under house arrest following an investigation into bribery cases going back to 2016. In Poland, the health minister is under fire after the government bought more than 10,000 useless face masks through a family friend. The case has been referred to prosecutors. These examples join many others, including an investigation in Bosnia and Herzegovina into a multi-million-euro government contract for ventilators that went to a raspberry farm with political connections, and the resignation in Panama of a senior politician involved in yet another ventilator procurement scandal.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 07 May 2020 22:01

Kenya: police abuse of power

In many places, police not only fail to protect people in poverty from violence, but they are violent predators themselves. Millions of the most vulnerable people in the world live in fear of police who extort bribes and brutalise innocent citizens. This has increased during coronavirus curfews. In Kenya it is easy for a corrupt or incompetent police officer to falsely accuse and imprison or even kill an innocent person. As measures have been put in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus, there has been a spike in police abuse while enforcing the night curfew. The government’s independent policing oversight authority has documented at least 35 cases of police brutality in connection to the curfew enforcement, including twelve deaths. Other agencies report at least one death a night in the communities which the justice centres monitor.

Published in Worldwide