Bread but no circuses

Julius Caesar’s recipe for staying in power was bread and circuses. If you can keep the masses happy then you can rule however you want. This works pretty well in the US. Generally everyone is fed and basic needs are met. The one thing there is plenty of in the US is circuses. Loads of media attention is spent on stupid things like the OJ Simpson trial and the Nancy Kerrigan/ Tonya Harding blowout. We seem to care far more about the small personal issues with the high drama. Remember Elian Gonzalez and the guy who euthanized his vegetative wife. With all these things going on we pretty much ignore the blatant poverty, political corruption, pathetic urban education, and a complete lack of public health care.

In Kenya the government definitely has the bread element down. Any time there is a bad rainy season, truckloads of relief food are immediately sent in. This isn't evenly shared and a lot gets sidelined but nobody goes hungry. These food distributions are often done in conjunction with political rallies so you know where it's coming from. Similarly, every village in the country has a dispensary with a doctor who sees patients for free and proscribes medicine at rock bottom prices. The latest attempt at popular support is FPA- free primary education, where all kids go to primary school for free and each student gets one textbook in each subject. Massively expensive and immensely popular. Because of this program the president is popular despite his lack of a political party or any campaigning. If any of these basic things fails in a village their local MP is punished severely in the elections. On the other hand, Kenya doesn’t really doesn’t have any rock stars or other uber famous people. There are plenty of world class athletes, but most are runners and don’t have particularly ugly or eventful personal lives. The most popular television show is the news, which everyone watches avidly, and there’s not really any movie business. People otherwise famous are only famous for their talent. Nobody cares about a singer’s home life or who he’s having sex with. The only really well known people are the politicians. Newspapers are very popular with people spending hours discussing the various politicians and their viewpoints and performance. Ask any student, elderly person, whoever, about their MP and they will tell you the person’s name, personality, home area, and all the things they have or haven’t done. Ask any American about their congressman and see what kind of response you get.

There are all kinds of reason for corruption but between the press coverage and constant interest by the population it is going down, step by step. The press highlights some scandal and it gets too ugly. Members of parliament are forced to do something about it before they get implicated or accused of negligence. I can’t say that corruption is going down in the US. Partly because there is less corruption to begin with and partly because the corruption is endemic. Lobbying, gerrymandering, hiring retired politicians are simply the way things operate. A bigger reason for US corruption is that people just don’t care, there are too many circuses which you can mentally attend.