Do it The Japanese Way...

When faced by a problem, it is often observed that the psyche of people makes them look for the source of the problem in a person rather than a cause.I was once told this anecdote in one of my classes, and since then the anecdote has left a huge effect on how I used to perceive things, and how I have gradually begun to understand them.

The anecdote goes like this:



'Not long ago, a team of Japanese corporate magnets visited an Indian firm from the same sector on a visit. The Manager of the firm wanted to show them the best picture of themselves and so prepared a splendid tour through the corporation. After a day long tour, they all met in the evening in a posh plastic hotel for a lavish dinner. By the time the desserts were served, Manager decided that before Japanese leave he should gain something in return from them too. So he ventured to ask a question to the Japanese CEO of an International Giant. He asked,"We Indians and you have almost similar machinery, skilled labour, capital and working methods, then how is it that you always manage to stay ahead of us?"

The Japanese took sometime to think and then solemnly answered in an unwavering deep tone,"My friend our facilities, money and skill might be similar but I have observed something today. I must tell you, when faced by a crisis or problem, we tend to try and think in terms of 'what' and you tend to think in terms of 'who'. That my friend, might be the difference." '


Well this anecdote gives the simple reason for all the problems we as citizens or mere human beings face. More often than not in the sense of injustice that we feel, we end up blaming someone else for the problems we mutually might be suffering.To this day nations fight to overthrow a dictator, calling him a tyrant... Only to replace such a dictator with another individual, who on the longer run more or less becomes another tyrant. I do not think it is the individual to blame, it is the power.


Corruption and loss of integrity is something which can be called a weakness in human nature surfacing due to undesirable vested powers on an individual. We must suffer the subjugation of our own conscience when it is over-ridden by the undeniable temptations that power brings with it. Whoever denies that can either be a impractical hypocrite or an extraordinary moralist, with the latter being a rarity.


'Power corrupts' is a concept which can be applied to almost all the individuals, except a few. Most mortals don't come with the necessary moral package to defy the temptations!


Now the question I would like to ask here is, What are we as citizens and individual human beings doing here, with a "LOKPAL BILL" or probably with slogans of "SAARE NETA CHOR HAIN"?

Aren't we being plain hypocrites?



I don't blame the politicians for going corrupt, because had it been me or you or anyone of us in their position, 9 out of 10 people might be lured too. Such is the nature of material lust.



What I ask is, is it not enough to have pointed fingers at individuals for more than 100 years now? Is it not time to think beyond the two points we have always restricted upon, which are:


first - The moralistic Utopia that we believe in, where every individual is morally, ethically and spiritually impossible to corrupt; and


second - In case some people go corrupt, it is their own inherent lack of moral fibre punishable by law but not the flaw in the system.These are the only two things we have always observed!


I believe that we need to learn some great deal from the Problem-solving and Decision-making techniques of huge corporations. Problem-solving is not putting the "guilty" to the guillotine, but rather making a system with minimal susceptibility for producing guilty stock.


We, as public, on the other hand, are obsessively over-ridden by the vicious cycle of giving power and then ostracizing the tempted, which will always be the case.Now Lokpal shall come, and on a longer run, I perceive it to produce the most obscenely perverse scams of corruption ever, as POWER CORRUPTS!

It is high time, the word "Reform" took an objective outlook, rather than a subjective outlook.We must reform the system, not add to its rumble list, another rotten egg! The mistake is not of the individuals, but the system, and as long as system is not reformed, it is bound to produce a never-ending livestock of corrupt individuals.


So, I would like to conclude with the lesson I learnt from the that Japanese guy's perception:

"Analyse WHAT the problem is and direct your energies to solve it, rather than analysing WHO the problem is and directing energies to blaming and ostracizing him/her."



Sometimes, it is good to learn from others....


- Karthik Adithya Singaraju