It seems to me there is an underlying cause of all the problems we face today: greed.

Greedy financiers looking to maximize their bonuses and share values, greedy capitalists investing in schemes too good to be true (Madoff and Legacy come to mind), greedy contractors building below standard to maximize profit, and the worst of all, at least in the Philippines, greedy politicians and public sector employees wanting an ever higher percentage of any project the government undertakes. The list goes on.

Didn?t Christ overturn the tables of the greedy merchants? Has this Christian nation forgotten the principles Christ taught that God expects you to obey? Do these people really think God is fooled by insincere confessions? He knows. If the God I learned about is the same as theirs, they, quite simply, won?t go to heaven. There?s another place that also begins with ?H? for them. I wonder why they haven?t understood that, particularly as many of them are much closer to the end than to the beginning. Some have even been to death?s door and come back.

Anyway, how much money do you really need? Only a person of weak character needs an endless stream of money because his or her personality is not strong enough to be able to get what they want through persuasion.

I watched the story of Franklin D. Roosevelt?s struggle to overcome polio the other night. He was perhaps the greatest president the United States has had. When he died his inheritance went to ?Warm Springs,? a polio rehabilitation center he founded. It was US$562,000. He was not a rich man, he was a great man. You don?t need wealth to do a great job?you need passion, dedication, fire in the belly.

And an outstanding ability to inspire others.

Roosevelt led America out of a great depression (one we could well be experiencing again now) and won a war. He did so by the sheer force of personality, grit and determination. He died with nothing but an insurance policy financially, but with everything from a life a man, or woman, could ever wish for.

They say power doesn?t flow out of the barrel of a gun, it doesn?t flow out of the doors of a vault either. It flows out of the greatness of the mind. Power is not coercing (or, to put it quite simply, bribing) people to do things for you, it?s getting people to want to do things for you because they believe in you and what you want to do.

The world?s greatest leaders weren?t so because of their immense wealth. They were so because of their staggering character. Gandhi was poor, but one of the greatest influencers of his time. Lee Kwan Yew shunned money, but made Singapore one of the richest (per capita which is all that really matters) economies in Asia. Martin Luther King led the struggle to liberate the American society from racial prejudice. And today there is a black man in the White House. Nelson Mandela was a key figure in the global fight against ethnic discrimination and other forms of modern-day slavery.

On the other hand, some of the world?s richest leaders have been some of the greatest disasters. Leading their countries into the abyss whilst they lived high on the hog?only to die later, leaving their wealth behind. Just look at some of them:

Saddam Hussein, whose despotic rule in Iraq led to massive crimes against humanity and an inhuman existence for tens of thousands. Another despot is Kim Jong-il, whose highly centralized and paternalistic regime in the so-called ?hermit kingdom? has resulted in rampant human rights abuses and some of the worst poverty on the planet.

Robert Mugabe whose reign in Zimbabwe saw a significant decline in the people?s well-being and an economy in total disarray. Similarly, Mobutu Sese Seko?s totalitarian rule in Zaire brought himself great fortune but led his country into economic ruin. And Nigeria?s Sani Abacha used his military background and enviable position to coerce and criminalize pro-democracy activists and siphon off public fund for personal gain.

Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti abused his constitutional power to misappropriate funds to serve his own economic interests, sending his country to the bottom of the pit of the various quality of life indicators. Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia also abused his political power for private gain. He was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal with genocide and war crimes but died during the course of the trial.

Closer to home, Thaksin Shinawatra fortunately fell fairly early on, but even so his leadership in Thailand was marred with big-ticket corruption scandals and political instability that set the country back many years. While Muhammad Suharto, the most corrupt government leader according to Transparency International, persecuted the political opposition and social activists, and brought Indonesia to its knees. He allegedly looted his country of $15 billion to $35 billion during his three-decade incumbency.

Even here at home, Marcos ranks up there with them. Listed by Transparency International as the world?s second most corrupt government leader, he brought the Philippines to the brink of ruin. A revolution had to kick him out.

It?s too early to rank GMA in historical terms, but surely there?s a message for her in all this. How does she want to be remembered?

What I?ve focused on here is just one side of greed: corruption, because corruption affects a whole nation. The 52 percent of Filipino families (SWS, the only figure, with Pulse Asia, I trust) who are mired in abject, unacceptable poverty are so to a very great extent because their chance at life has been robbed from them through corruption.

That doesn?t make the other greeds any less despicable, it?s all just a matter of scale. Although that scale seems to have tilted recently with the greed of Wall Street, bringing down the economies of the whole world. But that, in time, will pass. The poverty of the world?s masses with their birthright stolen won?t. They?ll still be with us until honesty becomes the norm of society.

A norm we fervently wish for for the Philippines.

Comments to my columns can be sent to plw@mydestiny.net