Closed for Review: The Moral Bankruptcy of a Country

Luis Munguambe Junior"

But ultimately, how many of us preach "do as I say, not as I do"? This phrase, so often uttered ironically, reflects the moral decay that governs us and spreads like a plague through our streets, our institutions, and our consciences. We live in a country where corruption has ceased to be news and has become commonplace. No one is surprised anymore by theft, embezzlement, favoritism, or lies—what is surprised is when someone decides to be honest.

If Mozambique were a company, it would beClosed for inventory.The books are riddled with serious errors and the accounts manipulated. Management failed, the product lost quality, and the customers, the people, continue to pay dearly for a service that never arrives. National morality went on sale, and the stock of shame ran out long ago. When the powerful become corrupt, the small follow. When the children of leaders, some who have never worked a day in their lives, flaunt their class in luxury cars and banquets with casual friends, it's because corruption paid off. It's because the example came from the top. Meanwhile, we young people, some educated, competent, and with dreams of serving the country, go door to door with resumes in hand, selling peanuts, topping up mobile phones, or emigrating to survive. However, not for lack of ability, but rather for excessive nepotism.

Meritocracy is dead.
Employment has become an inheritance, and effort has become a source of mockery. Today, those who work honestly are seen as backward. "Shortcuts" have replaced merit, and flattery has become a profession. Those who criticize the system are labeled ungrateful or enemies. And those who remain silent reap crumbs from a banquet that should belong to everyone. But is the country in its current state due to a lack of laws? I don't think so. Let me tell you, Mozambique has good laws; however, what is lacking is awareness. No legislation will be effective as long as those who apply it are the first to violate it. The Highway Code doesn't stop illegal drivers, the Penal Code doesn't intimidate thieves, and "under-the-table" commissions continue to be the norm in any public transaction.
Impunity is the cement that holds corruption together.

But it's not just the state that's in decline, it's the whole of society. We've learned to normalize corruption, bribery, and lies. They rob us in broad daylight and we applaud. We pretend not to see, because perhaps one day we will be the beneficiaries of the same scheme. Corruption is no longer a problem for a few; it's a problem for all of us.

In education, the scenario is a caricature. Schools in terrible conditions for studying, demotivated teachers, and students without a future. Studying has become an act of resistance. Knowledge is no longer valued because it is known that a diploma, by itself, guarantees nothing. The country produces generations of educated but unemployed, intelligent, and frustrated young people. How can a nation be built when knowledge has no use?

In healthcare, the drama is the same or worse. Hospitals lack medication, births are conducted by cell phone light, and patients are treated like merchandise. Those with money go to private clinics; those without are left to their fate. Doctors perform miracles with what they have, but institutional negligence is so great that it has become routine to see lives lost because of an inhumane system. Public health is on life support right now, and those who should be treating it are profiting from its affliction.

And poverty? It's the most visible face of our failure. Slums are growing, children are barefoot, street vendors are multiplying, the unemployed and the desperate are appearing. The ostentatious lifestyle of those who have become rich without working, through public contracts and corruption schemes, is also growing. It's a country of extremes: some overeat, others search for food in the garbage. And the saddest thing is that even that no longer shocks us.

We talk about development, but the sewers remain open. Economic development, but bread is still absent from the table. We talk about democracy, but the people have no voice. We talk about freedom, but those who speak too much are silenced. There is an abysmal distance between discourse and practice—and it is in this abyss that the truth is lost.

We live in acrisis of valuesMore serious than any economic crisis. The problem isn't the dollar, nor inflation—it's the absence of ethics. Corruption has ceased to be a deviation and has become culture. Consciences are numb and the future mortgaged. Laws exist, but character has evaporated. Therefore, yes, perhaps we should indeed shut down the country for inventory. Close the doors, turn off the lights, and start again. We need to take stock of our collective soul, count the lost values, and decide what is still worth saving. Because the country doesn't need more speeches, it needs...shame on you...of leaders with conscience, and of citizens with the courage to say enough is enough.

As long as we continue to live on appearances, flattery, and complicit silence, nothing will change. We will continue to be governed by the same faces, with the same vices, under the same excuses. And with each passing day, the country sinks a little further, becauseexcessive corruption and a lack of character.

Closed for inventory, that's where we should be. Not for thirty days, but until each of us rediscovers our conscience. Because no nation survives when its citizens lose their shame.

2025/12/3