The government has a tendency of sweeping their mistakes under the rug and proceed as if nothing has happened.
Because admitting failure is not an option.
Many of these cases exposing common global corruption – including bribery, extortion, and embezzlement – have come to the surface in the digital age, but many other forms of corruption have long proliferated our world's history that remains baffling.
Curious to learn more about the greatest political blunders in history, Redditor Ebvardh-Boss asked:
"What's the biggest governmental f'k up of your country's history?"
These Asian countries had their fair share of corrupt leaders.
In South Korea
"In recent history, our president (first female one at that) was brainwashed since birth by a Rasputin-like cult leader which led to a slew of influence peddling and corruption scandals."
"Not surprising she went to jail though, since every single president in our history has either been assassinated, sent to jail, had their family members/close relatives sent to jail, or committed suicide."
Speaking Out Against Rodrigo Duterte
"I started working within the annals of the Philippine government 9 years ago up until I left in 2015. I was working under somebody who was and still is deeply connected with the Arroyos. The stuff I was privy to would knock your socks off. But, I will spill about the ex-prez and the pardon."
"Way before Duterte announced his run for presidency in November 2015, remember when he flip-flopped for months? Saying he'd run then he'd take it back, saying he would leave it up to God and stuff. We all knew already way back in 2014 that he would definitely be running and by all means he would win. How? He was hand-picked and backed by the FG with the deal that he would pardon the then jailed ex-prez. There were a slew of deals but this one was the big fish."
"Seeing his speeches and hearing his claims during the campaign disgusted me knowing how many people blindly and rabidly believed in them. Knowing he was picked, fed and bought. I personally am not in favor of Duterte and have since been speaking out against him."
– tea_acct
Bungled Pandemic Response
"Malaysia. So many but I'll just do the most recent Covid 19 f'k up. Last year Malaysia was a leading example of managing the pandemic but the backdoor govt (backdoor because quite a few MPs jumped ship from the democratically elected govt and formed another govt) decided to hold by-elections in the state of Sabah, and no standard SOP's were followed leading to a spike in cases."
"We were well on our way to single digit cases and today we have an average of 7k cases daily."
Europe is rich in culture but also has plenty of unscrupulous history.
The Divide Between Northern And Southern Italy
"Everything (Italy). However one particular f'k up by the government after the reunification was developing only the north, leaving the south poor and underdeveloped. This gap still exist today, after 150+ years."
– Scarab02
Aiding The Nazis
"We decided that helping the nazis was a good idea until it wasn't."
"Even better: it was the most craptacular 'jumping on the winner's bandwagon' operation in history."
"Joining a war that was 'surely to be won', only to suck hard and actively dragging Germany down with us (to save us in Greece Hitler lost crucial time to invade Russia, with the wintry results we all know)."
"That's like going to a place where your friend is getting laid and using him as a wingman, then failing to score with any of the girls, and being such a useless and annoying loser that your friend can't even score his own anymore."
A Democracy Of Nobles
"Long time ago, when every country in Europe still had proper monarchy, Poland effectively had democracy of nobles. There was a king, but he was powerless (much like modern monarchies), and the actual power was in hands of nobility. At the time it was very progressive."
"The problem? They had a rule, that in order to introduce a new law, everyone present had to agree. Everyone. Which means that one bribed jerk could just say 'nope, I don't want this' and veto everything."
"This led to stagnation of law, which led to stagnation of economy, which led to conquest of Poland by neighbours."
Mistaken Destinations
" Britain once managed to send a warship to Iceland rather than Ireland. Since then the RN has always written Iceland as Iceland(C) in all documents to avoid this mistake."
Many Redditors had plenty to say about the historical corruption in South Africa.
"I live in South Africa.. where to begin."
Ex-President Zuma
"It really is hard to know where to start. The story I usually tell is when the ex-president, Zuma, built a house with taxpayers money and claimed his swimming pool was a security feature. In the event of fires, the pool was a water source, therefore it wasn't an illegal use of taxpayers money. Just grab a bucket and put that fire out."
"But really, that doesn't scratch the surface of South African governmental f'k-ups."
– entjies
List Of Grievances
"Remember the arms deal? Marikana?The Gupta saga? Literally anything to do with Eskom...the time Mbeki denied the link between HIV and AIDS, or the time Zuma said a shower would prevent infection with HIV.. I need a drink."
– entjies
With various responses to the virus responsible for the global pandemic – some effective, others not so much – I found out about another mismanaging of another pandemic, the Black Plague.
It was believed the Black Plague was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis which is commonly present on fleas carried by rodents. The pandemic then claimed the lives of people all over Europe between 1346 and 1353.
Because doctors did not have knowledge of what caused the plague in London during the 1300s, it was rumored that cats were the reason for the spreading of the virus, since felines were associated with the devil at the time.
And since the royal family was more concerned about saving themselves rather than the commoners, citizens took matters into their own hands and started killing cats.
This was a grave mistake that only exacerbated the problem as the real culprits were mice and rats. With fewer cats to eradicate the problem, the plague wound up killing more people.