Capitalism in Crisis: The Cost of U.S. Corruption

The ongoing bank driven economic crisis in the U.S., and the proposed $700bn rescue plan clearly demonstrate the cost of corruption. Again I am adopting the definition of corruption used by Transparency International (TI) to suggest that this crisis has corruption at its roots.

Transparency International, one of the largest Anti-Corruption agency in the world, define corruption as, “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. and say, ” It hurts everyone whose life, livelihood or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.”

As to the cost, the $700bn deal being proposed would cost every man, woman and child in the United States about $2,300. And, the total cost exceeds total lending by the International Monetary Fund since its inception after World War Two. The IMF has loaned $506.7 billion since 1947.

In other words, the U.S. government is proposing a deal that would rob every citizen of the U.S. to reward the corrupt institutions and the corrupt directors of them.

The deal is in trouble today. Let’s hope and pray it does not pass. If it does it will be a clear demonstration that corruption pays and would undermine the credibility of America and the capitalist system as a whole.

These are my opinions, and the figures used come from reporting by Reuters.

Mexico: Police No Better Than Criminals

As I reported here recently, Mexicans are saying “Enough is Enough” but as The Times (UK) recently reported, they cannot reply on the police to help solve the recent crime wave. In many cases the corrupt police force are the perpetrators of the crimes and are also protecting drug related criminal gangs.

In Mexico it is said that 99% of crimes go unsolved and the kidnapping rate is worse than in Iraq. One detective interviewed in the article indicates why, “We work with limitations,” he said. “You don’t do your job, you just chill out, you take your salary, and you avoid trouble as best you can. Sometimes I get depressed when I think about the situation in Mexico.”

Trouble often comes in the form of officers from rival police departments — there are said to be at least 1,600 of them in Mexico — many of which provide protection to drug cartels or run their own criminal operations. If Mr Gomez raided a “narco store” in the wrong part of town, he would risk being shot or thrown in jail by one of his fellow detectives. Jail can be worse than death so instead Mr Gomez does nothing.

The upshot of police corruption in Mexico has been in an almost total collapse of law and order in recent months, a terrifying state of affairs that seems to have gone largely unnoticed north of the border in the US, even though many Mexicans blame Americans for the troubles. Americans bought the drugs that funded the drugs cartels, which paid off the police, they said. Americans also supplied the weapons.

The detective interviewed described the police being arrogant”and said, “they never follow the rules, they torture people, they act with impunity. The corruption is huge. We have to change everything, from the highest level down. It’s going to be difficult.”

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Thai Party Drops SAMAK

Thailand’s ruling party has dropped ousted PM Samak Sundaravej as its nominee for the job, say party sources.

The decision marks an apparent U-turn by the People Power Party (PPP), which earlier seemed determined to re-nominate him to the post.

Protesters have been demanding for weeks that Mr Samak should resign.

The apparent confirmation that he is no longer in contention for the post may pave the way for a settlement of the political crisis, analysts say.

Mr Samak had vowed not to bow to the protesters’ demands, but was eventually forced out earlier this week, over an apparently unrelated appearance in a TV cookery show.

The protesters call him a puppet for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in an army coup in 2006 amid accusations of corruption and abuse of power.

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Zuma Corruption Case Dropped in SA

A South African court has ruled that the corruption case against ruling party leader Jacob Zuma cannot go ahead. He was facing charges of corruption, fraud and money laundering relating to a multi-billion dollar 1999 arms deal.

The dropping of the case was based on a procedural point of law and had “nothing to do with the guilt or otherwise of the applicant” said Judge Chris Nicholson. Mr Zuma, 66, is now free to stand in forthcoming presidential elections.

The charges against the African National Congress (ANC) leader related to South Africa’s largest post-apartheid arms deal, involving contracts totaling 30bn rand ($3.7bn; £2bn) to modernize its national defense force.

The deal involved companies from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Britain, France and South Africa.

Mr Zuma was sacked as South Africa’s deputy president in 2005, when his financial adviser was found guilty of soliciting a bribe on behalf of Mr Zuma and jailed for 15 years in connection with the deal.

He then went on trial, but the case collapsed in 2006 when the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed.

He was charged again last December shortly after winning a bitter campaign against President Thabo Mbeki to become ANC leader in what his allies say was a political conspiracy to prevent him becoming president.

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Mexico: “Enough is Enough”

More than 150,000 Mexicans dressed in white marched on Saturday to protest a wave of kidnappings and gruesome murders, putting pressure on President Felipe Calderon to meet his promises to crack down on crime.

Demonstrators filled the capital’s historic Zocalo Square, holding candles and pictures of kidnap victims and bearing signs that read, “Enough Is Enough”.

Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for abductions, along with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia. Much of the crime relates to battles for the control of drugs routes.

Most crimes in Mexico go unsolved, with corrupt police and justice officials often complicating investigations.

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Paraguay´s New President to Fight Corruption

Ex-Bishop, now president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo took office promising to fight corruption and tackle land reform, reports the BBC.

On taking office he said,

The 57-year-old said: “Today Paraguay breaks with its reputation for corruption, breaks with the few feudal lords of the past.” There would be, he said, “a frontal assault on corruption which is a cancer that corrodes the entire society.”

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Kenya Fights Corruption

Addressing a public forum on fighting graft in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Mr Githongo said economic crimes must be resolved quickly and transparently reports the BBC. 

Mr Githongo, who has been in self-imposed exile for three years, is on his first visit back to the country.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga welcomed Mr Githongo home, saying Kenya needed to deal with its past transparently.

Mr Githongo fled to the UK in 2005 saying he feared for his life, after accusing senior members of the government of “massive looting”.

As the government’s permanent secretary for ethics and governance, he exposed the notorious Anglo-Leasing scandal, which forced the resignation of several ministers.

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Corruption in China $6.7bn

Beijing authorities admit that fighting corruption is one of their key tasks and Chinese President Hu Jintao has repeatedly warned that endemic corruption threatens the Communist Party’s grip on power. But, annual report by the state auditor found widespread miss-use, embezzlement and miss-management of public funds in 2007.

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Corruption Makes 1M+ Homeless in India

Today the guardian newspaper reports that “More than a million people have been forced from their homes and 250,000 houses destroyed in one of the worst floods in northern India for decades, prompting accusations that the destruction was man made.”

Experts said corruption in India was largely responsible for the disaster. The Kosi’s embankment is meant to handle almost 1m cubic feet of water per second, yet the river was breached at around a tenth of capacity, pointing to serious defects in the river system.

Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the independent South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People said there was an “unfortunate lobby consisting of politicians, bureaucrats, builders and engineers who take money and don’t do any work. There is no oversight of this process. That’s why we get flooding every year.”

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Afghanistan: Nato Needs a Re-Focused Strategy

An Excellent article in the Financial Times Today says, “Nato needs a re-focused strategy, built around security and jobs, to win that support. It needs to break the cycle of lawlessness and corruption that is rotting a nation-building effort that has hardly begun.”

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