Corruption smoke and mirrors

If you really want to know how serious our, worldwide, lawmakers are about fighting corruption here is a tip; look at the official reaction to any given scandal involving administration and legislative bodies.
It won’t take long before you see an interesting pattern emerge. The scandal becomes focused on one key group or activity. That is, the scapegoat is quickly identified and the complexity of a given scandal is rendered simple.
Examples?
Well take the US congress and the penchant for some members to accept bribes and kickback to advance the interests of various sectors. You will not that the lawmakers, apart from the overly avaricious Randy Cunningham, the baddies were all from this ill-defined group called lobbyists.
Take the focus off the lawmakers and transfer it fully onto a bunch of faceless baddies.
In a current South Korean scandal, the game being played out in much the same way. In that country nearly all power is vested in the president.
Facing their own lobbying and kickback drama, the scapegoats are the now former and largely powerless Prime Minister, and golf. Never mind that the cream of SK’s consummately corrupt corporate world under a cloud of ‘influence buying’. They, like the President, must be protected.
Now the ex PM has been given his travel orders on the country’s strike bound transport system, the focus is squarely on golf. A recent announcement has indicated that any officials caught hitting a little white ball will face severe disciplinary action.
It would have been the same scenario in Australia, where the government is scrabbling to distance itself from the UN oil for food scandal. But an overconfident administration, one used to lying its way out of trouble, simply denied any basis whatsoever to scandal claims.
As that drama unfolded the government has changed the focus, leaving wheat cheat executives out to dry, and are now ready to do the same with its bureaucrats. From a wrong start the Howard Government is progressively sidestepping responsibility, and loading it onto others.

Smoke and Mirrors
In each case, the smoke and mirrors, the distraction from the core issue, is about buying time. True it was a bad strategy in Australia, as time is proving to be their enemy. For the others, there is almost guaranteed to be sufficient diversion to allow the issues to die a natural death. In sort, they are relying on your inability to maintain interest and focus in such a turbulent world.
It might all catch up eventually, or it might just pass into history, but one thing you can rely on, the game will be played over and over.
So next time an elected official looks you in the eye and croons, ‘trust me’, at least think about those games and said officials infallible drive for self preservation and self enrichment.