Friday, March 24, 2006

Show me an honest country

In shades of Diogenes wandering the streets of Athens, lantern in hand, looking for a honest man, I have been issued a challenge.
Our news site, NewsHound, presents a dozen or so new scandal and corruption stories from around the world. A quick survey for our March coverage to date we have posted stories of official corruption in some 40 countries.
A visitor to the site, dismayed by the widespread malfeasance, asked us to find a country clean of public, or corporate for that matter, corruption.
I immediately thought of the tiny European nation Andorra, nestled between France and Spain in the Pyrenees, and far from trouble.
A quick search ruled them out because according to UK customs officials Andorra was the largest source of [cigarette] smuggling in Europe.
In the same vein we tried Monte Carlo, though the gaming history made us wary. Indeed, it was the casinos and the temptations that come with them that ruled that principality out.
Those Scandinavian states always seem so clean and wholesome, with Finland ranking well on the TI index, along with norther neighbour Iceland.But even they have a dark underbelly.
Emerging economies are said to be natural prey for both internal and introduced corrupt practices.
Rich western economies have had many years to hone and develop corruption skills to a fine art.
Transparency International is a great source for information on corrupt countries, but the ‘perceptions index’ doesn’t really reflect non corruption well.
The International Anti Corruption conference quotes James D. Wolfensohn President The World Band: A corrupt Country doesn't grow as fast as a non-corrupt Country. That reports goes on:… it's an issue which transcends the distinction between developed and developing countries. There is corruption everywhere. It is not a developing country issue.

It beats me, I already feel like I’m morphing into Diogenes. So here we go, a challenge to the bologshere: Is there a country out there lacking in corrupt public and/or corporate practices?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with that one.