Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

re "Escaping corruption's global grip" (Christian Science Monitor, 12/26/06)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1226/p08s01-comv.html

To the Editor:

While any global movement opposing corruption would be most welcome, current trends are probably less than they seem and the UN Convention Against Corruption is probably not worth vesting a lot of hope or resources in.

What is new in the world is not that people are opposed to corruption but rather than governments have liberalized, even if only just barely, enough that protests against corrupt officials are less likely to cause someone to disappear. But just because protests are not crushed as ruthlessly as in years past does not mean that governments view corruption as a much greater problem than they used to. We must not forget that the largest beneficiaries of corruption are members of governments.

Which brings me to the UN. This is the organization which created the “Oil for Food” scandal demonstrating corruption at the highest levels of the organization, as well as Russian bribery in the UN contracting process and UN officials trafficking in sex workers on two continents. The idea of the UN which is corrupt to its core being the point organization in a world-wide fight against corruption, a fight which the most corrupt governments would undermine in any case, is simply not credible.