West ‘complicit’ in Third World corruption

One of the characteristics of Bill Gates as a philanthropist is that he refuses to accept the customary 10% to 40% write off for "overhead" and "public relations".

If he hands out $100,000 he wants to see results.

What a crock.

I recently flew on an international flight with an official of The World Bank. Although no fan of the Bush Administration, he did acknowledge the largess of America.

Of most interest was his assessment of the corrupt 3rd World Governments.

According to him, no matter how much the US or the international community promised to a 3rd World Dictator, the strings attached made it inevitable that the Dictator would never accept the funds. Since the TWD (Third World Dictator) was, through his own venal devices, financially sound, all the outside world contributions really meant was a further feathering of his nest. A-OK with him, unless the attached strings called for democratic reforms. A TWD worth hundreds of millions of ill-gotten dollars is hardly going to put his wealth at stake for the possible promise of an incremental increase, while the attendant risk is that he might lose it all. (The promise that his people will live better lives is utterly meaningless).

The reality is that the developed world has contributed billions in aid that is sitting in Swiss Bank accounts because the TWDs would rather have their powers than the money.

How's anything you write prove anything in the article wrong, let alone a "crock"? This article isnt about Western governments, it doesnt even mention them.

Instead, the chairwoman of Transparency International points out that the bribe money that is lavished on those corrupt officials in the poorest countries "often originates in multinational companies based in the world's richest countries"; and that those corrupt officials can easily "move, hide and invest their illicitly gained wealth" in the financial centres of the West due to insufficiently strict regulation.

How about addressing anything that's actually written in the article if you're going to declare it a crock?

Meanwhile, regarding those Western governments, there's something to be said about that as well.. just check the massive amounts of US money and US-administered money that have gone missing in Iraq over the years, in pay-outs to officials and companies that lacked any and all accountability, or any accounting at all.

Along those lines, the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" was written by an ex chief economist of an American multinational engineering company. It pretty much agrees with what Nimh said.

The 2007 book 'Legacy of Ashes', which is a history of the CIA (making much use of recently declassified documents), also pretty much agrees with what Nimh said in regards to 3rd world countries (and western countries) willingness to accept bribes.

I'll add to those books "A Game as old as Empire", which covers multiple topics, from the World Bank/IMF, to Export Credit Agencies, to Tax Havens, to Free Trade Agreements, to Structural Adjustment, Multinational companies and a range of other topics