EDITORIAL & OPINION — Corruption at heart of global woes — A vicious circle

Imagine. By virtue of a few guns being waved around, you become the ruler of a dirt-poor Third World nation. Every day, you see children playing in garbage, people dying of AIDS and other diseases without medical attention, and acres of slum housing with no running water. Your state has no infrastructure or industry to speak of, and most of your population can barely read nor write.

You, meanwhile, have five grand mansions, a private jet, a fleet of luxury cars, an entourage bigger than that of any rockstar, and an army willing to do whatever it takes to keep you in power. You don’t have to worry about running the country, because nothing works anyway, and so your energy is spent convincing rich countries and aid organizations to give you money. “Look at my poor people,” you say. “We need aid, we need millions and millions of dollars to help us out of poverty.”

And, lo and behold, the money arrives. Lots of it. You open an offshore bank account, help yourself to a “finder’s fee,” and decide to spread a few favors to your cronies. First, you must take care of your army: after all, they keep you in power by quashing rebellions, particularly the nasty ones instigated by “your people.” Next, you throw a few crumbs to your business cronies, who siphon off most of the funds for their personal pet projects before building some shoddy cheap housing that they rent for outrageous prices.

And the Westerners go home, feeling fuzzy and warm in knowing they have helped the poor, when what they have really done, of course, is reward your corruption and incompetence — and rather handsomely at that. “What suckers,” you think. “Keeping people poor really pays.”

But then an awful thing happens: the aid begins to dry up. You decide to pay your army less and yourself more, to make up for the shortfall. Your people get restless and begin to make demands, and when these are not met, they begin to rebel. The few businessmen brave enough to invest in your basket-case economy are shaken down and quickly leave. But fear not, brave leader, sooner or later, the plight of your increasingly poor people will come to international attention. And well-meaning Westerners will urge their governments to boost aid, as they are now doing. You cheer them on and promise reform, because promises don’t cost anything.

The point of this scenario is not to embarrass the leaders of poor countries, many of whom are working hard to improve the lives of their citizens. Everyone knows that heartless and cruel leaders still exist, though the worst of them have gone on to that special place reserved for really diabolical souls like Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko and Haiti’s Papa Doc Duvalier.

It is simply to show that this nonsense has played itself out on the world stage for too long, has kept too many dictators in power for too long, and too many people poor for too long.

Providing aid without strings, without accountability, without transparency is the single most debilitating thing Western nations can do to poor ones. Yet they keep doing it, even when they suspect that the main beneficiaries are corrupt dictators and shadowy arms-dealers. Why? Because they believe it is the lesser of two evils, the other being neglect.

Western nations, the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund should make fighting corruption their number-one priority in the next century. Nothing is a greater deterrent to private-sector investment, to progress and social justice, and fair markets.

Corruption jeopardizes safety and environmental standards, while throttling fair competition and equal access to opportunity. In societies where corruption is rampant, the poor are always the most vulnerable, because they cannot afford to “pay” to solve their problems.

There is an old adage that corruption is a bus, and that there are only three ways to deal with it: one is to climb aboard and reap the benefits; another is to run alongside (don’t join in, but don’t interfere); while another is to try to stop the bus by standing in front of it, only to be injured or killed. We suggest a fourth option: stop paying for gas.