Tag: Odious Debts

Chapter 11 – The business of the state

(March 19, 2009) Few know with confidence how the universe came into being but if God had said `let there be light’ while in Colombia, He would not have had enough money left for the rest of creation. Because the truth is that in a country where there are projects which have cost a lot, few have cost as much as the expansion of the electric sector during the last ten years.

Chapter 9 – Givers and takers

(March 18, 2009) Most taxpayers in the rich industrialized countries believe, as the Pearson Commission inquiry into foreign aid believed, that "it is only right for those who have to share with those who have not." Much of the Western World’s sharing, though, has been in the form of loans, not gifts. The Third World has borrowed about one-third of the $400 billion in foreign aid that it has received from the rich countries’ national aid agencies.

Liberia comes clean-er

(August 7, 2008) Liberia has risen from the bottom ranks of the World Bank’s most corrupt country list to earn the distinction of graft’s most zero-tolerant post-conflict nation, reports Africa’s opinion journal, The Analyst. A recent report by the Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators Institute (WGI) indicates that at the current rate, Liberia has shown the largest improvement of any country in the world in controlling corruption.

Book paints sad picture of corruption

(July 4, 2008) A new book on the extent of corruption in Kenya says it has permeated all sectors of the society, including the church. The Monster Called Corruption identifies some of the most affected areas as the public service, the councils, the private sector, non-governmental and religious organisations and trade unions.