My daughter believes that corruption is everywhere. She believes that even trials are corrupted. That, she says, is the reason the O.J. Simpson murder trial resulted in a Not Guilty verdict. That explains the reason that there was no indictment in the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Elections? All fixed. Corruption is not just in America but everywhere. After all Oscar Pistorius, the admitted killer of a girl friend in South Africa, was sentenced to five years in jail for the killing. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto lives in a $7 million home that is owned by a company that was recently awarded a public contract to build a high-speed railway from Mexico City to Queretaro, a project estimated to cost close to four billion dollars.
How do countries rank on corruption?
An article in the Los Angeles Times this past December 2 brought to my attention that there is an organization that tries to evaluate the level of corruption among nations. Transparency International has made the effort to evaluate and compare whatever data is available. Clearly much of the information is subjective. Some of the data must be disappointing to some people and nations.
The United States is ranked in 17th place among 150 nations. Denmark and New Zealand are seen as the least corrupt countries. Canada is in 10th place. Mexico is tied at 103rd place with Bolivia, Moldova, and Niger. China is in 100th place.
There is no simple answer to corruption. It seems talking about it and making everyone aware of its evil will help to reduce the occurrence. Sadly it will probably always be there.
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