After reading this book, I'm a little confused on how exactly outsiders can tell how much corruption is happening in a country and whom is to blame without having some inside source...
I'm not sure if the book gives a direct answer to that question because until recently outsiders have not focused on corruption.
I think countries can use their ambassadors and journalists to see what is happening within an outside country. According to the book, the American and British ambassadors definitely knew what was going on. In fact, Wrong says that the westerners where tracking and listening into private phone calls. One ambassador even told John G. that he knew a lot more then he lead others to believe. I think it's a matter of having this information being used in a meaningful way- improving legislation- instead of just keeping the status quo
Erin, I think that is exactly the right reaction; without people like John Githongo it is very difficult to know the exact nature of corruption. The book by Wrong has one failing- it doesn't actually give many details about the actual corruption cases. I never understood why. But Githongo's report is available online
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2204881/GITHONGO-REPORT
See also: http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/Reports/OtherReports/IEA_Githongo%27s_Report.pdf
The WIkipedia article for John Githongo is pretty good:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Githongo
MK
This article is also pretty interesting. Interview with Githongo about corruption and ways that can help minimize it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/22/corrupt_democracy?page=0,0
After reading this book, I'm a little confused on how exactly outsiders can tell how much corruption is happening in a country and whom is to blame without having some inside source...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if the book gives a direct answer to that question because until recently outsiders have not focused on corruption.
ReplyDeleteI think countries can use their ambassadors and journalists to see what is happening within an outside country. According to the book, the American and British ambassadors definitely knew what was going on. In fact, Wrong says that the westerners where tracking and listening into private phone calls. One ambassador even told John G. that he knew a lot more then he lead others to believe. I think it's a matter of having this information being used in a meaningful way- improving legislation- instead of just keeping the status quo
Erin, I think that is exactly the right reaction; without people like John Githongo it is very difficult to know the exact nature of corruption. The book by Wrong has one failing- it doesn't actually give many details about the actual corruption cases. I never understood why. But Githongo's report is available online
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/2204881/GITHONGO-REPORT
See also:
http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/Reports/OtherReports/IEA_Githongo%27s_Report.pdf