The over-40s may remember a time when people in authority were generally looked-up to as being honourable and trustworthy with few exceptions. That may have been a naïve illusion or it could be that wrongdoing is hard to cover up in an era of 24-hour news and when whistle blowing has never been easier thanks to blogs and social media websites. There is, of course, a third option. It’s possible that nowadays a growing number of those in high places believe nobility is a mug’s game. Such answers will remain elusive but one thing is certain: greed and graft knows no borders.
Even the highest and the mightiest aren’t immune. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak and his sons are scheduled to appear before a court in August charged with ordering the killing of protesters, fraud and profiteering. Former Interior Minister Habib Al Adly is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption; the ex-minister of housing and the ex-tourism minister have both been jailed for five years for lining their pockets.
An Interpol arrest warrant has been issued in the name of Egyptian businessman Hussain Salem for illegally selling gas to Israel at prices below the cost of production and, on Saturday, the former minister of finance, Yousuf Boutros Ghali, was sentenced in absentia to 30 years for using his office for personal gain.
You might imagine that such endemic corruption was a natural by-product of dictatorship whereby those on the top have virtual immunity from prosecution. However, the situation is little better within the ‘democracy’ next door.
Israel’s former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who was once hot on crime, is currently being tried on a host of corruption charges, including taking bribes from real estate developers and double-billing NGOs for the same overseas lecture tour. Olmert isn’t the only Israel PM alleged to have been involved in dodgy dealings. Ariel Sharon, before his coma, fought allegations that he had taken out illegal loans and had been bribed to promote a real estate development in Greece owned by an Israeli businessman. And in March, one of Israel’s opposition parties Kadima called for the investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ethics violations following a report aired on Israel’s Channel 10 alleging various financiers have been funding Netanyahu’s foreign travel expenses in return for favours. Also in March, Israel’s Iranian-born former president Moshe Katsav was given a seven-year sentence for the rape of a female aide and the molestation of two of his former employees.
Such high-level criminal activity isn’t limited to the Middle East; it’s a global pandemic. For instance, the UK’s former fisheries and environment minister Elliot Morley was recently jailed for 16 months for fraudulently claiming parliamentary expenses while just days ago an ex-Tory peer Lord Taylor was convicted of fiddling the House of Lords out of thousands of pounds in expense money. The former leader of Essex County Council Lord Hanningfield has also been convicted of claiming overnight allowances covering rail fares and accommodation relating to journeys he hadn’t made. His excuse was that everyone else was doing it so why shouldn’t he?
On the other side of the pond, things are little better. There, former presidential candidate John Edwards, who portrayed himself as a man with staunch family values on the campaign trail, was indicted last Friday for receiving cash gifts in violation of campaign law which he used to hide an extra-marital affair and the child it produced from the voting public and from his wife Elizabeth who was battling cancer. This comes hard on the heels of the former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘love child’ scandal and the indecent Tweets of Representative Anthony Wiener currently dominating cable talk shows.
Last month, Born Again Christian John Ensign resigned his seat in the Senate before the Senate Ethics Committee could censure him for pressuring individuals to keep quiet about his adulterous affair. One of the biggest political furors in recent times was the conviction last November of former House Majority leader Tom DeLay for money-laundering, resulting in a three-year custodial sentence.
The world is still reeling from New York’s arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn accused of attempting to rape a 32-year-old hotel chambermaid; an accusation his supporters suggest has been trumped-up, among them the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who thinks Strauss-Kahn may have been the victim of a conspiracy to oust him from the post he has now resigned.
Likewise, the sporting world has been tarnished by the cricket betting scandal last year involving three Pakistani cricketers accused of spot-fixing and the FIFA sleaze row that led to Mohammad Bin Hammam withdrawing from the presidential race and the suspension of President of the North American and Caribbean Federation Jack Warner.
The worrying thing is that the corruption, immorality and breach of ethics outlined above could well be just the tip of the iceberg. In any event, such descent into muck by weak-minded men who are supposed to be youth role models is despicable. How can the stench be prevented from permeating our societies when there are so many rotten eggs at the top?
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Graft stalks the halls of power
Posted on June 8, 2011 by Linda S. Heard
The over-40s may remember a time when people in authority were generally looked-up to as being honourable and trustworthy with few exceptions. That may have been a naïve illusion or it could be that wrongdoing is hard to cover up in an era of 24-hour news and when whistle blowing has never been easier thanks to blogs and social media websites. There is, of course, a third option. It’s possible that nowadays a growing number of those in high places believe nobility is a mug’s game. Such answers will remain elusive but one thing is certain: greed and graft knows no borders.
Even the highest and the mightiest aren’t immune. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak and his sons are scheduled to appear before a court in August charged with ordering the killing of protesters, fraud and profiteering. Former Interior Minister Habib Al Adly is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption; the ex-minister of housing and the ex-tourism minister have both been jailed for five years for lining their pockets.
An Interpol arrest warrant has been issued in the name of Egyptian businessman Hussain Salem for illegally selling gas to Israel at prices below the cost of production and, on Saturday, the former minister of finance, Yousuf Boutros Ghali, was sentenced in absentia to 30 years for using his office for personal gain.
You might imagine that such endemic corruption was a natural by-product of dictatorship whereby those on the top have virtual immunity from prosecution. However, the situation is little better within the ‘democracy’ next door.
Israel’s former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who was once hot on crime, is currently being tried on a host of corruption charges, including taking bribes from real estate developers and double-billing NGOs for the same overseas lecture tour. Olmert isn’t the only Israel PM alleged to have been involved in dodgy dealings. Ariel Sharon, before his coma, fought allegations that he had taken out illegal loans and had been bribed to promote a real estate development in Greece owned by an Israeli businessman. And in March, one of Israel’s opposition parties Kadima called for the investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ethics violations following a report aired on Israel’s Channel 10 alleging various financiers have been funding Netanyahu’s foreign travel expenses in return for favours. Also in March, Israel’s Iranian-born former president Moshe Katsav was given a seven-year sentence for the rape of a female aide and the molestation of two of his former employees.
Such high-level criminal activity isn’t limited to the Middle East; it’s a global pandemic. For instance, the UK’s former fisheries and environment minister Elliot Morley was recently jailed for 16 months for fraudulently claiming parliamentary expenses while just days ago an ex-Tory peer Lord Taylor was convicted of fiddling the House of Lords out of thousands of pounds in expense money. The former leader of Essex County Council Lord Hanningfield has also been convicted of claiming overnight allowances covering rail fares and accommodation relating to journeys he hadn’t made. His excuse was that everyone else was doing it so why shouldn’t he?
On the other side of the pond, things are little better. There, former presidential candidate John Edwards, who portrayed himself as a man with staunch family values on the campaign trail, was indicted last Friday for receiving cash gifts in violation of campaign law which he used to hide an extra-marital affair and the child it produced from the voting public and from his wife Elizabeth who was battling cancer. This comes hard on the heels of the former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘love child’ scandal and the indecent Tweets of Representative Anthony Wiener currently dominating cable talk shows.
Last month, Born Again Christian John Ensign resigned his seat in the Senate before the Senate Ethics Committee could censure him for pressuring individuals to keep quiet about his adulterous affair. One of the biggest political furors in recent times was the conviction last November of former House Majority leader Tom DeLay for money-laundering, resulting in a three-year custodial sentence.
The world is still reeling from New York’s arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn accused of attempting to rape a 32-year-old hotel chambermaid; an accusation his supporters suggest has been trumped-up, among them the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who thinks Strauss-Kahn may have been the victim of a conspiracy to oust him from the post he has now resigned.
Likewise, the sporting world has been tarnished by the cricket betting scandal last year involving three Pakistani cricketers accused of spot-fixing and the FIFA sleaze row that led to Mohammad Bin Hammam withdrawing from the presidential race and the suspension of President of the North American and Caribbean Federation Jack Warner.
The worrying thing is that the corruption, immorality and breach of ethics outlined above could well be just the tip of the iceberg. In any event, such descent into muck by weak-minded men who are supposed to be youth role models is despicable. How can the stench be prevented from permeating our societies when there are so many rotten eggs at the top?
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.