Power Corrupts…

Corruption is likely very much near the front of your mind these days as the Murdoch/Tory/Scotland Yard revelations continue in Britain.

At the same time, the US GAO has revealed an astounding 16Trillion dollars in bailout funds (not 800 Billion, as previously reported), delivered in many cases to companies with strong, current ties to the granting agencies.

Meanwhile, Canada has decided to send Lai Changxing back to China for trial. His extensive (alleged) smuggling operation flourished under the aegis of Jia Qinglin,

…now the Communist Party’s fourth most senior leader, [he] was the province’s party chief. It was one of the biggest corruption scandals in the party’s history, implicating more than 200 senior figures.

What about corruption here at home? This one indicates there is much to be contemplated here in BC. UVic’s Gerry Ferguson surveyed our status and efforts to combat corruption back in 2006.

Will Wikileaks and LulzSec save us? Better we save ourselves. Interestingly, there is evidence that a distributed network of partially informed actors is more effective than the traditional hierarchical arrangement, and likely also less susceptible to corruption.