Corruption? Moi?

I was checking about the news on ALJ and found that Iceland is having an election. 

Ho hum..

But then I read this:

Why is this election important? In a word - corruption. Iceland is holding parliamentary elections for the second time in just under a year after the government collapsed in September, following a scandal by the governing Independence Party. This follows close on the heels of the collapse of the government a year prior in 2016 when Iceland's then Prime Minister, Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson of the Progressive Party, was the first political casualty from the fallout of the Panama Papers after it was revealed that he had been keeping a secret offshore bank account.

so even Iceland is corrupt? Who wudda thot?

or maybe they just are honest enough to get rid of the politicians who were found to be corrupt...

In contrast, the PM of Pakistan got away with his account there due to lack of evidence.

Miami Herald April 2016 article: Hillary was not named, but a lot of her friends and associates were listed. LINK



Bernie pointed out how Hillary supported policies that allowed such banks, although she was not named according to the writer.

Philly.com quipped (again April 2016)

if I were handling PR for the Bernie Sanders campaign, I'd be shouting the news from the Green Mountain-tops. They return showed that Sanders and Jane, his wife, earned $205,271 -- a comfortable enough living for a man who couldn't afford the rent 40 years ago but then clawed his way to the United States Senate.
In other words, Sanders made less for a year of exhausting work on Capitol Hill than his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, earned from ONE SPEECH that she delivered to the massive vampire squid of global capitalism, Goldman Sachs, which paid her a cool $225,000 for a 45-minute job of a speech, a fee that was paid to the once and would-be future White House resident on three separate occasions. (Because, as Hillary shrugged in a 2015 debate, "that's what they offered.")

of course, the irony is that Clinton is given a pass,whereas the public figures Trumpieboy is an ordinary corrupt businessman. and a lot of the companies that use his name actually have nothing to do with him, except for paying him to use his name.

The Republican presidential candidate has disclosed that he has 515 companies, with 378 registered in Delaware, he said last week while campaigning.

ah yes: Delaware. the best kept secret in American business.

...mention the second smallest US state to corruption fighters, and they’ll tell you of a very different Delaware: a place where extreme corporate secrecy enables corrupt people, shady companies, drug traffickers, embezzlers and fraudsters to cover their tracks when shifting dirty money from one place to another.

It’s a haven for transnational crime. Low taxes, the state’s business-friendly laws and a sophisticated court system for hearing business disputes draw thousands of brand-name corporations to Delaware. In fact, nearly 65 per cent of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated there, making it the state with more corporations registered within its borders than people. In many cases, firms flock there for legitimate business reasons – but not everyone is squeaky clean.

Say it isn't so, Joe...

In the Philippines, a list of politicians involved in this would take up too much space. There is even talk of Duterte (Mr Clean) hiding millions somewhere. (which he claimed that he "inherited) including claims his son made lots of money from drug shipments.

so what else is new? So where did his family get all that money? Real Estate. They sold their inherited land and cut a lot of trees down.

I have some problems on those who inherit money and even less money from those who get money from building up a business, but even there you have to be smart to make money and you are enabling ordinary folks to get a job.

In contrast, the politicians tend to be parasites and discourage business.





And we know the Marcos money wasn't stolen from poor Filipinos, but was Yamashita's gold.

we can't even solve the Bangladsh casino heist.

in more recent news, a car bomb killed a blogger who was covering the scandal, in Malta...




so killing journalists spilling the beans is not limited to third world countries like the Philippines or Pakistan any more.