Recent media reports have brought attention to the U.S. border with Mexico and the crisis brought about by an exploding and increasingly dangerous drug trade. Examples of this crisis include countless reports of local Mexican officials being murdered by those associated with the drug trade in Mexico. While much of the intelligence focus in the [...]
Watching the protests and riots staged to coincide with the G-20 Forum in the United Kingdom might tempt you to view this as another battle in the long-running war between capital and labor. But, that’s not true.
Working people, through their pension funds and mutual funds, now own a majority of stocks in most big corporations. [...]
I can’t think of anything to write about. I thought I would say the stuff that needed to be said and that would be it. People would say, thanks, I was wondering about that and what I should do - now I know. Then I would spend my life playing in the dirt - like [...]
January 20, 2009 will be one of those days in American history that the African American community will always remember—the day Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. The world watched as the 47-year-old man placed his hand on the same burgundy velvet-colored Holy Bible that [...]
I returned to the UK in 2001 and it took me time to figure out what was going on in Britain. If anything I was relieved to see the Labour party back in power: at least, I thought, they look after the people.
But slowly I began to suspect some of their policies were a fraud…
The [...]
The most important and historical decisions about Justice in Rome 4 November The Council of Europe took very important step to implement in every Country of the European Union reforms of legislation assuring the Court - impartiality - independence - and the first time concept of free assistance.
This principle was implemented in all national E.U. [...]
a) Vested interests
Is possible for citizens to combat corruption to individual and systematic levels. Actually is very difficult, including exposing oneself to personal and serious risks. The main reason for this seems to be that the widespread incidence of corruption over the years has led to the development of intensely entrenched vested interests. Any attempt [...]
Can be at three levels:
• Country or society level, which essentially requires the emphasis given by the National Integrity Systems process.But there are useful overlaps of course.
• Sector or industry level (eg: a state or provincial public sector, insurance industry, real estate industry, tertiary education community etc.), looking [...]
As already indicated, the role of law as a means of controlling behavior is very limited. It is a weapon in the state’s normative armory but it is rarely the strongest and in some areas it is totally ineffective. It is an essential backstop in persuading officials and citizens to avoid corrupt behavior. It reinforces [...]
The first requirement is to remember the critical role of the legislature in the integrity system. The essential insight of ‘ethics regimes’ and ‘integrity systems’ is that no single institution can provide the answer and that each must support the other. We would argue that a democratic legislature can and should provide the lynchpin of [...]
