The Economist: How leaders protect corrupt gains

Link to article.

Perfect timing for my part of the world. Completely relevant to Malaysia and should be meaningful for this place some day too. There is no law against moral corruption but we know that all other forms of corrupt activities begin with immoral intent. They start out legal and hypocritical (e.g., the latest is AIM-gate) and then morally reprehensible (e.g., Ng Boon Gay) but once you ride the slippery slope even if you put in your level best to retard your descend, you are still going down!

You cannot just fight corruption. You must hate it. There is no such thing as clean, only squeaky clean. Since squeaky clean is impossible for mere mortals, windows and doors should be open and everything ought to be exposed to the sunlight. But also have some common sense. Wiki Leaks was over wrought.

This article from the Economist written in a tongue in cheek style was an enjoyable read. Nothing new to me and its practitioners are definitely far more sophisticated. I think it is good for my kids to read and all voters ought to be informed. Unfortunately the typical voter do not read the venerable Economist. I wonder why the magazine bother except to have some fun. This is not information but entertainment for their regular readers.

Well they are not putting this one behind their pay wall and I hope their regular readers would pass it around. Ah, there is another reason for this article then: selling subscriptions.

Am I blogging for myself or not? Sometimes I inadvertently don't but I always only discover the fact after I am almost finished. Beyond the family a handful of friends also occasionally visit this blog but for the rest, you are welcome to check in but just don't expect any customer service. Most blogs try to models of clarity even if they don't often succeed. For me, I am trying to get it out as quickly as possible. The value of each post is when I come back a long time later to enjoy or be embarrassed. Guess this last paragraph is because I am still pissed (the first time) with an idiotic comment from a Cisco IP address (may be VPN) on an earlier post of a reckless cyclist. That's right, thanks to my IT background, people who leave anonymous comments here aren't anonymous to me.