Yet another report from yet another Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), this time Transparency International (TI), an anti-corruption NGO has released a report ranking the world’s most corrupt nations. The US is ranked 17 out of over 160 countries, not bad considering we have pockets of corruption like New Orleans to contend with. The list, however, should come as no-surprise. Those countries with the highest levels of abject poverty are among the most corrupt. Countries like Chad, Bangladesh, Haiti, Angola and Turkmenistan ranked at the bottom of the survey. These countries and several others also rank at the bottom as far as poverty, with well over 70% of their respective populations living in absolute squalor. Corruption, however, is not limited to the poorest of the poor, nations like Russia continue to show and inclination for underhandedness. The implications for such rampant corruption are clear. "Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it," said TI chairman Peter Eigen. “The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations into a cycle of misery." This fact is inescapable, a fact many poor countries ignore in their quest to blame the evil and hated rich countries for their own failures. Poverty needn’t be an endless cycle. Many countries have emerged from war, colonization, oppression, high levels of poverty and dictatorship to become vibrant and prosperous economies. All of these countries have had one thing in come, they all did it themselves, they didn’t wait for others to solve their problems for them, they didn’t insist on playing the blame game and they embrace democracy and the rule of law. Central and South Asia along with Sub Saharan Africa are two regions most plagued by the dual menace of corruption and poverty. These are also two regions also plagued by endless wars and ethnic strife, perhaps when these nations embrace the inescapable reality that they are the masters of their own fate, they will be able to make the necessary decisions that will end the grip of poverty in their country. Taiwan, for example, has the lowest percentage of its population living below the poverty line (1%), yet only a generation ago Taiwan was one of the poorest nations in the world. Taiwan, however, bet on its people and won. That story is echoed in other countries including Ireland, Singapore and South Korea. More recently, several Sub-Saharan African nations have also seen the light, including: Ghana, Uganda and Mauritius. Mauritius is a model for Sub-Saharan Africa (and every other developing nation) the island nation near Madagascar, has been a stable democracy since gaining independence in the 1960s. The country has the highest per capita income and lowest poverty rate in all of Africa. In fact, at 10%, its poverty rate is lower than the United States or the United Kingdom.
Link to TI report
Link to BBC article