Tackling Corruption
A step in the right direction
LANCASTER HOUSE, near Buckingham
Palace in London, was used to film scenes for “National Treasure: Book of
Secrets”, a Hollywood adventure starring Nicolas Cage. It was, therefore, a
fitting venue for an international anti-corruption summit on May 12th.
David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister and the host, has styled himself as a
champion of transparency and efforts to stamp out the financial secrecy that
allows public wealth to be looted and hidden using murky offshore arrangements.
He has called corruption “the cancer at the heart of so many of the world’s
problems” and “one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time”.
Most international summits are
flops, and there were certainly bad omens for this one. Organization was poor,
meaning attendance was thinner than the hosts would have liked. Around 40
countries sent representatives, only 11 of whom were heads of state or government;
America sent its secretary of state, John Kerry. There was some speculation
that an apparent gaffe by Mr Cameron the day before the event –he was recorded
telling the queen that two of the participating countries, Nigeria and
Afghanistan, are “fantastically corrupt” –might have been a stunt designed to
propel the summit up news organizations’ agendas. The comments were “gold
dust”, purred one anti-corruption campaigner
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