A rose by any other name…
Can someone please tell me why “lobbying” and “campaign finance” and “fraud” are always the words used to describe instances of corruption/bribery when it occurs in the United States and elsewhere in the West?
An excerpt from the article:
The lobbyist Jack Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of a West African nation to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to a Maryland company now under federal scrutiny, according to newly disclosed documents.
The African leader, President Omar Bongo of Gabon, met with President Bush in the Oval Office on May 26, 2004, 10 months after Mr. Abramoff made the offer. There has been no evidence in the public record that Mr. Abramoff had any role in organizing the meeting or that he received any money or had a signed contract with Gabon.
White House and State Department officials described Mr. Bush’s meeting with President Bongo, whose government is regularly accused by the United States of human rights abuses, as routine. The officials said they knew of no involvement by Mr. Abramoff in the arrangements. Officials at Gabon’s embassy in Washington did not respond to written questions.
on November 11th, 2005 at 10:56
Amen to this Ory. I’ve been proclaiming how they have not earned the right to call other nations corrupt, especially since teh inception of Bush and his cronies regime. Here… look waht Haliburton’s been upto…
http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/11/news/fortune500/halliburton.reut/index.htm
on November 12th, 2005 at 4:03
Ory permit me to blog a bit on your site.
Corruption will always be there. The difference between the West and Africa is that they have mechanisms to arrest and deal with corruption while we have State-sanctioned corruption. Our corruption has doomed our people to a life of ignorance, abject poverty and disease, not to mention gross incompetence and broken down infrastructure. And yes the West does have a leg to stand on – we are beneficiaries of their tax-payers in the form of aid. Don’t even get me started on Githongo…..
on November 15th, 2005 at 11:47
[...] Sub-Saharan Africa Kenya Global Roundups Kenyan Pundit asks “Can someone please tell me why “lobbying” and “campaign finance” and “fraud” are always the words used [...]
on November 18th, 2005 at 11:14
Nice post!I guess these are the double standards that the west will always subject 3world countries to.