CRIME AND CORRUPTION ARE TWO OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST MULTINATIONAL INDUSTRIES
By Dr. Gary K. Busch
This is not a new pattern - the Thugeesof INDIA, the JAPANESE Ninja and the Assassins of SYRIA were masters of this trade. As early as the First World War, the Imperial GERMAN Army made common cause with the dacoits of INDIA, the mujahideen of SOUTH ASIA, and the MEXICAN bandits to harass the BRITISH and the U.S. war efforts. During the Second World War the Allies made a series of alliances with the ITALIAN Mafiato assist in the retaking of ITALY just as the Axis formed alliances with the IRA and the Arab bandits of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to harass the Allied War effort.
Post-war activities in pursuit of the Marshall Plan in EUROPE enfranchised the Mafia, the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta and the Union Corse in the MEDITERRANEAN and in FRENCH INDO-CHINA. When Chiang Kai-Shekentered Shanghai in 1927 his first act was to join forces with the Green Gang to destroy the communists. Other triads in CHINA also allied to the Kuomintang in exile in TAIWAN under Allied leadership to fight on against Mao Tse Tung. The bandits and min tuan warlords of the Shan states joined with the Union Corse to build the giant drugs industry of the Golden Triangle.
The JAPANESE yakuza, powerful after their successful quasi-governmental assignment of the rape of Manchuria, acted as the acceptable surrogates for the anti-communist political parties in occupied JAPAN when many of the national political leaders were barred from holding office because of their Imperialist pasts. The urban vice and gambling barons of the Gold Coast allied themselves to Kwame Nkrumah to win the struggle for independence, only to fall out with the new GHANAIAN leadership and provide valuable anti-Nkrumah services on behalf of the U.S. and the BRITISH thereafter.
The black gangsters of GUYANA were actively recruited and trained by the BRITISH in their efforts to counteract Cheddi Jagan's more militant policies. The relations between Abu Nidal or George Habbash or the PLO with Arab political leaderships have shaped MIDDLE EAST politics for years.
Background Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Nkrumah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Habash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Nidal
ORGANISED CRIMINAL SOCIETIES BECAME LEGITIMATIZED
In all these cases, and in many other examples, organised criminal societies became legitimatized and joint activities with them became part of the range of policy options open to foreign policy planners. The price for this was the acceptance of crime and corruption as part of the 'legitimate' political structure and the turning of a blind eye to the financial lubrication needed to make this system function smoothly. The salient feature of modern organised crime has always been that it is militantly anti-communist. Communists have their own, quite unique, type of mafia which is antithetical to the organised crime of the ITALIAN type. As powerful, unfettered criminal societies, these organizations were integrated into the arsenal of democracy.
When Jack Kennedy hired Momo Giancana to assassinate Fidel Castro he was not breaking new ground; this type of transaction has been a part of the political system for at least a thousand years.
THERE ARE VERY FEW NATIONS IN THE WORLD WHICH ARE POLITICALLY UNDERDEVELOPED
A third theme which is often missing from the analysis of crime and corruption is the universality of criminal structures. Whilst it is fashionable to speak of developed and underdeveloped nations this is an economic distinction, not a political one. There are very few nations in the world which are politically underdeveloped. They may not be modern or representative democracies, but they are not politically underdeveloped. Nations developed, over time, the political institutions which matched the power structures in their areas. These may have been based on the military might of a single clan, access to a river or a well, ownership of a particular piece of land, control of the priesthood of the local religion, etc. These were congruent with the realities of the political system in which they operated.
CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS OFTEN THRIVED BECAUSE THEY PROVIDE UNAVAILABLE SERVICES OR FILLING THE NEEDS THAT TRADITIONAL POLITICAL STRUCTURES COULD NOT FILL
Along with the growth of relevant political structures was the parallel growth of criminal structures. Each society has its own criminal element and organizations. Their level of sophistication matched the level or organization of the society within which they functioned. These criminal organizations often thrived by providing unavailable services or filling the needs that traditional political structures could not fill. Primary among these was the provision of credit - rural credit to farmers to buy seed and equipment; and urban credit to the peasants who left their farms to find work in the towns and cities and where they were unknown or had no extended families. For most of the world's population life is experienced as a high wire act worked without a net.
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| Global Corruption index 2011 |
The price of failure under these rules is a very high price indeed. For most, the existence of a criminal parallel society served as their net, their ultimate security when their own legitimate society failed them. Many who made this bargain were not giving up anything of value which their own society offered them; to a large extent this was the only deal open to them. Some took it with reluctance, but took it nonetheless.What has been most important for the survival and expansion of these criminal institutions was that they were better constituted to adapt to changes in their environment than the political organizations and structures within which they operated and for which they substituted. Criminal institutions, by definition, usually are composed of the outcasts of the society (even though they may be closely allied to the mightiest in the land). They are self-elected and self-sustaining. This has meant that they are much more able to adapt to the challenge of change than the 'regular' political organisations.
When they have difficulty in adapting to contemporary challenges, as during the Castellamarese Wars in the U.S., between the 'Moustache Petes' and the modernisers, the adaptation process is often more swift and final than the changes achieved through the ballot box. A key feature of this ability to adapt is that criminal organisations are flexible in establishing alliances with other similar organizations for mutual gain.
Background Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castellammarese_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustache_Pete
THE FIRST MULTINATIONALS WERE CRIMINAL MULTINATIONALS
Long before General Motors or ITT or the Seven Sisters spread their corporate nets across the globe, giant criminal multinationals and cartels were already in existence and in business with legitimate governments. The overseas CHINESE throughout SOUTHEAST ASIA spread with them their triad organizations. The ITALIANS spread across NORTH AMERICA with their variants of the “Black Hand”. The black African slave suppliers spread across the lower reaches of the SAHARA in a highly organized fashion to supply captives to the EUROPEAN traders and Catholic religious orders plying the coast of WEST - AFRICA, in search of cheap plantation labour.
Many of the freebooters of the SPANISH Main operated quite sophisticated alliances with each other depending on the changing favours of the SPANISH, PORTUGUESE, BRITISH and FRENCH monarchies. Several (Francis Drake, Henry Morgan, etc.) were government-licensed pirates. Many legitimate governments hired and contracted organised criminal societies, like the Barbary pirates, to break sieges and subvert embargos. The ARAB slave dealers of EAST AFRICA formed alliances with local criminals to enlist and transfer slaves to the MIDDLE EAST and INDIA.
Background Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_main
THE INTERNATIONAL DRUGS INDUSTRY IS A TESTAMENT TO THE POWERS OF MULTINATIONAL CRIMINAL CO-OPERATION,
starting with the Mafia's FRENCH Connection, taking ASIAN opium, refining it into heroin in FRANCE, and distributing on the streets of New York through black and Hispanic street dealers, to the international association of the MEXICAN Cartels delivering from the Medellin and Cali cartels, shipping through Caribbean entry points and border crossings to the U.S. where ITALIAN, BLACK, HISPANIC, GREEK, CHINESE and IRANIAN criminal organizations take on the marketing and distribution of these products. The organisational sophistication rivals that of any of the largest Fortune 500 companies and its turnover figures make even the largest multinationals look puny in comparison.
THE MECHANICS OF THE SYSTEM:
( though below described mechanics reflect those of the US, they apply for almost all countries around the globe)
Crime and corruption are integral parts of our daily lives and are so common that they do not arouse our attention. In New York one needs only to look carefully around and several questions immediately arise. A key question is, how do poor people survive? Any observer can see that the poor people in the ghettos of Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant, and in Fort Apache in the South Bronx cannot survive on the meager subsistence payments of welfare and food stamps. Yet, these citizens walk around quite well-dressed; shop at well-stocked food shops; buy at flashy furniture shops; and spend a great deal of the evening socializing at neighbourhood restaurants, bars and clubs. Where does the money for all this come from? It comes from an institutionalized system of corruption which starts at the National Highways Trust Fund and passes through layers of the state and city bureaucracy to end up as urban credit to the poor.
US LIQUOR STORES ARE THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE SYSTEM AND THE POOR
No one in any U.S. urban ghetto lives more than four and one-half blocks from a liquor store. Why? Why is it that whenever there is a riot, as in Watts, Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland or Washington the first shops destroyed by the rioters are these same liquor shops? The answer is that the liquor shops in the ghettos are the dispensers of credit to the poor. Liquor shops cash cheques; they advance funds against welfare cheques.
They are open all hours. They are run in association with the political bosses and trade electoral loyalty for credit. They are the interface between the System and the poor. In exchange they deliver the votes to the uptown white parties.
The political system co-exists with an economic, power base - black organised crime. This orientation is equally true for ghetto Hispanics, the last remaining ghetto ITALIANS, ghetto CHINESE, ghetto GREEKS and ghetto KOREANS and VIETNAMESE.
THE SLUMS AND GHETTOS OF THE WORLD ARE RUN IN PARALLEL TO THE NORMAL POLITICAL SYSTEM, WHERE CORRUPTION, CRIME, CREDIT AND CONTROL ARE THE BASICS.
This urban pattern in replicated across the world. In the urban slums of MEXICO City local caciques hold weekly surgeries where supplicants come to make requests of the local party boss; in the Gulf petitioners attend an informal weekly majlis. In the favelas of BRAZIL and villas of BUENOS AIRES, the power arrangements are no different. In the urban sprawl of the Agege Motor Road in LAGOS or in the backstreets of Tsimshatsui in HONG KONG the faces and accents are different, but the System is the same. This subculture of corruption is universal. The differences are of degree, not of kind. CRIME AND CORRUPTION ARE NOT ONLY FOR THE POOR. WHOLE INDUSTRIES ARE CONSTRUCTED TO HANDLE CORRUPT PRACTICES.
CRIME AND CORRUPTION IS INTERNATIONAL :
Crime and corruption are inseparable. The type of investigation of crime and corruption which focuses on the over-invoicing of goods and services to the Third World and the commissions or 'kick-backs' taken by high officials, while often running into many millions of dollars, is still petty-ante crime in the wider scale of international corruption. Modern banking corruption represents many multiples of those sums. Many international agencies and lending institutions are concerned with the impact of corruption on good governance and economic growth as a result of corrupt practices; especially in developing countries. This is important but represents a rounding error in the levels of worldwide corruption... The problem is one of scale.
CORRUPTION IN MODERN INDUSTRIAL STATES IS LARGELY INVISIBLE TO THE MIDDLE CLASSES
Any student of the Banco AmbrosianoAffair, for example, will attest to the fact that many billions of dollars disappeared through deep-rooted corruption in ITALY and the recurrent economic problems of ITALY attest to the scale of the diversion of funds. For years one of the biggest growth industries in the EUROPEAN COMMUNITY was the fraudulent documentation of agricultural products trying to qualify for EC subsidies.
There is probably more corrupt and criminal money being washed through urban AMERICAN and EUROPEAN banks in one week than the total amount of AFRICAN corruption in a year.
The difference is that corruption in modern industrial states is largely invisible to the middle classes. The structure of crime and corruption in modern industrial economies is such as to leave the middle classes out of its perpetration and its rewards. The poorest of the Western societies know all too well what the effects of corruption are when they have to interact with public officials. At the top of societies, captains of industry and their advisors often have to deal with legislators, administrators, elected officials and 'lobbyists' whose hand on the "Pork Barrel" often determines their financial opportunities. There can surely be no one who has ever spent any time lobbying in Rome, Washington or Brussels who has any illusions about the uniqueness of the Third World experience with corruption.
THIRD WORLD CORRUPTION IS DISORGANIZED
When the AMERICAN colonial overlord of the PHILIPPINES, Taft, reported to the Congress that the literacy rate among Filipinos was low and social services rather limited, William Jennings Bryan replied that it was probably a good idea to keep the Filipinos illiterate, "Lest they read our Constitution and mock us for our inconsistencies."
We in the West are far more advanced. We have organised crime which has established organic links with organised business, organised labour and organised government and an every-willing banking and financial centre happy to oblige in the transfer and storage of the funds.
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL INDUSTRY AND ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH POLITICAL CORRUPTION ACCOUNTS FOR THE MISSING WORLD TRILLIONS
The hoi polloi need never concern itself with these ties as they are largely invisible. However, when we engage ourselves in the confrontation with corruption in the Third World we ought to at least reflect that we run the risk pointed out by Bryan, that the recipients of our moral and financial strictures might reasonably ask to delay their transition to godliness until we have dealt with the problems of Chicago, Tokyo, Palermo, Madrid, Brussels, Milan, Vaduz and New York. This international criminal industry and its partnership with political corruption accounts for the missing world trillions.
These 'wages of sin' have placed a heavy burden on legitimate businesses and tax-payers who are, effectively, making the interest payments on these missing funds through higher interest rates, tighter credit limits and higher prices on goods and services and policies of extreme austerity.
THE WORLD BANK ESTIMATE THAT THE LOSSES DUE TO CORRUPTION ARE ALMOST TWENTY PER CENT OF ALL TRANSACTIONS
The world's banking system has been transmogrified by this influx of hot money as has its stock, bonds, commodity and property markets.
In some countries lending agencies like the World Bank estimate that the losses due to corruption are almost 20% of all transactions.
Crime accounts for at least an additional 20%. At least an eighth and perhaps as much as a quarter of the total world's GNP passes through the hands of the parallel society.
A concomitant development has been their use of these largely undocumented funds to create political action committees or similar vehicles to elect those who will continue this system.
THE WORLD IS NOW FACED WITH A CHALLENGE IN DEALING WITH THIS DEEPLY INSTITUTIONALISED CRIMINALITY
The death of the communist system has removed much of the raison d'etre for the alliance of democracies with crooks. Perhaps by bringing this interdependence of criminality, corruption and the nations of the world to the public's attention can there be an open debate on how or if this strange symbiosis should continue and, equally as important, if the criminal societies are to be interdicted and corruption decreased how can governments adapt their policies to address the problem of the parallel society. Then, perhaps we can deal with the banks and the financial communities.
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