From my Twitter comments this morning:
From the FT this morning, but the same could be said for much of the West in the same period. So, what are we going to do about it? pic.twitter.com/bOU5fLU6mf
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) August 23, 2021
The article is here. And Martin Sandbu has, of course, valid comments to make. This was the most significant:
Brutally put, the corrupt state was a creation of US power…: a lack of patience led the US government to make “choices [that] increased corruption and reduced the effectiveness of programs . . . When US officials eventually recognised this dynamic, they simply found new ways to ignore conditions on the ground.”
But let's not pretend that this is so different from the West. That could be a description of tax havens policy, or PPE purchasing. And incomes for most in the West have flatlined for a long time in real terms.
The failing is in not about Afghanistan as such. It is about tolerating a system where abuse is always endemic. That is why offshore still exists, after all.
And for those in doubt, remember what offshore is about. It is not about palm lined beaches. Nor is it about tax abuse, per se. It is about being beyond the reach of regulation. That is the place where corruption can happen as a consequence. And that is why I say that the facilitation of corruption is what offshore is still all about, because it is.
The paper where I explored the true nature of offshore, and defined the term secrecy jurisdiction, is here.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
The West is blind to stuff like this – and it doesn’t learn either.
The South Vietnamese army was not paid to fight the NVA either as their officer class – from richer families – banked the wages for themselves (with one ot two honourable exceptions).
Either that or – knowing our infinite capacity for gaming any situation – Washington knew that that was going to happen anyway and didn’t care because it just wanted out.
Tell me this people: How can a contemporary Western Neo-liberal addled culture that is actually anti-state and is addicted to rampant individualism ever going to get effectively involved in State building in so-called failed states?
Failed states such as the U.S. in which its democracy has been hijacked by the rich? The UK which since the1950’s has been going backwards in effort to resort back to the Edwardian era if not earlier feudalistic modes of rule?
And we ponce around the planet extolling the virtues of ‘democracy’.
What did we expect?
One of the interesting changes that has taken place in the US and UK approach to government is the mania for outsourcing. This has been sold to them as a panacea for efficency. Petrol delivered to Afghanistan by Halliburton, was, I am informed, arriving at $400 a gallon.
So every flea had a lesser flea, which is a recipe for corruption. Within companies, many of the traditional outsourcing options, for example catering are far better, cheaper, and more responsive when handled in-house.
The Afghan security guards at the Kabul embassy were part of a worldwide outsourcing by HMG. Good decision? I doubt it, and certainly not on a personal level for the local employees and their asylum applications