Those who lived through the famine of 1974 in Bangladesh know well how wholesale plunder of relief goods was carried out: tonnes of aid material–tents, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, medicine, toiletries–donated by the UN and major Western countries were whisked away in broad daylight from airports, train stations, and bus depots by leaders at every level of the ruling Awami League in a manner that every leader from the precinct boss to the cabinet member got a ‘cut’ commensurate with his rank. How history repeats itself. The Awami League is not in power–once again as a one party one family regime, this time under the thumb of the previous dictator’s daughter…and sure enough you can’t open a page of a Dhaka newspaper without seeing multiple incidents of Awami Leaguers looting relief goods. Sure, the cowardly journalists of Bangladesh–to stay clear of getting ‘disappeared’ by the state security forces or hauled to jail without trial under the politely titled ‘Digital Security Act’ use the euphemism ‘influential political leaders’ rather than ‘Awami League leaders’…as if in a one party state there are influential political leaders other than the ruling party hacks. Fortunately, international media–when paying attention which is rare–is not quite that afraid of the Bangladeshi dictatorship’s strictures. https://www.ucanews.com/news/corruption-mars-bangladeshs-covid-19-relief-efforts/87700
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Reading this again, I am reminded that certain US states have gone to great lengths to protect the PPE they have bought from, erm, confiscation by federal agencies, who then turn it over to private firms to auction off to whichever of those same states is the highest bidder. Given the commonality, it will be interesting to see which nation is keeping BD company at the bottom of the annual Transparency International list, mmm?
And folk wonder why I put little stock in the great wash of articles on how we can build a better world out of this experience….