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Feb. 20, 2010 What is the color of transparency? If Transparency International is to be believed, transparency, with some few exceptions, is white. Transparency International is a global civil-society organization, founded in 1993 in Berlin, Germany, whose contributors and consultants, from more than 100 nations, seek to discern the perception of corruption in the 180 nations of the planet. Since corruption by its very nature is surreptitious and secretive, Transparency International cannot measure it directly, but must rely on what people think about the matter, which is what they call perception of corruption. Their methodology, which may change from year to year, enables critics to raise questions as to the reliability of their calculations. However, these criticisms may be motivated by adherence to the canon of political correctness, inasmuch as Transparency International’s findings fall predictably along racial and ethnic lines. I became aware of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as I was reading Hindi-language newspapers in Bengaluru, India, my present location. In the 2009 CPI, India came in 84th, down from 70th two years ago. The author of the article did not challenge India’s score or take issue with Transparency International. He merely berated his fellow Indians for their poor showing, deploring that, among influential nations, India was last. So I visited Transparency International’s website and came upon a map in which the degree of transparency, I.e., integrity in government, is shown in shades of blue ranging from near-white to near-black. http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009 It was immediately obvious to me that the map could have been an ethnic map of the predominantly Anglo-Saxon nations of the world along with the other white nations of Europe. Predictably, the most obvious exceptions were that Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore ranked very high, while the countries that were parts of the former Soviet Union, though largely white, ranked low. This is a little amazing in view of the volume of literature that has piled up in recent decades purporting to prove that racial and ethnic differences do not exist, and that everything is a matter of historical and geographical accidence. If differences appear to exist, it is the fault of the advanced nations, who have conspired to retard the backward nations. Otherwise the backward nations would be fully equal if not superior, it is claimed. There was an accompanying table, which may be viewed at this URL: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table Someone may object that I am posting this article out of malice or hatred, but that is not the case at all. I would much rather be in Brazil or India, despite their poor showings, than in Canada or Germany, with their high marks. Furthermore, the fact that I am half American Indian gives me very ambivalent feelings about the displacement and decimation of my ancestors by invading Anglo-Saxons. My only purpose is to delineate the truth in a time when so many are trying to obscure it. If England and France, with their then 50 million people, could impose a rule that would hold the billions of Africa and India in a state of corruption and poverty for decades after their expulsion, it doesn’t say much for African and Indian competence. As for Latin Anerica, there is not likely to be any change in the foreseeable future, if, after decades or centuries of independence, they are still stagnating in their backwaters. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
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