'All the world's somewhat corrupt and men and women merely players'

Photo by Nathaniel Tetteh on Unsplash

The worry of Transparency International’s new corruption perception index is that so much of the world scores so poorly.

Down the bottom of the list are the three S’s — South Sudan, Syria and Somalia — and nearest the top are the “cleanest” — Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.

Sadly, few would be greatly surprised by either end of the list, though someone did point out a new distinguishing feature of the three top-scorers: all are led by women.

Be that as it may, our attention should be focussed on the middle of the Index, with nearly 70 per cent of the planet scoring less than 50 per cent. That is astonishing and dispiriting, in equal parts.

Also, the fact that for the first time, America is no longer on the list of the world’s 25 least corrupt countries.

Belarus, the Philippines and Nicaragua are ranked lower than in 2020, a doleful downward slide that pundits ascribe to governments’ impunity in muzzling the press and cracking down on civil liberties, …