Corruption and Transparency - Part II

Written by Sam Vaknin


Continued from page 1

The conditioning of international aid, credits, and investments on a monitored reduction in corruption levels. The structural roots of corruption should be tackled rather than merely its symptoms.

The institution of incentives to avoid corruption, such as a higher pay,repparttar fostering of civic pride, "good behaviour" bonuses, alternative income and pension plans, and so on.

In many new countries (in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe)repparttar 104971 very concepts of "private" versus "public" property are fuzzy and impermissible behaviours are not clearly demarcated. Massive investments in education ofrepparttar 104972 public and of state officials are required.

Liberalization and deregulation ofrepparttar 104973 economy. Abolition of red tape, licensing, protectionism, capital controls, monopolies, discretionary, non-public, procurement. Greater access to information and a public debate intended to foster a "stakeholder society".

Strengthening of institutions:repparttar 104974 police,repparttar 104975 customs,repparttar 104976 courts,repparttar 104977 government, its agencies,repparttar 104978 tax authorities - under time limited foreign management and supervision.

Awareness to corruption and graft is growing - though it mostly results in lip service. The Global Coalition for Africa adopted anti-corruption guidelines in 1999. The otherwise opaque Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is now championing transparency and good governance. The UN is promoting its pet convention against corruption.

The G-8 asked its Lyon Group of senior experts on transnational crime to recommend ways to fight corruption related to large money flows and money laundering. The USA andrepparttar 104979 Netherlands hosted global forums on corruption - as will South Korea next year. The OSCE is rumored to respond with its own initiative, in collaboration withrepparttar 104980 US Congressional Helsinki Commission.

The south-eastern Europe Stability Pact sports its own Stability Pact Anti-corruption Initiative (SPAI). It held its first conference in September 2001 in Croatia. More than 1200 delegates participated inrepparttar 104981 10th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague last year. The conference was attended byrepparttar 104982 Czech prime minister,repparttar 104983 Mexican president, andrepparttar 104984 head ofrepparttar 104985 Interpol.

The most potent remedy against corruption is sunshine - free, accessible, and available information disseminated and probed by an active opposition, uncompromised press, and assertive civic organizations and NGO's. Inrepparttar 104986 absence of these,repparttar 104987 fight against official avarice and criminality is doomed to failure. With them, it stands a chance.

Corruption can never be entirely eliminated - but it can be restrained and its effects confined. The cooperation of good people with trustworthy institutions is indispensable. Corruption can be defeated only fromrepparttar 104988 inside, though with plenty of outside help. It is a process of self-redemption and self-transformation. It isrepparttar 104989 real transition.



Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com




Narcissism in the Boardroom - Part I

Written by Sam Vaknin


Continued from page 1

The self-destructive narcissist playsrepparttar role ofrepparttar 104970 "bad guy" (or "bad girl"). But even this is withinrepparttar 104971 traditional social roles cartoonishly exaggerated byrepparttar 104972 narcissist to attract attention. Men are likely to emphasise intellect, power, aggression, money, or social status. Narcissistic women are likely to emphasise body, looks, charm, sexuality, feminine "traits", homemaking, children and childrearing.

Punishingrepparttar 104973 wayward narcissist is a veritable catch-22.

A jail term is useless as a deterrent if it only serves to focus attention onrepparttar 104974 narcissist. Being infamous is second best to being famous - and far preferable to being ignored. The only way to effectively punish a narcissist is to withhold narcissistic supply from him and thus to prevent him from becoming a notorious celebrity.

Given a sufficient amount of media exposure, book contracts, talk shows, lectures, and public attention -repparttar 104975 narcissist may even considerrepparttar 104976 whole grisly affair to be emotionally rewarding. Torepparttar 104977 narcissist, freedom, wealth, social status, family, vocation - are all means to an end. Andrepparttar 104978 end is attention. If he can secure attention by beingrepparttar 104979 big bad wolf -repparttar 104980 narcissist unhesitatingly transforms himself into one. Lord Archer, for instance, seems to be positively basking inrepparttar 104981 media circus provoked by his prison diaries.

The narcissist does not victimise, plunder, terrorise and abuse others in a cold, calculating manner. He does so offhandedly, as a manifestation of his genuine character. To be truly "guilty" one needs to intend, to deliberate, to contemplate one's choices and then to choose one's acts. The narcissist does none of these.

Thus, punishment breeds in him surprise, hurt and seething anger. The narcissist is stunned by society's insistence that he should be held accountable for his deeds and penalized accordingly. He feels wronged, baffled, injured,repparttar 104982 victim of bias, discrimination and injustice. He rebels and rages.

Depending uponrepparttar 104983 pervasiveness of his magical thinking,repparttar 104984 narcissist may feel besieged by overwhelming powers, forces cosmic and intrinsically ominous. He may develop compulsive rites to fend off this "bad", unwarranted, persecutory influences.

The narcissist, very muchrepparttar 104985 infantile outcome of stunted personal development, engages in magical thinking. He feels omnipotent, that there is nothing he couldn't do or achieve if only he sets his mind to it. He feels omniscient - he rarely admits to ignorance and regards his intuitions and intellect as founts of objective data.

Thus, narcissists are haughtily convinced that introspection is a more important and more efficient (not to mention easier to accomplish) method of obtaining knowledge thanrepparttar 104986 systematic study of outside sources of information in accordance with strict and tedious curricula. Narcissists are "inspired" and they despise hamstrung technocrats.

To some extent, they feel omnipresent because they are either famous or about to become famous or because their product is selling or is being manufactured globally. Deeply immersed in their delusions of grandeur, they firmly believe that their acts have - or will have - a great influence not only on their firm, but on their country, or even on Mankind. Having masteredrepparttar 104987 manipulation of their human environment - they are convinced that they will always "get away with it". They develop hubris and a false sense of immunity.

Narcissistic immunity isrepparttar 104988 (erroneous) feeling, harboured byrepparttar 104989 narcissist, that he is impervious torepparttar 104990 consequences of his actions, that he will never be effected byrepparttar 104991 results of his own decisions, opinions, beliefs, deeds and misdeeds, acts, inaction, or membership of certain groups, that he is above reproach and punishment, that, magically, he is protected and will miraculously be saved atrepparttar 104992 last moment. Hencerepparttar 104993 audacity, simplicity, and transparency of some ofrepparttar 104994 fraud and corporate looting inrepparttar 104995 1990's. Narcissists rarely bother to cover their traces, so great is their disdain and conviction that they are above mortal laws and wherewithal.

What arerepparttar 104996 sources of this unrealistic appraisal of situations and events?



Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com




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