Joy! (Political)

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:41 am

Mark Thatcher (son of the Iron Maiden herself) has been arrested in South Africa:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3601098.stm

It's about time that this arms-dealing POS got his comeuppance.

Two down, two to go?

Royston

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:07 am

It seems that the fossil fuel supplies are dwindling and big consumer countries are getting more desperate each passing year.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 9:35 am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4169557.stm

I don't want to sully the board too much with what I think about this, but it's a disgrace that the South African "justice" system can be bought out with a bribe which is what this boils down to.

Mark Thatcher:

"Yes, I admit I'm an arms dealing piece of shit who tried to arrange a coup in Equatorial Guinea to get my dirty little hands on a share of its oil, but here's a quarter of a million quid. Can I go now?"

"Justice" System:

"Yeah, everybody else involved is in a hell-hole jail for years, but they didn't have £250,000 knocking around hahaha!"

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:33 am

The SA "justice" system is hopelessly corrupt. Buying decisions or bribing police to disappear evidence is standard practice at all levels. There's been a few good feature stories about this over the past few years...

Post by **garyb** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 1:24 pm

BELIEVE me. that happens in the USA and GB ALL the time. it just costs a little more....

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 2:16 pm

Not to mention Italy....

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 6:18 pm

Of all nations I admire the legal system of Finland the most.

Not only does Finland usually rate at or near the top in general "non-corrupt" indexes, but their system of fines is based on income.

That means that an extremely rich person caught speeding can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a traffic fine !

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:10 pm

On 2005-01-13 18:18, Spirit wrote:
Of all nations I admire the legal system of Finland the most.

Not only does Finland usually rate at or near the top in general "non-corrupt" indexes, but their system of fines is based on income.

That means that an extremely rich person caught speeding can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a traffic fine !

how about ppl that are unemployed?

hehe, no i totally agree, it should ofcourse be based on income. it is norway as well by the way.

(we also had a rich guy who got away from a ticket because "his mercedes was an extremely safe car buildt for high speeds", so nothing s perfect

)

oh and the non-corrupt-score might mean that someone should look harder

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: piddi on 2005-01-13 22:12 ]</font>

Post by **hubird** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:55 pm

do I smell some neighberhood competition here?

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 1:02 am

2003 corruption index - Best 20 nations

1 Finland
2 Iceland
3 Denmark
4 New Zealand
5 Singapore
6 Sweden
7 Netherlands
8 Australia
9 Norway
10 Switzerland
11 Canada
12 Luxembourg
13 United Kingdom
14 Austria
15 Hong Kong
16 Germany
17 Belgium
18 Ireland
19 USA
20 Chile

Bottom 12 nations (from rank # 122)

122 Indonesia
123 Kenya
124 Angola
125 Azerbaijan
126 Cameroon
127 Georgia
128 Tajikistan
129 Myanmar
130 Paraguay
131 Haiti
132 Nigeria
133 Bangladesh

From here:
http://us.rediff.com/money/2003/oct/07corrupt.htm