Letter from Fisciano
Editor’s Note: The author of the piece I am about to point you to is a professor of criminal law at the University of Salerno, a brisk twenty-one minute drive in light traffic in your Fiat Spider mostly up the Autostrada del Mediterraneo from its namesake città. Andrea Castaldo is also the founding member of a law firm a bit farther northeast up the road to Naples.
He writes about corruption in government, with which his own country has had a pungent relationship over the years, and in which the United States has recently excelled. He writes about “the most relevant gap between perception and reality,” which perhaps coincidentally the United States also has recently zoomed — right behind Italy — toward Number One.
He references in his article something called the Corruption Perceptions Index, which has been compiled since 1995 by Transparency International, which calls itself a global coalition against corruption. They aim to end the injustice of corruption, which strikes me as a pretty decent aim.
They work with over one hundred countries to do this. The United States isn’t one of them. As with our refusal to participate in the International Criminal Court, we don’t like outsiders reminding us of our responsibility to the global community. Right now we’re really busy taking care of America first (or at least our president).
The good news is that there are apparently one hundred fifty-two countries more corrupt than the United States. The bad news is that there are twenty-three countries less corrupt than the United States. Tied for absolutely least corrupt are New Zealand and Denmark. I never expected the United Arab Emirates to be less corrupt than the United States, but there you go.
The United States might have had a chance to move up a few notches this year, if the Democrats hadn’t bungled the impeachment, the Republicans had one shred of integrity to split fifty-two ways, and Santa Claus really was a jolly old elf with only the best intentions for good little boys and girls.
But here is Professor Castaldo’s take: