Corruption in Governments - How Mexico Ranks

I just discovered a gem of a web site that I wish I had known about in 2004 when I was writing about Gringos' perceptions of Mexico. That year, I wrote an entire book, a collection of blogs in which I addressed Gringos' Perceptions of Mexico. My dearly departed friend, Mark, who was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and whose work involved prosecuting drug traffickers, was convinced that if any Mexican owned and drove a SUV, it meant he had to be involved in the Drug Trade. He also told his girlfriend, just before he tragically died of cancer, he gave my wife and I six months before we would be fleeing back to the States in a terrified retreat. We've just begun our fifth year in Mexico.

My friend's perception of Mexico was that it was so utterly corrupt that I could not possibly stand living in it. I might add that the Minuteman Anti-Mexican groups also wrote me scathing emails with point-by-point outlines of how Mexico was the most corrupt nation on earth. It was as though they thought the notion of governmental corruption would have never occurred to me and, if I knew about it, then how could I live here unless, of course, as their insane reasoning went, I too was corrupt. They must have thought, as I have heard from the mouth of a so-called clear-thinking republican, "You lay down with dogs, you're going to get fleas." Brilliant, eh?

There is actually a World Corruption Perception Index put together by an outfit called, Transparency International.

This organization is,

" the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world. TI's mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption." (www.transparency.org)

In a poll to gauge the Perception of governmental corruption, subjective as people's perceptions necessarily must be, the results were startlingly refreshing. I write this for those Gringos who have such a "Don't you know there's Institutionalized Corruption in all of Mexico's government?" attitude. This was an exact quote a woman sent me. I wondered if this woman, who runs a Anti-Mexican Immigration web site, thought her statement would send me screaming, "Oh my God! I never thought of that!" back to the border. (It didn't.)

Of those surveyed, the least corrupt governments were Iceland, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands.

The most corrupt were Belarus, Cambodia, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, Chad, Sudan, Guinea, Myanmar, and Haiti.

Mexico was perceived as having the 70^th most corrupt government out of 163 countries.

The United States was perceived as having the 20^th most corrupt government out of 163 countries.

The most moral governments were locked in a three-way tie: Iceland, Finland, and New Zealand.

The results were from the 2006 survey. I can't wait to see the 2007 outcomes!

So, why do you hear at American cocktail parties such banter as Mexico has one of the most corrupt governments in the world?

Is it because of biases, ignorance, or stupidity?

I think it is that a delusion is far easier to believe than the truth.

So, there you go!