South Korea has a long history of corrupt senior executives being found guilty and then being let off. What is the point? Are you seriously telling me that South Koreans are fine with corruption in their main corporates?

It can become very embarrassing. Japan plonked huge amounts of chemical weapons munitions in China which killed off many Chinese back then and ever since because those have leaked into the ground and water. Now Japan is already in the cross-hairs because it has never really apologised for its atrocious behaviour in WWII. But then, in 1997, it agreed to clean up its own mess and pay restitution and compensation. Guess what? The clean up process was hit by a huge corruption mess when Japanese consultants who were supposed to help the clean up process diverted the money to their own nefarious needs. The entire clean up process is now delayed and more people are dying. How wonderful is the image of Japan now?

But before you think that I am simply taking up single incidents and blaming entire countries, take a look at the corruption perception index at Transparency International. Why is the United Kingdom 12th on the list? Germany is way back in 16th place followed by Japan in 17th place, France in 19th place and USA in 20th place. Who are the top 5? Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden. No wonder that their human development indices are also up high, their educations standards are high and their people are happy.

The OECD has done some sterling work in increasing the visibility of this pernicious problem. Take a look at these two OECD websites: http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_34855_1_1_1_1_1,00.html and http://www.oecd.org/topic/0,3373,en_2649_37447_1_1_1_1_37447,00.html. But this is the weakness in this entire chain. The idea was, the OECD will come up with a convention, then the convention will be signed by all the OECD members, the relevant laws enacted in their domestic law books and then they would crack down on the miscreants. The United Kingdom status report shows that the UK has done few things but has a very long way to go yet. That and instances such as the BAE case are the reason why people think the United Kingdom has a very long way to go yet before it improves its corrupt image. The BAE affair, for example, has done nothing to help in that perception either. Read the OECD reports on various countries here (http://www.oecd.org/document/24/0,3343,en_2649_34855_1933144_1_1_1_1,00.html) to see the progress made or not made as the case might be.

Non-governmental bodies such as Transparency International do help out as much as they can, but at end of the day, it boils down to citizens like you and I to protest against these corporate bodies committing corruption. Write a note to their head offices and complain. Let them know. Write a blog about it. This is what people do not appreciate in the government and corporates. They do not know or understand the power of the net. When each and every one of us who is upset that our tax dollars and our children are faced with life and security threatening corrupt banks, multinational firms and companies writes their outrage on the internet, it stays online.

Then their share price will suffer, they will not have talent to join in and their management will suffer. For example, I will never ever recommend to my children that British Aerospace is a good company to work for. Do you wish your children to be known to be working for corrupt firms? Now that might be an old outdated concept, of honour and reputation, but no, I certainly would not suggest doing that. I will not purchase a mobile phone from Samsung and will look at Siemens with a jaundiced eye. I do not think I will have much choice about flying Boeing planes but I can express my disappointment. Do not wait for your member of parliament or your judge to deal with it, gentle readers, these gentlemanly maggots are threatening you, your children and our societies right now, do something about it now.