Corruption

During the "at sea" days on our recent cruise, one of the activities was a series of lectures given by a Professor Glick on Global Affairs.  He was quite old and had retired from academia and now spent a lot of time aboard ships doing this work.  He was very interesting.  One of his subjects was the comparison between North and South America.  One of the distinctions he said was that in the southern continent, corruption was a way of life and always had been.  Also that even if an official was found guilty of the offence he was rarely if ever punished.

A couple of weeks ago we were treated to the spectacle of the ex-governor of Illinois going off to spend 14 years in jail.  Yes, "Bloggo" was being punished for trying to sell the empty seat vacated by Obama.  The trial was quite entertaining, not least for the colorful telephone recordings of Blogojevitch in the act of this.  So that's basically the end of him.  But wait, does the retiring governor of the state not have the right to issue a pardon when his time comes?  And does not the one hand wash the other?  I'll keep an eye on this for sure.