October 28, 2009

Taking Graft to New Heights

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I’ve never heard of the Italian news agency ADNkronos, but today they report a pretty spectacular statistic:

Kabul, 28 October(AKI) – Anti-corruption officials believe graft is eating up a staggering 75 percent of the Afghan government’s revenues, a news conference heard on Wednesday. A senior official in Afghanistan’s anti-corruption department, Muhammad Yasin Osmani, said most of the revenues were being wasted due to administrative corruption.

….Finance ministry spokesman Aziz Shams admitted government revenues were being squandered but said Osmani had over-dramatised the situation.

But does Aziz Shams mean over-dramatized in the sense of “wrong” or over-dramatized in the sense “making too big a fuss over it”?  Steve Hynd wants to know.

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DECEMBER IS MAKE OR BREAK

A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again—any amount today.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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