How much money and how many lives are lost each year to corruption in governments can only be guessed, but it has to be assumed to massive ... and pervasive. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, it's here, it's there, it's everywhere, and doing some level of damage to everything it touches.

Corruption put a halt to adoption in Cambodia in 2001 and is widely implicated as an integral aspect of almost all international adoptions. There are those who postulate that more than half of all adoptions by Americans of children from other countries are tainted in some way by corruption.

There's been quite the debate on this on the GAT yahoo group (Global Adoption Triad) lately, and that's far from the only place international adoption and corruption are painted into the same corner.

No doubt, corruption is rife in Cambodia. Aside from the people directly in line to benefit, you'd be hard pressed to come up with even one person of authority anywhere in the world that would contradict that basic statement.

That corruption riddles Cambodia like the holes in Swiss cheese is illustrated every day in one manifestation or another. Take this example from the news where it has been calculated that $22 million dollars in tax revenue was lost due to beer smuggling:

"It is crucial the government take energetic measures to combat 'contraband' beer, especially along the Thai border," it added.

Business experts say the losses represent about 3 per cent of Cambodia's total budget revenue, and have wider implications for anyone trying to produce locally.

Now, the folks who give money to Cambodia, the big donors, are demanding that the Parliament pass anti-corruption legislation, but that hasn't happened. In the meantime, the money continues to flow in ... and out ... and now that massive deposits of oil have been discovered under Cambodian waters the in-flow is picking up speed.

So, here's a question: If corruption runs the show from top to bottom, from soup to nuts to beer, can one segment of the country ... the one, say, that handles international adoption ... be corruption free? Does it make sense on any level to demand transparency here before any business is done, but not there where business, whatever it might be, is booming?

And just who is it entitled to make the call, anyway?

For a look at how corruption is dealt with in a big way, see the next post.