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The FCPA, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act sets out to ensure that no American company will become involved with foreign companies that may have connections to such acts of corruption as terrorist financing and money laundering.  These two criminal acts are often found hand in hand.  Two countries most noted for corruption in these current times are Somalia and Burma.

They have made it to the top of that list for a few years running, a list compiled by Transparency International.   This list rates countries based on the perception of the public, and of the politicians and officials of each given country.  The same list reveals that the countries with the least amount of corruption, remain to be New Zealand, Finland and Denmark.

What has been concluded by political scientists, is that the countries that are either developing, or torn apart by war or conflict, tend to rank at the top of the corruption list.  These are places wherein the public and private institutions remain perpetually crippled or in many cases are simply non-existent.

There are many accusations that can fly, especially from foreign countries, towards the situations in Burma and in Somalia, but without access to resources and funding, these countries are on one their own, basically, and each citizen remains responsible for just doing the best that they can in any given moment.

Until 1988, Burma was the jewel of the region in Southeast Asia, but now through this corruption, the mismanagement of the government, and repression, this is one the worst places to attempt to live and to exist, in any healthy fashion what so ever.

Anarchy and violence has been the curse in Somalia since 1991, when Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown by warlords.  These gangsters have since turned on each other, and the country is a mess because of it.  Control is being sought however, as it is every one’s dream to just live, to just simply live in harmony.

In developing countries, the fight against terrorist funding and money laundering is intense.  When corruption cases happen in countries that are on the verge of becoming more developed and financial stable, this threatens them on an international level.  Not only will foreign investors tend to stay away, day to day business is affected.  Foreign companies will no longer conduct transactions, and tourists will go elsewhere.  This can send a country into the depths of poverty.

Money laundering drastically throws off the stability of the economy, which will then serve to alter exchange and interest rates, not only in that country, but in the global financial world as well.  And while a country may be able to bounce back from cases of corruption in their financial institutions and corporations, political corruption is one form that is not so easy to resolve in the eyes of the world.

Unless a corrupt government is removed swiftly, a country will suffer endlessly.  Not only in the financial examples that are listed above, but the people of a tyrannical government become entrenched in poverty, as the government takes for themselves at the expense of the people are meant to govern and to protect.  There are many cases of political corruption happening the world today, included Tasmania and Somalia.  The people of these regions have been suffering for many years.

And while investigations are being conducted, the people of the country have lived through their apathy and are started to stand up for their human rights, and for the removal of their corrupt leaders and military officials.  Many organizations are helping in the struggles that are happening, by placing restrictions on the way that financial institutions look into the backgrounds and the histories of all those they are currently doing business with, as well as prospective new clients.  In this way, those corrupt leaders are finding it much more difficult to get funding for their actions of terrorism, and the means in which they have been able to launder those funds in the past.