The Math Of Corruption

I HOPE that all the recent financial scandals have one upside – a benefit to school learners’ math in coping with large numbers.

Myself, I am starting to get lost in the ‘noughts’. It seems that any ‘investment’ or misappropriation affair, deals in basic transactional units of N$100 million.Any figure with less than seven zeroes after it is not even worth reporting on.The Avid/SSC issue, at only N$30 million, now seems like small change.Likwise, ‘Where Others Wavered’ probably stands at only N$60 million, a sum we could lose in the paper-clip budget? For instance, the latest ‘investor’ from the US has allegedly brought $150 million into the country, with another N$150 million to come.Whiling away the first weekend he was here, he bought a house for N$4 million – an impulse purchase? Then, when arrested and bail set at N$10 million, he paid up immediately without a qualm.I’m not saying that he is going to jump bail, but since this bail amount, to him, is more or less the equivalent of what lesser mortals spend on lunch, it is scarcely going to hold him, is it? Why didn’t he forestall any ticklish problem by just buying the whole of Namibia (and its Government)? Nowadays, I wonder where all the money is coming from (and where it is going to).Stand on a street corner in central Windhoek for an hour, and you can estimate that over N$1 billion (with a ‘B’) worth of vehicles, mostly new, luxury models, have passed you by.The Municipality passes a hundred million dollars (our basic unit again) of new building plans each month, and the buildings duly go up.Of course, something of the order of a billion N$ will be spent on State House by the time it is finished.The country has not yet discovered oil, so far as I know, so where does it all come from? The FF is suing The Namibian for N$5 million.Just double-check that it is a million with an ‘M’, and if so, be thankful you are getting off lightly.Bill Torbitt WindhoekIt seems that any ‘investment’ or misappropriation affair, deals in basic transactional units of N$100 million.Any figure with less than seven zeroes after it is not even worth reporting on.The Avid/SSC issue, at only N$30 million, now seems like small change.Likwise, ‘Where Others Wavered’ probably stands at only N$60 million, a sum we could lose in the paper-clip budget? For instance, the latest ‘investor’ from the US has allegedly brought $150 million into the country, with another N$150 million to come.Whiling away the first weekend he was here, he bought a house for N$4 million – an impulse purchase? Then, when arrested and bail set at N$10 million, he paid up immediately without a qualm.I’m not saying that he is going to jump bail, but since this bail amount, to him, is more or less the equivalent of what lesser mortals spend on lunch, it is scarcely going to hold him, is it? Why didn’t he forestall any ticklish problem by just buying the whole of Namibia (and its Government)? Nowadays, I wonder where all the money is coming from (and where it is going to).Stand on a street corner in central Windhoek for an hour, and you can estimate that over N$1 billion (with a ‘B’) worth of vehicles, mostly new, luxury models, have passed you by.The Municipality passes a hundred million dollars (our basic unit again) of new building plans each month, and the buildings duly go up.Of course, something of the order of a billion N$ will be spent on State House by the time it is finished.The country has not yet discovered oil, so far as I know, so where does it all come from? The FF is suing The Namibian for N$5 million.Just double-check that it is a million with an ‘M’, and if so, be thankful you are getting off lightly.Bill Torbitt Windhoek