The Panama Papers fallout

By Péter MARTON

It is more than two years since the Panama Papers, a massive dump of 11.5 million documents related to offshore financial transactions with the involvement of Panamanian corporate services provider Mossack Fonseca, have been leaked and published. A large number of public officials, politicians and their various associates and family members have been implicated in the affair. It may be interesting to draw a balance at this point.



The number of senior officials who resigned so far in connection with the Panama Papers scandal: 2

They include Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, after protests gave him an additional push, and a Minister of Industry in Spain, José Manuel Soria.

(Please enlighten me if I am not aware of additional cases that may count here.)

The number of journalists killed investigating the implications of the Panama Papers: 1

That is Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese journalist, murdered by a car bomb this week.

(Please enlighten me if I am not aware of additional cases that may count here.) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Station Eleven (the book): A Review of the Post-Apocalypse

Image
By Péter MARTON Having just finished Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven (the 2015 winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award), a part post-apocalyptic, part pre-apocalyptic novel with (inevitably and yet mostly just implicitly) the apocalypse in its centre, here are a few quick notes, in praise as well as criticism – not as a literary review, but mainly in reaction to the plot: its plausibility and its implications. As a work of literature I really liked this book – I enjoyed it, even. It is moody and haunting, as many would say. All the characters want to be somewhere else, even some time else. The story is effectively a collection of their memories upon memories of times, places and faces past. What follows here, however, is the dirty work – the ugly analysis of probabilities and plausibilities that's more interesting from a social science vantage point. A raw take from my part. Feel free (or invited, even) to add to this, or to criticise any element of my ass
Read more

Developments related to ISIS, and much else, because this is, of course, related to pretty much everything else

Image
By Péter MARTON Because I need to speak at an event about the situation in Iraq/Syria tomorrow, here are some of the recent trends and developments related to ISIS -- my digest of these. These are research notes, effectively. For starters: Aaron Zelin notes how much the ISIS media presence diminished since the fall of Mosul: "In particular, after the fall of Mosul in July 2017, the IS distribution of governance-related media dropped precipitously (by 66 percent) until the complete end of such media activity (on September 12 in Syria; September 16 in Iraq). For reference, at its apex, between June and August 2015, IS released 3,762 pictures related to governance activities in Syria and 3,305 in Iraq. When Mosul fell, between May and July 2017, IS only released 315 pictures related to governance in Syria and 171 in Iraq. And the most recent count prior to the mid-September 2017 rupture was 142 in Syria and 113 in Iraq, between July and September 2017." And yet...
Read more

Non-State 2-1 (2 Mar 2018): Technological Adolescence + Bitcoin Mining

Image
By Péter MARTON In today's brief post I am invoking the spirit of the late scientist Carl Sagan. Citing his words, it is interesting to reflect on the implications of the ongoing bitcoin rush that may make you wonder if the bursting of the bitcoin bubble (anticipated by some) may be the worst thing that could happen. 1. You can read here from Carl Sagan , addressing the question of whether humanity should invest an effort into trying to find out about the presence or absence of alien life out there in the universe. Sagan quickly concludes that given the enormous distances in light years, interstellar monologue will in any case be more (twice as) likely than an interstellar dialogue. Even so, he ultimately comes to the conclusion that receiving a message from a superior civilisation may determine humanity's fate, for in that message one may find the answers as to how the period of "technological adolescence," with its dangers, could be survived by us. In his w
Read more