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	We should definitely crackdown on corruption by Stephen McDonell Foreign Correspondent China   What do China"s own people think about where their country is going?   ABC China Correspondent Stephen McDonell takes the pulse of the world"s most populous nation through the lives of seven people in a single city, the old capital Nanjing.   "They want to tear down our house and confiscate our land", says the mother-to-be fighting eviction by developers. "President Xi has taken down lots of bad guys", says the young university student. "The Communist Party has to loosen its grip because it"s the trend of history", says a former TV journalist who now tells dissidents stories.   "Just 15 years ago there wasn"t a single Chinese company that could have developed a mobile phone" says the software entrepreneur who"s grown his company from 10 staff to more than 2000. "We"re now in a better place" - the young environmental activist who names and shames big polluters.   "We should unite with the common people of Japan" - says the elderly Xia Shuqin, who was eight years old when she was stabbed by invading Japanese in the "Rape of Nanking".   As a former state prosecutor, Shen Liangqing has seen the widespread payment of bribes, the awarding of contracts to friends, the hiding of laundered money in the accounts of family members. He says corruption is everywhere within Chinese officialdom.   Shen Liangqing: "Every official has shit on his arse. The question is whether or not you investigate. If you do, they will have problems. I am very pessimistic. We should definitely crackdown on corruption.   Shen Liangqing worries that the anti-corruption drive is part of a Communist Party power play with President Xi Jinping promoting his allies. Others think positive change can come from the ground up.   Ordinary people like Xu Juan, who believe they"ve been wronged by corrupt officials, find their way to Sun Lin.   Stephen McDonell: She says that developers have been trying to force her family and her neighbours out of their homes, and that she"s been fighting back on their behalf.   Xu Juan: "They offered us 4,000 yuan per square metre but the 2011 local housing price had already surged to 20,000 per square metre. The gap is huge".   Stephen McDonell: She says most of her neighbours have already caved into the pressure to leave. In this former community only 8 families are still holding out for what they say is fair compensation. Xu Juan says paid thugs, working with officials, have been sent around to try and bully the remaining residents into leaving. She is seven months pregnant when we speak to her.   Xu Juan: My demands are just - and yet they use thugs against me. It only shows how shameless the Government is".   Stephen McDonell: The problem of forced evictions is a huge one in China. We stumble across a protest outside a municipal government office in downtown Nanjing. As soon as we arrive, people who claim they"ve had their homes stolen are eager to speak.   WOMAN #1: "They didn"t notify me before demolishing my house. Now I have nowhere to live".   POLICEMAN: "You"re making us lose face in front of the foreigners".   WOMAN #1: "I"m from Nanjing City, Gulou district. Meitanggang Road, number 5".   Stephen McDonell: The woman proudly declares her name and address to the camera despite police urging her to be quiet.   WOMAN #1: "Because I spoke to you today I might now be thrown in jail".   Stephen McDonell: "Have you all come here with the same problem or different grievances?"   WOMAN #1: "We"re all the same".   Stephen McDonell: "You"re here because your houses have been demolished?" They also have stories of violent evictions.   WOMAN #2: "You can see my parents were beaten to death. Both houses were my legal property. They took our houses and they beat us".   Stephen McDonell: The police bring out their own camera to capture us, but they"re also interested in the demonstrators. The authorities film as those who"ve spoken out give their contact details. The police tell us to stop recording. The residents keep coming.   WOMAN #3: "I tell you my house was demolished illegally. They took it. It"s been six years, six years and they haven"t paid me. Give me back my house. No compensation. They beat me. They detained me. What can I do?"   Stephen McDonell: Then plainclothes officials arrive and familiar questions are asked.   OFFICIAL: "Hello. I am from the Propaganda Department of this district"s Party Committee. Do you have a journalist card?".
	Peace and Corruption Report by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)   Corruption is a leading indicator for political instability and 64 countries where fraud and bribery are widespread risk falling into violent upheaval, the Institute for Economics and Peacea a global think tank said in a new report.   While anti-corruption researchers long have argued the corrosive power of corruption, its political impact has never before been measured globally.   By examining the linkage between corruption measures and peaceful societies, the research by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) finds strong statistical evidence that high and rising levels of corruption can undermine security, and that only small increases can cause civil unrest.   "The most striking aspect of this relationship is that there is a tipping point," said Aubrey Fox, executive director for the group.   "This is enormously important for countries, because if you can, through incremental efforts, knock corruption below that tipping point and control it, you can avert the most difficult consequences," he said in an interview.   The IEP examined trends in peace and corruption over the past 15 years by looking at Transparency International''s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the World Bank''s Control of Corruption measure, and its own Global Peace Index.   It found that when a country''s CPI score is under 40 out of a possible 100 that would denote minimal corruption, it has reached a threshold for collapse of government institutions and a rise in internal violence, IEP said.   From this tipping point, small increases in corruption can trigger large declines in peace, as measured by its Global Peace Index. High levels of corruption in the police and judiciary are critical factors for undermining social cohesion, it said.   Over the last seven years, IEP said the indices show the world has become less peaceful and that corruption has increased.   The two institutions that have the most impact on levels of peace are the police and the judiciary. These institutions underpin the rule of law in a country, high levels of corruption within them can lead to a breakdown of the legal framework, as well as formal and informal codes of conduct, leading directly to an increase in the likelihood of crime and violence.   Corruption is commonly understood as the ‘abuse of entrusted power for private gain’, and includes acts such as bribery, fraud, extortion, embezzlement and kickbacks. The exact boundaries of what constitutes corruption can be somewhat blurred.   However, gains in building a peaceful society do not show any statistical linkage to lower levels of corruption, indicating how persistent and challenging is the job of tackling fraud, bribery and abuse of power, IEP said.   http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/news/1162   Fragile States Index 2015 (Fund for Peace)   South Sudan has topped the Fragile States Index for the second year in succession, as the country continues to be wracked by internal conflict, fractious politics, and poverty. South Sudan is joined at the most fragile end of the Index by countries that have long struggled, such as Somalia, Central African Republic, Sudan, and D.R. Congo. However, a lack of change at the most fragile end of the Index -- not to mention a similar lack of change at the sustainable end of the Index, where primarily Scandinavian countries continue to excel -- belies the significant movement of a number of countries over the past year and indeed the past decade.   According to FFP Executive Director, J.J Messner, “When you see the most fragile countries continuing to worsen and the most stable countries continuing to improve over time, it suggests fragility begets fragility and stability begets stability.”   Decade trends reflect continued strife in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Iraq   In the 2015 FSI, Syria became one of the top ten most fragile countries for the first time in the history of the Index. Reflective of the escalating insecurity in the post-Arab Spring world, marred by complex local ethnic and social-economic tensions overlaid with sectarian Sunni and Shia divides and regional power plays, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Iraq all made the top ten in the Most Worsened countries for 2015.   Though each country has its own conflict dynamics, political fragmentation and humanitarian crises, the deepening fragility across the four states over the past year is reshaping the whole regional landscape. The headline-grabbing rise of the Islamic State in the past twelve months has exacerbated sectarian divides across the region, contributing to continued insecurity.   Cuba most improved country of the decade   As Cuba continues to dominate headlines in the United States for the thawing of relations between the two countries, it has managed to be one of the three most improved countries of 2015 Index, and also the most improved country of the past decade. Under President Raul Castro’s leadership, Cuba has seen a slow but steady improvement in social and economic indicators. One of the driving forces behind this improvement has been the success of Castro’s economic reforms.   Ukraine dramatically worsens, Russia not far behind   In tandem with the international headlines throughout 2014, Ukraine’s score worsened by 9.1 points, one of the largest year-on-year increases in the history of the Index. The removal of a president, incursions by Russian-backed rebel forces and conflict throughout much of the country’s east, the shooting down of a Malaysian commercial jet over its territory, and the annexation of Crimea, has contributed to a dramatic shift in this year’s indicators scores. On the other side of the fence, Russia was the fourth most worsened country year-on-year in 2015, with the country beset by the economic pressures of sanctions and plummeting oil prices, and growing indicators of group grievance. Russia worsened from 85th in 2014 to 65th in 2015 Index.   http://library.fundforpeace.org/fsi15-overview Visit the related web page
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