Corporate scandals are sweeping through companies, charities, countries and life-savings in unprecedented styles and sums. It seems we are now in the throes of Corporation Corruption, in tow with Political Corruption - where the players use State Power to grease Corporate Conduits, and vice versa. There is also the worrying trend of ex-politicians taking up juicy corporate positions and deals, which tend to smell compromising or conflicting of national interest. It's a fine line, alright, but one which must be revisited as an international convention matter - a UN Global Thematic. Extant cases under prosecution are bad enough; can we contemplate the incipience of unknown ones!?

The fallout is usually global. Most crisis-ridden corporations worth their news would almost certainly be multinationals. Most of the heinous corrupt practices in the international arena, in particular within developing countries, are midwifed and nurtured by transnational corporations. In some cases, acting even for home governments or their greedy officials and networks. The human rights community as well as Transparency International have been on these issues for long. Limited progress! If we listen to them and act, debt relief would have been unnecessary today.

The West, led by the United States, must now take the lead in this matter. It is commendable that they somehow get the corporate crooks and political fraudsters in their own domains. But the world is now a global village. The frontiers of fraud can hardly be confined to specific territories anymore. As the war against terrorism and drug/human trafficking has entailed, we must spread the dragnet worldwide. The West must ensure the speedy enthronement and successful functioning of the International Corruption Tribunal. Cutting off the global turf from corporate malfeasance will make home-grown anti-corruption crusades more potent and successful. The time to bite the bullet is now. Intransigence no more.

It is also time to start retooling the national mechanisms which facilitate sharp practices and frauds. Countries must now re-examine ALL laws and accounting standards to make them conform to corporate decency, morality and public good. They should be simplified and low-cost. User-friendly. We should, in this regard, further empower both stockholders and stakeholders to help police corporate and social responsibility compliance. Citizen-action should undergird public morality and family values. The world is drifting!

Finally, business, law and diplomacy schools must renew and revamp their curricula for approriate response to this Global Thematic. For example, the COST of peace and poverty should be a mandatory taught course in these institutions and their lower academies. Books and multimedia materials should be produced for his purpose under the auspices of UNESCO and its National Commissions. Research should be free and dispersed, perhaps under Common Licence.

Silence or indifference is no longer an option. The nauseating details of recent corruption scandals oozing out of the West taint its hitherto sterling image, and undermine its capacity to preach or promote transparency and accountability elsewhere. Action is the right and only option. Global Action.