US’ ‘corrosive influence’ on the Pacific

Clinton emails show disquiet over US corruption, incompetence

CORRUPTION, neocolonialism and incompetence. Those sorts of attacks usually come from critics of the United States but the latest release of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shows similar concerns, this time shared by career diplomats. Highlighted by Wikileaks last month, the documents were released on 31st January 2016 and join 39 other collections of leaked documents, along with those released under Freedom of Information requests, such as the Clinton emails.

Individually, the emails may seem less than explosive. Taken together, they paint a picture of a global giant with little control over its own processes, let alone its corporate counterparts. One example sees a leading US diplomat attack the role of an oil giant in the corruption of Papua New Guinea politics, the emails published by Wikileaks show.

“Exxon’s natural gas project is estimated to yield a billion a year for PNG but will the income ever benefit the people?”, asked Melanne Vervee, the Ambassadorat-Large for Global Women’s Issues for the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on 1st June 2011. “There are so many challenges here and one can hope this place doesn’t become cursed by its resources like DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] etc because of corruption and lack of accountable govt.” 

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