‘Endemic’ is probably the best word to describe corruption in the Middle East. From Iraq to Morocco the bane of corruption pervades in all sectors of public and private life and remains the main impediment to real political, economic, and social progress in the region. Recently, we have seen efforts by many regional governments and NGOs to stamp out corruption and increase transparency across public and private sectors. These recent steps are viewed by many as a wider acknowledgement pertaining to the severity of the situation in the region. Others, however, see these new steps being taken as merely cosmetic and being taken in order to draw attention away from the deeply rooted issues pervading in Middle Eastern societies that relate to the make-up of governments in the region. The cold, hard truth Transparency International (TI), the global organization that monitors corruption and transparency, recently published its Corruption Perceptions Index
