An interesting article in today's NYTimes on John Githongo, Kenyan whistleblower. What I found particularly fascinating were the allusions to the role that family and tribal ties played in corruption in Kenya.
On the one hand there's a pattern here, strong family ties tend to hold back "progress". Those who try to get ahead are obligated to take care of families. This is true in the Caribbean (see a book called "Crab Antics" (?to be checked), with Hispanic immigrants in the US, and apparently with Africans.
In the US corruption has often linked to family ties. Think of the Bolgers in Boston (although that's not corruption, but the relationship between the killer and his university president brother evokes the Godfather I.
My impression is that the pattern of family ties leading to corruption has not been true for WASP Americans. We're the greedy SOB's who're in it for ourselves, to hell with the rest of the world. Maybe that's why WASP's dominated the class system for so long
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