Perceived Corruption Worsens in Malaysia

The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released yesterday by Transparency International shows that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 percent of countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years. 

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). 

The CPI global average remains unchanged at 43 for the tenth year in a row, and two-thirds of countries score below 50. 

And Malaysia garnered 48 points, the first time the country’s score dropped below 50 since 2012. Undoubtedly, perceived corruption in Malaysia has worsened – and we are placed 62nd in 2021, or five rungs lower than the previous year. 

FYI, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are top of the index with 88 points each as “clean countries”, while Somalia, Syria and South Sudan are at the bottom of the index, with 13, 13 and 11 points respectively.

Covid is hurting education.

The scale of the number of children who have lost out on their schooling during the pandemic is “nearly insurmountable”, according to UN data released on Monday. 

Globally, disruption to education has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on the academic learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom. 

Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-Covid, the research suggested. 

Classroom closures continue to affect more than 616 million children globally, with younger and more marginalised children facing the greatest loss in learning after almost two years of Covid, according to children’s agency UNICEF, which called for intensive support to help students recover. 

Across the world, from Ethiopia and South Africa to Brazil and the US, children have lost basic literacy and numeracy skills and their mental and physical health has suffered. It is a worrying situation.

81 Million Cases and Climate Change Impacts

Coronavirus are still on a rampage all around the globe – and its caseload is now past 81 million infections. 

And South Africa becomes country #18, having diligently amassed one million cases. 

While the world struggles to get to grips with the pandemic, millions of people have also had to cope with the impacts of climate change. 

According to a report from UK charity Christian Aid that works in 29 countries to fight global poverty, the world is paying a very high price for extreme weather in 2020. 

In the US, record hurricanes and wildfires caused some $60 billion in losses.

Floods in India and China did more than $40 billion damage. An unusually rainy monsoon season was associated with some of the most damaging storms in Asia, where some of the biggest losses were. 

Over a period of months, heavy flooding in India saw more than 2,000 deaths with millions of people displaced from their homes. China suffered even greater financial damage from flooding, running to around $32 billion between June and October this year. The loss of life from these events, however, was much smaller than in India.

Africa witnessed massive locust attacks devouring crops and vegetation to the tune of $8.5 billion. The UN have linked these swarms to climate change, with unusually heavy rains in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa in recent years contributing to the locust outbreaks.

It is pertinent to mention that financial losses don't convey the full impact of these disastrous events. While South Sudan's floods weren't among the costliest in dollar terms, they have had a huge impact, killing 138 people and wiping out this year's crops. 

Unfortunately, we can expect more years to look like 2020 and worse. 

What the world needs urgently is unified political will. 

Celtic maintained their revival as they powered past Scottish Premiership strugglers Hamilton Academical for a 3-0 win on Saturday. 

A foul on Odsonne Edouard, rewarded him with a penalty that he slammed into the net in the forty-ninth minute. Then he linked up with his strike partner to put the game beyond the Accies, laying the ball off for Leigh Griffiths to fire home from the edge of the box five minutes later. And finally, a deserved third arrived in the seventy-fourth minute when David Turnbull pounced to convert the rebound after Edouard's header from a Callum McGregor cross rebounded off a post. 

The victory keeps Neil Lennon's side 16 points behind Rangers – who they face this Saturday – with three games in hand. But before that, Celtic will meet Dundee United on Wednesday.