跟读练习: History Professor Answers Corruption Questions | Tech Support | WIRED - 通过视频学习英语口语
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I'm historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
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Let's answer your questions from the internet.
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This is Tech Support Corruption.
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Andy Doodle asks, how do third world rulers get so rich if their countries are so broke ass?
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Well, often those countries are broke and get broker because the dictator is stealing public funds.
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A good case in point is Mobutu Seziseko, who was the leader of Congo for three decades.
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He became immensely wealthy, amassing a fortune of five billion in a country where the average daily wage was $1.
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How did he do this?
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He stole public funds.
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He took tax money and directed it to his pet projects, also to Swiss bank accounts.
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He took kickbacks from foreign companies doing business, such as diamond extraction.
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Mobutu was an important ally in the Cold War.
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He was anti-communist.
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So the International Monetary Fund and the United States gave him lots of loans
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that were supposed to be to improve the country.
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Instead, that money went straight to his bank accounts.
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At Gadek asks, Alexa, define corruption.
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Corruption is the abuse of power for private gain.
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Now, corruption is also what we don't do, and that's called dereliction of duty, when we don't report abuses of power.
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When we look the other way at the weaponization of investigations against innocent people,
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or when we simply give up the idea of ethics in the workplace and in life.
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Rocky Wired asks, Be honest.
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Which country is the most corrupt in the world?
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Transparency.org tracks corruption and absence of transparency in countries around the world.
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So they have a list.
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And according to this list, South Sudan is the most corrupt, followed by Somalia, Venezuela, Yemen,
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Libya, Eritrea, Sudan, Nicaragua, Syria, and North Korea.
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Some of these countries, such as Venezuela, are corrupt because the government is in an alliance with criminal gangs,
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which are used as enforcers to beat up state enemies, also to get bribes from people.
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And there becomes a gray zone between the state and civilian criminal actors.
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Other countries such as South Sudan and Yemen are countries where authority has become fragmented and there are warlords,
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each of them with their own corruption networks.
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Myanmar is also on the list, and that is a military junta where the military has been allowed to become active players in corruption schemes.
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Military officials have amassed their own fortunes, and this is how dictators keep people tied to the system.
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Rockknocker61 asks, why does it appear that the number one job of all politicians is to enrich their family?
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Well, autocrats are family men in a way.
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Since Mussolini in Italy, they surround themselves with family members because family members can keep their secrets and be easily controlled.
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Mussolini appointed his son-in-law, Gagliazzo Ciano, as foreign minister, and Ciano and his family had their own corruption network we now know.
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Sons-in-law have an important place in the history of autocratic corruption.
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In Turkey, Erdogan's son-in-law runs the biggest drone-producing company in Turkey, which is drones used all over the world.
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In the United States, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, has been conducting private business on behalf of his company, which is partly funded by the Saudis.
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At the same time, he is representing the U.S government in sensitive negotiations in Ukraine and Iran.
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In healthy democracies, this would be called a conflict of interest, but the Trump administration does not recognize conflicts of interest.
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This is the privatization of foreign policy, and it's something that's very common in corrupt governments.
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Dover299 asks, Where do politicians get so rich from?
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Here we need to differentiate between politicians growing rich after they leave office, when they're not bound anymore by conflicts of interest.
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Former heads of state, and this is true all around the world, can become very rich after they leave office, from book deals, from speaking gigs,
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all kinds of things, consulting, anything that's going to use their expertise as a former head of state.
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Quite different are leaders who amass wealth while they're still in office, ignoring conflicts of interest.
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And that's the case with Donald Trump, who has amassed $5 billion in only 18 months in office.
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There have been deals made that involve profits for the companies owned by his family.
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He also promotes personal products with his name on them, which is something that former U.S presidents have never done.
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And over $640 million estimated has come in from foreign investments to Trump and his family.
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Ruby Z.
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Heumann asks, WTF is a kleptocracy.
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Literally, kleptocracy means rule by thieves, klepto being a thief.
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Kleptocracy is a government where corruption and thievery have become so institutionalized,
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so pervasive, that corruption is how you get things done.
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It's a system where elites use their political positions to amass private wealth,
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where private businesses are plundered by the state and have to pay bribes and kickbacks.
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If they don't, they're subjected to legal harassment, to tax audits, and sometimes even forced to sell at a loss.
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And the beneficiary of all this is the state.
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Ordinary citizens have to pay bribes to get basic social services.
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This was true often in the former communist countries, certainly in Romania, of Ceausescu,
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who had his country living in poverty while he lived in a grand palace.
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Many countries that have a lot of oil or energy deposits become kleptocracies, and this is known as the resource curse.
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The curse being that autocrats who have large supplies of oil or natural gas tend to stay in power longer.
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In Gaddafi's Libya, of course,
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the dictator was supreme, But oil profits created centers of extreme wealth around oil distribution and production.
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Over time, these executives and others in the state bureaucracy who had to do with oil became immensely wealthy.
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On the way, corruption becomes endemic.
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It becomes pervasive.
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In Gaddafi's Libya, which was a kleptocracy, everyone involved in the oil industry, whether private or in the government,
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amassed private fortunes and were stealing these profits.
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Instead of putting the oil profits for public good, for roads, for public welfare, most of them were siphoned off into Swiss bank accounts.
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Now, sometimes if the dictator falls from power,
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as happened to Gaddafi, this can lead to instability after because these people can become almost like warlords.
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And so you have a fragmentation of power once the dictator leaves.
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El Rey asks, how do corrupt dictators hide their money?
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Asking for a friend.
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In the olden days, dictators used Swiss bank accounts because until 2018,
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you could be anonymous and there was no transparency regarding these bank accounts.
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So you could stash your money in these Swiss bank accounts and feel safe.
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Nowadays, offshore finance is the game.
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Because anonymity is guaranteed, you can create a shell corporation
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or have your money under someone else's name very convenient for the bad actors in the world.
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Until the 21st century, United Kingdom outposts such as Gibraltar were big places for dictators to put their money.
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Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, had his money in United Kingdom banks offshore.
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Nowadays, the United States has come to be one of the main players in offshore finance.
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States such as Nevada and Delaware and South Dakota are places where many warlords, arms dealers, dictators reportedly stash their funds.
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Yet another Band21 asks, so what corruption is Benjamin Netanyahu involved with again?
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Netanyahu faces three separate cases of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
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Regular politicians, if they're facing investigation or have charges against them, they don't want to run for office.
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Journalists could start poking around.
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Who knows what might come out?
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If you are a wannabe autocrat, though, like Netanyahu, you are compelled to run for office
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because the point is to get into power and fix the judiciary so your legal problems can go away.
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A list of leaders who were under investigation when they ran for office includes Vladimir Putin,
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Silvio Berlusconi three times, Donald Trump three times,
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and Netanyahu, who came into power and immediately pursued something he called judicial reform,
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which was supposed to fix the judicial system to make his legal problems go away.
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From the Ask a Russian subreddit, where did Putin get his wealth?
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Russia is a kleptocracy, and President Vladimir Putin is rumored to be among the richest men in the world.
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How did he do it?
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On one hand, he plundered public agencies, in particular Gazprom, which is the oil and natural gas conglomerate.
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Basically, kleptocrats see public agencies as pots of money that they can take for themselves.
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So that's one way Putin did it, by siphoning off profits from public agencies.
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The second is by plundering private businesses.
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A shocking one out of six Russian businesses has been seized by the state
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or threatened by the state or had a shakedown, which requires them to pay bribes or sell at a loss.
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And so, again, it's the private sector and the public sector.
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When you put these together, you create a formidable income stream for a dictator.
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Legitimate Sunday8460 asks, Is Trump the most corrupt president?
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Without a doubt.
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Donald Trump has made over $5 billion just in the 18 months he has been in office.
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Donors have been given contracts for businesses, high political positions.
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He promotes personal goods, profits to which go toward the companies owned by his family or companies owned by donors.
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Trump has also pardoned financial criminals as well as political criminals.
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The Poor Man's Thinking Man on Quora asks, why are the cronies of dictators always rich?
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Here we have the concept of authoritarian bargains.
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Dictators make bargains with elites, could be media elites, financial elites, business elites.
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They make money in return for absolute loyalty.
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There are no bid contracts.
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Competition is gamed in their favor.
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The state doesn't go after them.
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Over time, this results in what's called a mafia state,
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where clans associated by profit to the dictator become immensely wealthy and powerful in and of themselves.
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In Putin's Russia, for example, there's the dictator, Vladimir Putin,
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and there are the oligarchs who become immensely wealthy by sharing profits from illicit transactions.
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And this is how the dictator keeps them tied to him.
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It can be dangerous to speak out, even if you're immensely wealthy, against a dictator.
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In Russia, you might fall out of a window.
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Corruption isn't only about finances.
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It's a way of keeping people in line.
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The dictator knows your secrets.
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In Russian, this is called kompromat.
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And the dictator, especially if he comes from an intelligence background like Putin, keeps information on those oligarchs, which he can use at any time.
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And so this too is part of the authoritarian bargain.
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It's not just profit, but it's keeping each other's secrets.
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Where you at 42 Wallaby Way asks, hmm, I wonder why corrupt leaders always beef with the press.
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If you want to know if someone is trying to be an autocrat, look at how they talk about the press.
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Do they deride them as fake news?
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Do they say they're corrupt? not to be trusted?
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Usually.
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That's because autocratic leaders or wannabe autocrats usually have secrets to hide, and they know the press could expose them.
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Autocrats are afraid of journalists uncovering their corruption, and so autocrats try to silence, especially investigative journalists.
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That is a very dangerous profession.
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Damn Dirty Ape asks, why do some governments become corrupt?
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Are there structural issues that make some governments more prone to corruption?
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There can be corruption in any kind of political system, democracies, autocracies.
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Corruption can happen anywhere in the world where there's a leader
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and a political system that promotes it because of the imperative of self-preservation.
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Autocrats are deathly afraid of being prosecuted.
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This could be in Turkey where Erdogan has repeatedly fired prosecutors and judges and watchdogs.
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The same thing happened in Hungary where Orban stopped an EU investigation against his son-in-law from taking place.
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So it's not just in third world countries.
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Corruption could be anywhere if the conditions are right.
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P. Gadapabooks asks, Can democracy survive corruption?
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Corrupt systems create environments in which things that used to be considered illegal and immoral, such as lying about elections,
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stealing from the public, sexual abuse, they become normalized.
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When that happens and institutions get retooled to protect immoral people, then democracy suffers.
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Now, sometimes sexual assaults can be a prompt for a democracy to protect itself.
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That happened in Italy when Berlusconi, who had sex parties with young women, was actually forced to step down.
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He was investigated and convicted not only for bribery and fraud, but for sex with a minor.
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Around the world, foreign governments have been prosecuting politicians who associated with Jeffrey Epstein and appear in the Epstein files.
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That has yet to happen in the United States.
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ZGermans31B asks, Denying elections, hmm, what has history taught us about this occurrence?
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Many autocrats commit electoral fraud.
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If the election doesn't go your way, you claim it was rigged, or you refuse to have the votes counted, or in the worst case, you refuse to leave office,
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But election denial is something that's often not considered in under the bucket of corruption.
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But I believe it is because it is public officials conspiring to lie to the public.
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In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election and claimed it had been rigged.
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Later, he tried to stage a coup to prevent Lula da Silva from coming to power.
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He now sits convicted with 27 years sentence.
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Sigour asks, how does a country uncorrupt itself?
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And what are some of the best examples of this from recent times?
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A country can uncorrupt itself by restoring regulations that autocracies have removed.
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They can restore professional ethics requirements for civil servants, compliance for businesses and corporations,
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and they can rein in the leader who has to be held accountable.
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We're seeing this in Hungary where Peter Magyar, the successor of Viktor Orban,
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is restoring regulations that Orban discarded in order to restore transparency and accountability to Hungary.
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So those are all the questions for today.
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Thanks for watching.
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誰適合這支影片？
這支影片超適合想練習雅思口語或提升英語口語的中高階學習者！內容圍繞腐敗議題，用詞貼近真實討論，句子結構有簡有繁，既能累積話題詞彙，又能學習如何清晰表達複雜觀點。不管是準備雅思口語的「深度論述」，還是日常練習「shadow speech」，都能從中找到寶藏。
必學詞彙與慣用語
影片中有不少生動表達，快來收入囊中：
- kickbacks：回扣（外國公司與獨裁者交易時給的好處費）
- dereliction of duty：瀆職（對權力濫用視而不見的行為）
- conflict of interest：利益衝突（如官員利用職權謀私利）
- privatization of foreign policy：外交政策私有化（個人或家族掌控國家外交資源）
這些詞組不僅能豐富口語表達，還能幫你在「shadow speak」時更貼近母語者的用詞習慣。
發音練習重點
這位歷史學家的發音清晰，適合做「shadowing site」的模仿素材。注意以下兩點：
節奏與停頓
她在解釋複雜概念時，會在關鍵詞後輕微停頓（如「Mobutu Seziseko, who was the leader of Congo / for three decades」），模仿時要抓住這個節奏，避免「連珠炮」式說話，讓表達更有層次。
重讀強調
遇到「5 billion」「18 months」等數字，或「stealing public funds」這類核心行為，她會加重語氣。練習時刻意模仿重讀，能讓你的口語更有說服力，尤其在雅思口語的「觀點闡述」部分，效果顯著。
練習建議
打開影片，跟著做「shadow speech」練習：先逐句模仿，專注發音和節奏；再脫稿復述，用學到的詞彙替換原句（如把「kickbacks」換成「bribes」）；最後嘗試總結影片要點，用自己的話講給朋友聽。堅持一周，你會發現「英语口语练习」的進步肉眼可見！
视频中的语法
说话人最常用的结构，并附上视频中的原话：
| 结构 | 视频中的用法 |
|---|---|
| 现在完成进行时 have/has been + -ing — 以前开始、现在仍在继续的动作 | has been conducting · have been prosecuting |
| 现在完成时 have/has + 过去分词 — 过去发生但与现在仍有关联的事 | has become fragmented · has been allowed · have amassed |
| 被动语态 be + 过去分词 — 强调发生了什么，而不是谁做的 | has been allowed · be easily controlled · would be called |
| 定语从句 who / which + 从句 — 补充说明人或事物 | Turkey, which is · company, which is · them, which is |
什么是跟读法？
跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。