The Corruption Tango (Part 4 The World's Lawyer)

Part 4 of The Corruption Tango (see previously)

IV. The World's Lawyer

My dear uncle, of blessed memory, used to work at the World Bank
He had a seat at the table, he'd risen to a high rank

With world movers and shakers, many said to be covered in glory
From his vantage point, up close and personal, he saw the backstory

Of many of the headlines that we would later read in the daily news
He was intimately familiar with the ways in which due process was abused

The haste with which the bounds of propriety
   would be promptly set aside
And the board's directors would say the magic words: let's override

It often happened to coincide happily
   with what the American president wants
The fig leaves of accountability
   that were forsaken in light of such demands

A lawyer, he rose in the profession
   to become the bank's top legal counsel
Jokingly, he referred to his job as the restraint of the world's scoundrels

For even though he constantly sided "with the ninety nine percent"
His very salary and position placed him firmly in the one percent

He saw through those demanding structural adjustment and reforms
Shifting the blame to Third World cultural traditions and lax norms

For much of the impetus came from these selfsame First World rogues
Who would emphasize whatever fine words happened to be in vogue

The hubris of people in glass houses and all that
He chose his moments to bring up inconvenient facts

What with his work on matters of compliance in the banking sector
Conversations with him were always revelatory chapters

He was quite jaded, if not cynical, about human fallibility
Hard-boiled even, such are the wages of observing venality

I imagine it was like shooting the breeze with a vice cop
He'd seen it all, try as I could, there was nothing that could shock

The media accounts always focus on
   the weak country and the bribe taker
Scapegoats: the low trust culture, and the willingly suborned insider

Thus it was written, that huhudious drama of the cease and desist
Almost always turned out in practice to amount to a mere slap on the wrist

It makes you wonder who is writing the script
About these scandals and dirty politics

While there would later be an almanac of political corruption
His contribution was to write the book on combating corruption

Human beings were not too far removed from the garden of Eden
When it became second nature for some to deceive and scheme

Lying for money is akin to original sin
Envy, greed, all these can pave the way to embezzling

There's always the other side to these affairs and imbroglios
Recall the old song, it takes two to do the corruption tango

The Corruption Tango: A Playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• Takes22tango by Dwele
  The funky shuffle and irresistible step, see Snoop vibe out to the groove.
• (It Takes) Two To Tango by Lester Young With Oscar Peterson
  A fun romp in the studio. "Take off your drawers ...", now there's a seduction
• It Takes Two by Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston
  Baby... to make a thing go right.
• Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Two
  You better think
• Think (About It) by Lyn Collins
  One of James Brown's great productions. Mama Feelgood herself, duly sampled by Rob Base and countless others.
• Just the Two of Us by Grover Washington, Jr. and Bill Withers
  We can make it we try, you and I
• Two Of Us by Cameo
  Although this is more in the devotional mode, the lyrics are instructive

  You've got to help one another

• Think Twice by Erykah Badu (feat. Roy Hargrove)
  A lazy groove, easy living
• Sleaze by Abstrac'
  "A low down dirty excuse for a man"
• Hypocrites by Alpha Blondy
  I too am scared of hypocrites.
• Thinkin' One Thing and Doin' Another by Miles Davis
  On the Corner, he went for the electric funk.
• Tea For Two by Thelonious Monk
  Well the Criss-Cross album is full of contention. A real cooking session.
• Two-Part Contention by Dave Brubeck
  Continuing in the jazz mode, this is a solo piano piece
• Takes Two To Tango by Ray Charles and Betty Carter
  Two great vocal stylists enjoying their meeting. We know that Ray was one for the ladies, but there's no word on if he was able to corrupt her royal highness.
• Talkin' Out The Side Of Your Neck by Cameo
  Speaking with forked tongue
• Two Can Win Jay Dee
  An ironic title, he samples "only one can win". Dilla's donuts are bananas.
• Baby, You Oughta Think It Over by Bobby Womack
  Walk away with your head held high
• Dinner for Two by Michael Cooper
  The Cameo alumni goes mellow
• Who Do You Think You're Fooling (pt 1 & 2) by Symphonic Four
  Quintessential soul music, a divine lead falsetto and rugged background vocals, the boys are a chorus: "when your mind stinks, you forget your soul"
• Carriage For Two by Tricky
  In the background you hear Lady Day's lyrics: "God bless the child that's got his own". The album title is apposite: Angels With Dirty Faces
• Hypocrites by Bob Marley
• Tea For Two by Jacky Terrasson & Cassandra Wilson
  A delicate, nightly rendezvous

The Corruption Tango

A dance in four movements.

1. A Touch of Sleaze
2. Cease and Desist
3. The Temptation of Black Gold
4. The World's Lawyer

I nominate this internal displacement for The Things Fall Apart series. It's a family tradition to call out Fallen Angels.

File under: corruption, culture, observation, perception, humour, USA, rogues, oil, Black Gold, gremlins, parasites, interplay, capitalism, poetry, economics, regulation, Fallen Angels, Africa, Observers are worried, Things Fall Apart, toli

Writing log: Concept: July 7, 2005; March 11, 2021