Financial Terrorism: Aren't the Swiss culpable?

A good part of the world regards Pakistan a terrorist state. The rationale for this is that the Pakistani ISI supports the Taliban and various other terrorist organizations who perpetrate terrorism in Pakistan and in neighbouring countries like India and Afghanistan. Apart from this they have links with and have harboured other global jihadis. So, they are a terrorist state. Now, one of the ideas of M.K. Gandhi that I agree with is that hunger is the worst form of violence. So, wouldn't supporting corruption that leads to hunger and starvation qualify as terrorism too?

 

      The Swiss banks are helping perpetrate hunger that worst form of violence. How you ask? Among the countries whose corrupt citizens hide their money in Swiss banks, India and China top the list to the tune of over a trillion dollars each. Some say up to 1.5 trillion in the case of India. In spite of booming economies, both India and China have many poor that live in deplorable conditions. In India 40% of the children are said to be malnourished. There are more malnourished in India than in all of sub-Saharan Africa. Further down the list of corrupt people are many dictators like Honsi Mubarak who stole the aid that was being offered to his country by the USA and stashed them in Swiss banks. The Egyptians never saw the benefits of this aid and a lot of Egyptians are anti-American because of this support to Mubarak. All this was possible because of banks in Switzerland, Lichtenstein and a few other countries. But, primarily it is Swiss banks such as the mega bank UBS.

 

      Rudolf Elmer is the whistle blower who worked for the Swiss bank Julius Baer and gave Juliane Assange a list of tax evaders of various nationalities. Elmer in his first interview after he was released from jail, with Indian channel Headline Today, told the channel (Part1 Part2 Part3) a little about how the Swiss banks operated and gave a profile of some of the Indians who stash money in Swiss banks. Some of what he said may surprise you. He was constrained by the fact that the case against him was still ongoing and he could not speak freely. He called out the Indian government for not doing enough to procure the names of people that evade taxes.

 

      The Swiss banks have a sketchy history including holding Nazi assets and assets of German Jews. They are archaic institutions in a world that increasingly seeks transparency. The explanation that the Swiss banks and the government gives for the secrecy law is that the law is an old tradition and that's it. That is hardly an explanation. That's a pathetic excuse. In fact that is an arrogant way of saying that this is what we can do and you can go do what you can about it. The only country that has got any effective concessions from the Swiss banks and government, not surprisingly, is the U.S. The U.S. has the clout to get this done. India too has the clout to get this done if the government can gather the intestinal fortitude to demand from the Swiss with the right vehemence. The government of India understands this too. They are unwilling to act because they are part of that corrupt system. In the meanwhile, the Swiss government and banks continue to perpetrate financial terrorism by giving the corrupt a safe haven. Shame on them.

 

P.S.: Do you think citizens of the countries affected by corruption should boycott Swiss goods to get the message across?