Last week, I mentioned the generally grossly inadequate international reaction to the vast needs of flood victims in Pakistan. The main reason, I wrote then, was the fact that “quite simply, nobody believes the money will get to those who need it”. Everyone knows that there is corruption in Pakistan: the government itself is riddled with it. According to a report submitted by the auditor general of Pakistan, “the government… spent atrocious amounts of money on some pointless issues, and corruption was rapidly engulfing the institutions and departments” (my italics).