TEDGlobal 2013
Charmian Gooch: Meet global corruption's hidden players
Charmian Gooch: Takohu me lojtaret e fshtehte te korrupsionit nderkombetar
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Kur djali i nje presidenti te nje shteti mjerisht te varfer fillon te bleje rezidenca dhe makina sportive nga nje rroge zyrtare mujore rreth 7000 dollar, Charmian Gooch sygjeron, qe korrupsioni eshte diku aty. Ne nje fjalim te ashper qe te hap syte (nepermjet disa shembujve specifik), ajo tregon sesi hetuesit e korrupsionit nderkombetar duke ndjekur parate, ne menyre te habitshme te cojne ne disa fytyra familiare.
Charmian Gooch - Anti-corruption activist
Charmian Gooch is the 2014 TED Prize winner. At Global Witness, she exposes how a global architecture of corruption is woven into the extraction and exploitation of natural resources. Full bio
Charmian Gooch is the 2014 TED Prize winner. At Global Witness, she exposes how a global architecture of corruption is woven into the extraction and exploitation of natural resources. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
When we talk about corruption,
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Kur flasim per korrupsion,
00:14
there are typical types of individuals that spring to mind.
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ka disa lloje individeve qe te vijne ne mendje
00:18
There's the former Soviet megalomaniacs.
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Eshte tipi i ish-Sovjetikut megaloman.
00:20
Saparmurat Niyazov, he was one of them.
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Saparmurat Niyazov, ishte njëri prej tyre.
00:23
Until his death in 2006,
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Deri sa vdiq ne 2006,
00:25
he was the all-powerful leader of Turkmenistan,
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ai ishte drejtuesi i gjithepushtetshem i Turkmenistanit,
00:29
a Central Asian country rich in natural gas.
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nje vend i Azise Qendore i pasur me gaz natyror.
00:32
Now, he really loved to issue presidential decrees.
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Ai me te vertete dashuronte te leshonte dekrete presidenciale.
00:36
And one renamed the months of the year
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Dhe nje riemertonte emrat e muajve te vitit
00:39
including after himself and his mother.
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perfshire emrin e tij dhe se emes.
00:42
He spent millions of dollars
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Ai harxhoi miliona dollar
00:44
creating a bizarre personality cult,
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per te krijuar nje kult personaliteti te cudicem,
00:47
and his crowning glory was the building
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dhe kurorezimi i lavdise se tij ishte ndertimi
00:49
of a 40-foot-high gold-plated statue of himself
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i një statuje te vetes e tera prej ari te praruar dhe 12 m te larte
00:53
which stood proudly in the capital's central square
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e cila qendronte me krenari ne sheshin qendror te kryeqytetit
00:56
and rotated to follow the sun.
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dhe rrotullohej per te ndjekur djellin.
00:59
He was a slightly unusual guy.
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Ai ishte nje djale paksa i pazakonte.
01:01
And then there's that cliché,
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Dhe pastaj eshte klishe-ja,
01:03
the African dictator or minister or official.
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diktatori Afrikan ose ministri ose zyrtari.
01:07
There's Teodorín Obiang.
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Eshte Teodorin Obiang.
01:10
So his daddy is president for life of Equatorial Guinea,
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Babai i tij eshte president i perjetshem i Guine-se Ekuadoriale
01:14
a West African nation that has exported
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nje vend Afrikano-Perendimor i cili ka eksportuar
01:17
billions of dollars of oil since the 1990s
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miliarda dollar nafte qe prej 1990s
01:21
and yet has a truly appalling human rights record.
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dhe akoma ka nje te vertete te tmerrshme ne raport me te drejtat e njeriut.
01:25
The vast majority of its people
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Shumica derrmuese e popullsises se saj
01:27
are living in really miserable poverty
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jetojne ne nje varferi vertet te mjerueshme.
01:30
despite an income per capita that's on a par
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pavaresish te ardhurave per fryme qe jne ne te njetin nivel
01:32
with that of Portugal.
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me ate te Portugalise.
01:34
So Obiang junior, well, he buys himself
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Keshtu qe Obiang i riu, epo, ai i blen vetes
01:37
a $30 million mansion in Malibu, California.
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nje rezidence 30 milion $ ne Malibu, Kaliforni.
01:41
I've been up to its front gates.
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Une kam qene deri te portat e saj te parme.
01:42
I can tell you it's a magnificent spread.
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Mund t'ju them se ka nje shtrirje madheshtore.
01:45
He bought an €18 million art collection
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Ai bleu nje koleksion arti 18 milion euro
01:49
that used to belong to fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent,
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qe dikur i perkiste dizenjatorit te modes Yves Saint Laurent,
01:53
a stack of fabulous sports cars,
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nje tufe makinash sportive perrallore,
01:55
some costing a million dollars apiece --
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disa qe kushtonin miliona dollar copa--
01:57
oh, and a Gulfstream jet, too.
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oh, dhe nje reaktiv Gulfstream, gjithashtu.
02:00
Now get this:
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Tani degjoje kete:
02:01
Until recently, he was earning an official monthly salary
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Deri kohet e fundit, ai fitonte nje page zyrtare mujore
02:05
of less than 7,000 dollars.
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jo me pak se 7,000 dollare.
02:09
And there's Dan Etete.
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Dhe ai eshte Dan Etete.
02:11
Well, he was the former oil minister of Nigeria
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E pra, ai ishte ish-ministri i naftes i Nigerise
02:14
under President Abacha,
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nen Presidenin Abacha,
02:16
and it just so happens he's a convicted money launderer too.
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dhe ndodhi pikerisht keshtu ai eshte nje i denuar per pastrim parash gjithashtu.
02:20
We've spent a great deal of time
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Ne kemi shpenzuar nje pjese te madhe te kohes
02:22
investigating a $1 billion --
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duke investiguar rreth 1 miliarde dollar
02:24
that's right, a $1 billion —
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e degjuat mire, 1 miliarde dollar--
02:26
oil deal that he was involved with,
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per nje marrveshje nafte ne te cilen ai ishte perfshire,
02:29
and what we found was pretty shocking,
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dhe ajo qe ne zbuluam ishte me te vertete shokuese,
02:31
but more about that later.
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por per kete do flasim me vone.
02:33
So it's easy to think that corruption happens
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Keshtu qe eshte e lehte te mendosh qe korrupsioni ndodh
02:37
somewhere over there,
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diku atje pertej,
02:39
carried out by a bunch of greedy despots
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e kryer nje nje tufe despotesh te babezitur
02:41
and individuals up to no good in countries
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dhe individesh qe nuk i sjellin asnje te mire ne vende
02:43
that we, personally, may know very little about
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qe ne, personalisht, mund te dime shume pak rreth tij
02:46
and feel really unconnected to
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dhe qe ndjehemi vertete te palidhur me te
02:48
and unaffected by what might be going on.
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dhe te paprekur me ate qe ndodh atje.
02:51
But does it just happen over there?
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Por thjesht a ndodh vetem atje?
02:55
Well, at 22, I was very lucky.
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Mire, kur isha 22, isha me te verte me fat.
02:58
My first job out of university
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Puna ime e pare pas universitetit
03:01
was investigating the illegal trade in African ivory.
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ishte te hetoja tregtine e paligjshme te fildishit Afrikan.
03:05
And that's how my relationship with corruption really began.
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Dhe keshtu eshte se si marredhenia ime me korrupsionin me te vertete filloi.
03:09
In 1993, with two friends who were colleagues,
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Ne 1993, me dy miq te cilet ishin koleg,
03:12
Simon Taylor and Patrick Alley,
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Simon Taylor dhe Patrick Alley,
03:15
we set up an organization called Global Witness.
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ne kemi ngritur nje organizate te quajtur Global Witness.
03:18
Our first campaign was investigating the role
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Fushata jone e pare ishte te hetonim rolin
03:21
of illegal logging in funding the war in Cambodia.
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e prerjeve te paligjshme ne financimin e luftes ne Kamboxhia.
03:25
So a few years later, and it's now 1997,
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Keshtu qe disa vjet me vone, dhe tani eshte 1997,
03:28
and I'm in Angola undercover investigating blood diamonds.
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jam ne Angola nen nje hetim te fshehte duke hetuar diamantet e pergjakura.
03:33
Perhaps you saw the film,
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Ndoshta ju keni pare filmin,
03:35
the Hollywood film "Blood Diamond,"
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filmin e Hollywood-it "Blood Diamond,"
03:36
the one with Leonardo DiCaprio.
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ai me Leonardo DiCaprio.
03:38
Well, some of that sprang from our work.
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Pra, dicka nga ajo doli prej punes sone.
03:42
Luanda, it was full of land mine victims
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Luanda, ishte plot nga viktimat e minave tokesore
03:44
who were struggling to survive on the streets
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te cilet ishin duke u munduar te mbijetonin rrugeve
03:47
and war orphans living in sewers under the streets,
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dhe jetimet e luftes te cilet jetonin ne kanalizimet nen rruge,
03:50
and a tiny, very wealthy elite
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dhe nje elite e vogel, e shume e pasur
03:52
who gossiped about shopping trips to Brazil and Portugal.
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e cila "bente thashetheme" rreth udhetimeve tregtare ne Brazil dhe Portugali.
03:55
And it was a slightly crazy place.
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Dhe ishte nje vend pak i cudicem.
03:58
So I'm sitting in a hot and very stuffy hotel room
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Keshtu qe jam ulur ne nje dhome te nxehte hoteli dhe po me zihej fryma
04:01
feeling just totally overwhelmed.
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ndjehesha thjesht plotesisht e tronditur.
04:04
But it wasn't about blood diamonds.
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Por nuk ishte per diamantet e pergjakura.
04:07
Because I'd been speaking to lots of people there
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Sepse kam folur me shume njerez atje
04:10
who, well, they talked about a different problem:
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te cilet, pra, ata diskutonin per nje problem tjeter:
04:12
that of a massive web of corruption on a global scale
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te nje rrjete masive korrupsioni ne shkalle globale
04:15
and millions of oil dollars going missing.
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dhe te milionave dollare nafte qe mungonin.
04:19
And for what was then a very small organization
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Dhe per ate qe njehere ishe nje organizate shume e vogel
04:21
of just a few people,
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e pak njerezeve,
04:23
trying to even begin to think how we might tackle that
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duke u perpjekur te fillonim te mendonim sesi mund ta trajtonim ate
04:26
was an enormous challenge.
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ishte nje sfide e madhe.
04:29
And in the years that I've been,
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Dhe ne vitet qe kam qene,
04:30
and we've all been campaigning and investigating,
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dhe qe te gjithe kemi qene duke bere fushate dhe hetime,
04:33
I've repeatedly seen that what makes corruption
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une ne menyre perseritese kam pare cka e ben korrupsionin
04:35
on a global, massive scale possible,
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ne nje shkalle boterore me masive te mundeshme,
04:37
well it isn't just greed or the misuse of power
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edhe ajo nuk eshte vetem lakmia apo keqperdorimi i pushtetit
04:40
or that nebulous phrase "weak governance."
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apo shprehja e mjegullt "qeverisje e dobet".
04:43
I mean, yes, it's all of those,
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Dua te them, po, eshte secila prej tyre,
04:45
but corruption, it's made possible by the actions
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por korrupsioni, eshte bere i mundur nga veprimet
04:48
of global facilitators.
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e ndihmuesve boteror.
04:51
So let's go back to some of those people I talked about earlier.
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Le te kthehemi tek disa nga ata njerez qe folem me pare.
04:55
Now, they're all people we've investigated,
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Tani, ata jane te gjithe njerez qe ne kemi hetuar,
04:56
and they're all people who couldn't do what they do alone.
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dhe ata jane njerez te cilet smund te benin ate qe ben te vetem.
04:59
Take Obiang junior. Well, he didn't end up
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Le te marrim Obiang junior. Pra, ai nuk perfundoi
05:01
with high-end art and luxury houses without help.
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me nje koleksion te cmueshem arti dhe nje shtepi luksoze pa ndihme.
05:05
He did business with global banks.
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Ai beri bisnes me banka boterore.
05:07
A bank in Paris held accounts of companies controlled by him,
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Nje banke ne Paris mbante llogarite e kompanive te kontrolluara prej tij,
05:11
one of which was used to buy the art,
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nje prej te cilave perdorej per te blere art,
05:14
and American banks, well, they funneled
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dhe bankat Amerikane, pra, ato kanalizuan
05:16
73 million dollars into the States,
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73 milion dollar per ne Sh.B.A
05:19
some of which was used to buy that California mansion.
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dhe nje pjese u perdor per te blere ate rezidencen ne Kaliforni.
05:23
And he didn't do all of this in his own name either.
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Dhe ai nuk i ka bere te gjitha keto ne emrin e tij.
05:26
He used shell companies.
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Ai perdorte komanite anonime joaktive "guacke".
05:28
He used one to buy the property, and another,
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Ai perdorte nje per te blere prona, dhe nje tjeter,
05:30
which was in somebody else's name,
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e cila ishte ne emrin e dikujt tjeter,
05:32
to pay the huge bills it cost to run the place.
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per te paguar faturat e medha qe nevojiteshin per te drejtuar skemen (vendin).
05:36
And then there's Dan Etete.
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Dhe ja ku eshte Dan Etete.
05:39
Well, when he was oil minister,
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Pra, kur ai ishte minister i naftes,
05:41
he awarded an oil block now worth over a billion dollars
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vendosi nje embargo te naftes(bllokoi naften) qe tani ka vleren mbi nje miliard dollar
05:46
to a company that, guess what, yeah,
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tek nje kompani qe, gjejeni cfare, yeah (po)
05:49
he was the hidden owner of.
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ai ishte pronari i fshehte i saj.
05:51
Now, it was then much later traded on
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Pra, ishte e tregtueshme per me vone
05:54
with the kind assistance of the Nigerian government --
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fale ndihmes se vecante te qeverise Nigeriane
05:57
now I have to be careful what I say here —
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tani duhet te tregohem e kujdeshme cka them tani-
05:59
to subsidiaries of Shell and the Italian Eni,
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tek deget e Shell dhe te Eni-it italian,
06:03
two of the biggest oil companies around.
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dy nga kompanite me te medha te naftes ne qarkullim.
06:06
So the reality is, is that the engine of corruption,
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Keshtu qe realiteti, eshte qe zemra e korrupsionit,
06:08
well, it exists far beyond the shores of countries
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pra, ekziston pertej brigjeve te shteteve
06:11
like Equatorial Guinea or Nigeria or Turkmenistan.
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si Guinea Ekuadoriale apo Nigeria a Turkmenistani.
06:14
This engine, well, it's driven
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Ky motorr, pra, shtyhet
06:16
by our international banking system,
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nga sistemi yne nderkombetar bankar,
06:19
by the problem of anonymous shell companies,
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nga problemi i kompanive joaktive "guacke",
06:21
and by the secrecy that we have afforded
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dhe nga fshehtesia qe ne kemi perballuar
06:24
big oil, gas and mining operations,
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kundrejt opercaioneve te medha te naftes, gazit dhe minierave
06:27
and, most of all, by the failure of our politicians
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dhe, mbi te gjitha, nga deshtimi i politikaneve tane
06:30
to back up their rhetoric and do something
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per te lene menjane retoriken dhe per te bere dicka
06:32
really meaningful and systemic to tackle this stuff.
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me te vertete kuptimplote dhe sistematike per te trajtuar kete fenomen.
06:37
Now let's take the banks first.
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Tani le te marrim bankat si fillim.
06:39
Well, it's not going to come as any surprise
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Mire, nuk ka per t'iu ardhur si surprize
06:42
for me to tell you that banks accept dirty money,
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prej meje kur tju tregoj qe bankat pranojne para te piste,
06:46
but they prioritize their profits in other destructive ways too.
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por ata i japin prioritet perfitimit te tyre ne forma te cilat jane shkaterruese gjithashtu.
06:51
For example, in Sarawak, Malaysia.
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Per shembull, ne Sarawak, Malajzi.
06:54
Now this region, it has just five percent
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Tani kjo zone, ka vetem 5 %
06:57
of its forests left intact. Five percent.
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te pyjeve te saj te paprekura. Pese perqind.
07:03
So how did that happen?
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Si ndodhi gjithe kjo?
07:04
Well, because an elite and its facilitators
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Mire, sepse nje elite dhe ndihmesit e tyre
07:07
have been making millions of dollars
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kane bere miliona dollar
07:09
from supporting logging on an industrial scale
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duke mbeshtetur prerjen e pyjeve ne nje shkalle industriale
07:13
for many years.
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per shume vjet.
07:15
So we sent an undercover investigator in
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Keshtu qe ne derguam nje hetues te fshehte atje
07:18
to secretly film meetings with members of the ruling elite,
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qe fshehtesisht te filmonte mbledhjet e anetareve te elites sunduese
07:21
and the resulting footage, well, it made some people very angry,
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dhe ajo qe rezultoj nga filmimi, beri disa persona me te vertete te inatosur,
07:24
and you can see that on YouTube,
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dhe ju mund ta shihni ate ne YouTube,
07:27
but it proved what we had long suspected,
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por ajo provoi ate cka ne kishim kohe qe dyshonim,
07:28
because it showed how the state's chief minister,
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sepse shfaqte se si kryeministri i vendit,
07:32
despite his later denials,
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pavarsisht mohimeve te mevonshme,
07:34
used his control over land and forest licenses
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perdorte kontrollin mbi licensat per tokat dhe pyjet
07:38
to enrich himself and his family.
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per te pasuruar veten dhe familjen e tij.
07:41
And HSBC, well, we know that HSBC bankrolled
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Dhe HSBC, ne dime se HSBC financonte
07:45
the region's largest logging companies
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kompanite me te medhaja te prerjeve te pyjeve
07:47
that were responsible for some of that destruction
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te cilat ishin pergjegjese per disa nga ato shkaterrimet
07:49
in Sarawak and elsewhere.
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ne Sarawak dhe gjithkund.
07:52
The bank violated its own sustainability policies in the process,
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Banka shkeli politikat e saj te qendrueshme ne kete proces
07:56
but it earned around 130 million dollars.
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por perfitoi rreth 130 milion dollar.
08:00
Now shortly after our exposé,
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Tani menjehere pas ekspozese sone,
08:02
very shortly after our exposé earlier this year,
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shume shpejt pas ekspozese sone te ketij viti
08:05
the bank announced a policy review on this.
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banka shpalli nje rishikim te politikes se saj bazuar ne te.
08:08
And is this progress? Maybe,
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Dhe ky eshte progres? Ndoshta,
08:10
but we're going to be keeping a very close eye
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por ne do te vazhdojme te vezhgojme
08:13
on that case.
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ne kete ceshtje.
08:15
And then there's the problem of anonymous shell companies.
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Dhe pastaj eshte problemi i kompanive anonime joaktive.
08:18
Well, we've all heard about what they are, I think,
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Pra, ne te gjithe kuptuam se cfare jane ato, une mendoj,
08:21
and we all know they're used quite a bit
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dhe ne e dime qe ato shpesh perdoren
08:24
by people and companies who are trying to avoid
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nga njerez dhe kompani qe perpiqen te shmangin
08:26
paying their proper dues to society,
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te paguajne detyrimet e tyre ne shoqeri,
08:29
also known as taxes.
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te njohura edhe si taksa.
08:31
But what doesn't usually come to light
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Por ajo cka jo zakonisht nuk del ne drite
08:34
is how shell companies are used to steal
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eshte se si kompanite joaktive perdoren per te vjedhur
08:39
huge sums of money, transformational sums of money,
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shuma te medha parash, shuma paraje te transformueshme,
08:42
from poor countries.
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nga vendet e varfera.
08:44
In virtually every case of corruption that we've investigated,
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Ne pothuajse cdo rast korrupsioni qe ne kemi hetuar,
08:48
shell companies have appeared,
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jane shfaqur kompanite anonime,
08:50
and sometimes it's been impossible to find out
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dhe disa here ka qene e pamundur te zbulonim
08:52
who is really involved in the deal.
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se cilet ishte te pershire ne marrveshje.
08:56
A recent study by the World Bank
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Nje studim i fundit i Bankes Boterore
08:58
looked at 200 cases of corruption.
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shqyrtoj rreth 200 raste korrupsioni.
09:01
It found that over 70 percent of those cases
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Zbuloj qe mbi 70% e atyre rasteve
09:04
had used anonymous shell companies,
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kishte perdorur kompanite anonime "guacke",
09:07
totaling almost 56 billion dollars.
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qe arrin pothuajse ne 56 Bilion Dollar.
09:11
Now many of these companies were in America
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Tani, shume prej atyre kompanimve gjendeshin ne Amerike
09:13
or the United Kingdom,
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ose ne Mbreterine e Bashkuar,
09:14
its overseas territories and Crown dependencies,
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territoret e saj jashte vendit dhe ne varesine e kurores,
09:17
and so it's not just an offshore problem,
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keshtu nuk eshte vetem nje problem pertej bregut,
09:19
it's an on-shore one too.
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eshte nje problem brenda-bregut gjithashtu.
09:21
You see, shell companies, they're central
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E kuptoni, kompanite "guacke", ato jane celsi
09:23
to the secret deals which may benefit wealthy elites
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i marrveshjeve sekrete nga te cilat perfitojne eltat e pasura
09:26
rather than ordinary citizens.
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ne vend te qytetareve te zakonshem.
09:29
One striking recent case that we've investigated
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Nje rast i habitshem i koheve te fundit ne te cilin kemi hetuar
09:33
is how the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo
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ishte sesi qeveria Demokratike e Republikes se Kongos
09:36
sold off a series of valuable, state-owned mining assets
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shiti nje seri te vlefshme asetesh shteterore minerare
09:40
to shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.
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nje kompanije "guacke" ne ishujt Britanik Virgin.
09:43
So we spoke to sources in country,
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Keshtu qe ne folem me burime te vendit,
09:46
trawled through company documents and other information
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zhbiruam dokumentet e kompanise dhe cdo informacion tjeter
09:49
trying to piece together a really true picture of the deal.
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duke u perpjekur per te vendosur pjeset se bashku per te patur nje tablo te qarte te marrveshjes.
09:53
And we were alarmed to find that these shell companies
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Dhe ne ishim te alarmuar kur zbuluam qe keto kompani "guacke"
09:56
had quickly flipped many of the assets on
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menjehere kishin dhene shume nga keto asete kundrejt
09:58
for huge profits to major international mining companies
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perfitimeve te medhaja tek nje kompani nderkombetare minerare
10:02
listed in London.
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regjistruar ne Londer.
10:05
Now, the Africa Progress Panel, led by Kofi Annan,
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Tani, Paneli i Progresit Afrikan, udhehequr nga Kofi Annan,
10:08
they've calculated that Congo may have lost
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ka perllogaritur qe Kongo mund te kete humbur
10:11
more than 1.3 billion dollars from these deals.
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mbi 1.3 Bilion dollar nga keto marreveshje.
10:16
That's almost twice
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Eshte perafersisht sa dyfishi
10:18
the country's annual health and education budget combined.
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i buxhetit vjetor te vendit nese kombiniojme shendetesine dhe arsimin.
10:24
And will the people of Congo, will they ever get their money back?
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Dhe a do te munden njerzit e Kongos, do te munden te marrin mbrapsht parate e tyre?
10:26
Well, the answer to that question,
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Pra, pergjigja e kesaj pyetje,
10:28
and who was really involved and what really happened,
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dhe kush ishte me te vertete i perfshire dhe cfare ndodhi me te vertete,
10:30
well that's going to probably remain locked away
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do te mbesin me shume mundesi te mbyllura larg
10:33
in the secretive company registries of the British Virgin Islands
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ne rregjistrat e fshehte te kombanise ne ishujt Britanik Virxhin
10:36
and elsewhere unless we all do something about it.
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dhe gjithkund nese ne nuk bejme dicka rreth saj.
10:41
And how about the oil, gas and mining companies?
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Po rreth kompanive te naftes, gazit dhe minierave?
10:43
Okay, maybe it's a bit of a cliché to talk about them.
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Ne rregull, mbase eshte paska klishe te flasesh rreth tyre.
10:46
Corruption in that sector, no surprise.
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Korrupsion ne ate sektor, mos u habisni.
10:48
There's corruption everywhere, so why focus on that sector?
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Ka korrupsion kudo, keshtu qe pse te fokusohemi ne ate sektor?
10:53
Well, because there's a lot at stake.
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Mire, sepse eshte shume e rrezikshme.
10:55
In 2011, natural resource exports
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Ne 2011, eksportet e burimeve natyrore
10:59
outweighed aid flows by almost 19 to one
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mbizoteruan ardhjen e ndihmave me pothuajse 19 me nje
11:03
in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Nineteen to one.
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ne Afrike, Azi dhe Ameriken Latine. Nentembedhjete me nje.
11:07
Now that's a hell of a lot of schools and universities
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Tashme ka nje sere shkollash dhe universitetesh
11:11
and hospitals and business startups,
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1977
dhe spitalesh dhe bisnesesh qe duan te fillojne,
11:13
many of which haven't materialized and never will
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shume prej te cileve nuk e kane kuptuar dhe kurre nuk do ta kuptojne
11:15
because some of that money has simply been stolen away.
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sepse nje pjese e atyre parave thjesht eshte vjedhur.
11:19
Now let's go back to the oil and mining companies,
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Tani le te kthehemi tek kompanite e naftes dhe minierave,
11:22
and let's go back to Dan Etete and that $1 billion deal.
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dhe ti rikthehemi perseri Dan Etete dhe marrveshjes 1 Miliard Dollarshe.
11:25
And now forgive me, I'm going to read the next bit
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Dhe tani ju kerkoj ndjese, do tju lexoj pasazhin e ardhshem
11:28
because it's a very live issue, and our lawyers
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sepse eshte nje ceshtje shume e gjalle, dhe avokatet tane
11:30
have been through this in some detail
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e kane kaluar ne disa detaje
11:32
and they want me to get it right.
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dhe ata duan qe une t'jua them drejt.
11:36
Now, on the surface, the deal appeared straightforward.
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Tani, ne siperfaqe, marrveshja paraqitet si me poshte.
11:40
Subsidiaries of Shell and Eni
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2100
Filialet e Shell dhe Eni
11:42
paid the Nigerian government for the block.
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paguan qeverine Nigeriane per bllokaden.
11:45
The Nigerian government transferred
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Qeveria Nigeriane transferoi
11:47
precisely the same amount, to the very dollar,
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saktesisht te njejten shume, deri ne qindarken e fundit,
11:50
to an account earmarked for a shell company
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tek nje llogari rezervuar per nje komani "guacke"
11:55
whose hidden owner was Etete.
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ku pronari i fshehte ishe Etete.
11:57
Now, that's not bad going for a convicted money launderer.
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Tani, nuk eshte aspak keq per nje te denuar per pastrim parash.
12:00
And here's the thing.
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Dhe ja si qendron ceshtja.
12:02
After many months of digging around
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Pas shume muajsh duke gjurmuar verdalle
12:03
and reading through hundreds of pages of court documents,
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dhe duke lexuar me qindra faqe te vendimeve gjyqesore,
12:07
we found evidence that, in fact,
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ne gjetem prova qe, ne fakt,
12:09
Shell and Eni had known that the funds
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Shell dhe Eni kishin dijeni qe fondet
12:12
would be transferred to that shell company,
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do te transferoheshin tek ajo kompani "guacke",
12:15
and frankly, it's hard to believe they didn't know
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dhe sinqerisht, eshte e veshtire te besosh qe nuk e dinin
12:19
who they were really dealing with there.
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se me ke po benin marrveshje atje.
12:22
Now, it just shouldn't take these sorts of efforts
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Tani, sduket te kishim ndermarr gjithe keto lloj perpjekjesh
12:26
to find out where the money in deals like this went.
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per te gjetur ku shkuan parate e nje marrveshje te tille.
12:28
I mean, these are state assets.
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Dua te them, keto jane asete shteterore.
12:30
They're supposed to be used for the benefit
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Ato supozohet te perdoren per te miren
12:31
of the people in the country.
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e njerzeve te ketij vendi.
12:33
But in some countries, citizens and journalists
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Por ne disa vende, qytetaret dhe gazetaret
12:36
who are trying to expose stories like this
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1955
te cilet perpiqen te tregojne histori te tilla
12:38
have been harassed and arrested
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kane qene kercenuar dhe arrestuar
12:40
and some have even risked their lives to do so.
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dhe disa madje kane rrezikuar jeten e tyre duke bere dicka te tille.
12:44
And finally, well, there are those who believe
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Ne perfundim, mire, jane ata te cilet besojne
12:48
that corruption is unavoidable.
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qe korrupsioni eshte i pashmangshem.
12:50
It's just how some business is done.
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Eshte thjesht sesi disa bisnese jane krijuar.
12:52
It's too complex and difficult to change.
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Eshte teper e komplikuar dhe e veshtire per tu ndryshuar.
12:55
So in effect, what? We just accept it.
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Keshtu qe ne te vertete, cfare? Ne e pranojme ate.
12:58
But as a campaigner and investigator,
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Por si nje aktiviste dhe hetuese,
13:00
I have a different view,
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kam nje kendveshtrim tjeter,
13:01
because I've seen what can happen
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sepse kam pare cfare mund te ndodhe
13:03
when an idea gains momentum.
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kur nje ide fiton vrull.
13:06
In the oil and mining sector, for example,
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Ne sektorin e naftes dhe minierave, per shembull,
13:09
there is now the beginning
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tashme eshte fillimi
13:10
of a truly worldwide transparency standard
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i nje standarti te vertete nderkombetar transparence
13:13
that could tackle some of these problems.
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qe mund te zgjidhi disa nga to probleme.
13:16
In 1999, when Global Witness called
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Ne 1999, kur Global Witness ftoi
13:19
for oil companies to make payments on deals transparent,
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kompanite e naftes te benin publike pagesat mbi marrveshjet,
13:22
well, some people laughed at the extreme naiveté
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mire, shume njerez qeshen nga naiviteti ekstrem
13:26
of that small idea.
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i kesaj ideje te vogel.
13:28
But literally hundreds of civil society groups
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Por me qindra grupe te shoqerise civile
13:31
from around the world came together
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nga e gjithe bota u bashkuan
13:33
to fight for transparency,
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per te luftuar per transparence,
13:35
and now it's fast becoming the norm and the law.
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dhe me shpejtesi po shnderrohet ne norme dhe ligj.
13:39
Two thirds of the value
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Dy te tretat e gjithe
13:41
of the world's oil and mining companies
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2320
kompanive boterore te naftes dhe minierave
13:43
are now covered by transparency laws. Two thirds.
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jane tani te mbuluara nga ligjet e transparences. Dy te tretat.
13:47
So this is change happening.
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Ky eshte ndryshimi qe po ndodh.
13:48
This is progress.
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Ky eshte nje progres.
13:50
But we're not there yet, by far.
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Por ne akoma nuk ja kemi dale.
13:53
Because it really isn't about corruption
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Sepse nuk eshte ne te vertete rreth korrupsionit
13:56
somewhere over there, is it?
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diku atje tej, apo jo?
13:58
In a globalized world, corruption
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Ne nje bote te globalizuar, korrupsioni
14:00
is a truly globalized business,
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eshte ne te vertete nje bisnes boteror,
14:02
and one that needs global solutions,
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dhe si i tille ka nevoje per zgjidhje boterore,
14:04
supported and pushed by us all, as global citizens,
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mbeshtetur dhe nxitur nga te gjithe ne, si qytetar te botes,
14:08
right here.
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pikerisht ketu.
14:10
Thank you.
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Ju Faleminderit.
14:11
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Charmian Gooch - Anti-corruption activistCharmian Gooch is the 2014 TED Prize winner. At Global Witness, she exposes how a global architecture of corruption is woven into the extraction and exploitation of natural resources.
Why you should listen
Charmian Gooch co-founded the watchdog NGO Global Witness with colleagues Simon Taylor and Patrick Alley, in response to growing concerns over covert warfare funded by illicit trade in 1993. Since then, Global Witness has captured headlines for their exposé of "blood diamonds" in Uganda, of mineral exploitation in the Congo, of illegal timber trade between Cambodia and Thailand, and more. With unique expertise on the shadowy threads connecting corrupt businesses and governments, Global Witness continues its quest to uncover and root out the sources of exploitation.
In 2014, Gooch and Global Witness were awarded the $1 million TED Prize, along with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, for their campaign to end anonymous companies. Gooch's TED Prize wish: for us to know who ultimately owns and controls companies and launch a new era of openness in business. Global Witness highlighted the importance of this issue in an investigation, aired on 60 Minutes, where they sent an undercover investigator into 13 New York law firms. The investigator posed as an adviser to a government minister in Africa and asked for thoughts on how to move money into the United States for a plane, a yacht and a brownstone. All but one firm offered advice.
The Panama Papers, released in April of 2016, further demonstrate the need for transparency. The papers paint a picture of how the rich and powerful around the world use offshore accounts and anonymous companies to move money. "This secretive world is being opened up to global public scrutiny," said Gooch, on the day the papers were released.
Charmian Gooch | Speaker | TED.com