$490 million of the $20 billion Russia allocated for the APEC summit was “improperly spent.” About $506 million has been misspent in Sochi thus far.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-1
What is modernity? Is it skyscrapers, smart phones, wonder drugs, atomic bombs? You're not even close. Modernity, at least in the West, is the journey away from religious virtue toward secular self-interest. Religious virtue is fine for one's family and the world of private morality. But the state -- that defining political structure of modern times -- requires something colder, more chilling. For the state must organize the lives of millions of strangers and protect their need to selfishly acquire material possessions. If everyone stole from everyone else there would be anarchy. So the state monopolizes the use of force, taking it away from criminals. The state appeals not to God, but to individual selfishness. Thus, it clears the path for progress.
By Robert D. Kaplan
Chief Geopolitical Analyst
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