From: "The End of Secrecy," by Ann Florini, Foreign Policy, Summer, 1998: http://jya.com/teos.htm (39K) IMF managing director Michel Camdessus has explained, openness and transparency are now economic issues, not solely political ones: As more and more evidence has come to light about the adverse consequences of governance problems on economic performance--among them, losses in government revenue, lower quality public investment and public services, reduced private investment, and the loss of public confidence in government--a broader consensus has emerged on the central importance of transparency and good governance in achieving economic success. Most officials in Asia seem to have accepted the virtues of transparency, at least in the economic field. Singaporean senior minister Lee Kuan Yew, stressing the importance of transparency in a country's financial system, recently told Vietnamese prime minister Phan Van Khai: "In an age of information technology, instant communications and computers, if you try to hide, you are in trouble." [And:] The Entomopter Cometh One of the most unusual MIT designs on the drawing board is a four-inch-long, insect-like craft dubbed "the entomopter," equipped with legs for crawling through buildings or ventilation ducts, and flapping wings for airborne reconnaissance. Nevertheless, no matter how small, efficient, or cost-effective surveillance hardware becomes, there will always be limits to what technology can accomplish. Indeed, it is a double-edged sword--witness the polemics in Washington and on the Web over who, if anyone, should regulate electronic encryption. From untappable communications to pixel-by-pixel photo and video editing, technology is often as good at hiding secrets as it is at revealing them. Without a norm of transparency, technology will continue to protect private information as well as ferret it out. -----