The purge has extended to offices that were once out of the reach of ordinary anti-corruption campaigns, reportedly encompassing Jiang Jiemin, formerly the chairman of both the state energy giant PetroChina and its parent, China National Petroleum Corporation, and Li Dongsheng, a propagandist turned vice-minister of public security.
From the time Kevin Spacey appeared in "American Beauty" — and won the 1999 Academy Award for best actor — he has mostly specialized in delicate studies of moral ambivalence, of ordinary men tainted by everyday corruption and disillusion.
The breaches of trust — on the part of a former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, toward vulnerable children, and on the part of Penn State administrators who responded to a credible report of child rape in 2002 merely by barring him from bringing young boys onto campus — reach far beyond the world of ordinary big-time college sports corruption.
In recent years, the sense of urgency in curbing corruption has been intensified by the increasing ability of ordinary citizens to expose corrupt officials through social media.
Across the tropics and the south, Christian worship, especially Pentecostalism, has captured hearts and minds in countries where the precariousness of ordinary living -- blackouts, robbery, disease, corruption -- makes rich and poor alike turn to divine intervention.
During the cold war, the superpowers picked their proxies, overlooking corruption and abuse of ordinary people.
But, if China's leaders don't take on this issue, he added, "then there will be more corruption, more alienation of ordinary people, and more questions about China's stability.
Ringed by security personnel, he said he was disappointed, accused lawmakers of not acting in the best interests of ordinary Kenyans, and vowed to fight corruption even without the authority.
They were then joined by millions of ordinary citizens, many of whom were disgusted by corruption, inflation and the lack of personal freedom.
