Message-ID: <330DC495.71FE@uniontel.net> Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 07:51:49 -0800 From: David Johnson <mailto:pinefarm@UNIONTEL.NET> Subject: Re: The Mexican experiences and the ways to get out of touch To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
mailto:e.wenzel@ens.gu.edu.au wrote: >
> I followed the discussion on bribe and graft - and I believe there's
> a few points to comment on:
>
> 1. Corruption is a universal phenomenon. It's all over the world
> though it's performed differently.
>
> 2. Bribing officials in so-called "developing countries" is
> different from bribing officials in so-called "developed countries".
> In the latter, you may run into difficulties because the Protestant
> work ethic still prevails. There's good news: the prevalence is going
> down rather rapidly.
>
> 3. Bribing officials and anyone else in so-called "developing"
> countries has to be seen differently according to nature of
> citizenship. Local poor people usually pay much less than local rich
> people and they pay less than foreigners. But that's o.k. with me
> because it's just a contribution to the redistribution of wealth.
> Whether you want to bribe or hesitate to bribe or resist to bribe
> doesn't matter: you are totally irrelevant as a person. You may feel
> guilty but none of the local people cares.
>
> 4. Open corruption as practised in may so-called "developing
> countries" is the result of colonial practice. Then, the colonial
> power players did everything if they were bribed accordingly. Why
> should people change their habits of decades just because there is
> tourism and "Gringos" travel through the country without any
> knowledge about history, tradition, or habits? Hey, the World Bank or
> the IMF strips them from their meager savings - they only fight back
> on a pretty small scale compared to the IMF.
>
> 5. And finally, if you can't stand the heat, don't enter the
> kitchen! Just because we have developed the systems on the northern
> hemisphere as we have done, doesn't make us more clever or smarter or
> people to be respected to a larger extent.
>
> In the end, i.e. at the post-office or a governmental department, we
> are treated as bloody individuals. You may not like it, I don't like
> it, but that's the way it is. People from the northern hemisphere
> have to pay for the sins and slaughters their forefathers had
> committed.
>
> There'll always be a day when you're asked to pay back.
>
> Eberhard Wenzel MA PhD
> Griffith University
> Faculty of Environmental Sciences
> Nathan, Qld. 4111
> Australia
> Tel.: 61-7-3875 7103
> Fax: 61-7-3875 7459
> e-mail: mailto:e.wenzel@ens.gu.edu.au
I don't see how you can equate bribing officials to paying taxes. If I bribe a cop and he lets me off, the money, which is always much less thatn a fine would be, goes right into his pocket. Now, he may be a really deserving type but, this money doesn't benefit the country in any direct way. Its just a payoff to avoid worse consequences. If, on the other hand, he writes me a ticket and I have to post bond or appear in court, quite a bit of traceable money goes into the system. Personally, if I'm only going to travel as a tourist as I did in Mexico, the corrupt system suits me just fine. I would much rather bribe a cop with 4 or 5 dollars and be on my way than to have to post bond or appear. I really don't understand why it is so hard to simply say that corruption is bad wherever you find it. You make it sound as if paying off crooked officials is some sort of a duty which we owe them due to the sins of our forefathers. The crooks then come off as noble types simply extracting their due from us. This is an insult to the honest people in these countries and a hell of a way to run anything. Dave Johnson