WHAT'S WRONG WITH CORRUPTION, AFTER ALL? Dealing with the local officials is a lot like dealing with beggars on the street; or, at times, like dealing with tipping, in a restaurant: everybody struggles with what to do, and arrives at their own solution. I don't take umbrage, and I hope I don't give offense, when these subjects come up. But, I've made it my little crusade to awaken people's awareness to the "consumer" side of corruption, a perspective few seem to have. I don't consider it my battle to stop corruption, just to resist it when it gets turned in my direction. It hasn't been fun, but it has been instructive, and I've made officials feel a lot more uncomfortable than they've made me feel, most of the time! Kazakhstan was the training ground, where you frequently got stopped by police when walking on the streets. I would make them walk me to their station to clear up any questions they had. It was not something people normally did in response to the police on a beat demanding to see your identification, and then pretending they weren't satisfied with it. More than once I saw a look on their supervisor's face that said, "You idiot, why you bring him in here?", when we got to the station. But, having forced their hand, they didn't know what to do except "take me in." The response they were looking for was "cash". When driving, it was hard to get across town without being stopped, asked for your papers, and being accused of drinking and driving. On a truly bad day, I was stopped three different times, before I got to my destination. Each time, I just waited them out, or forced their hand by demanding to be taken to the police station, if they were persistent. Their irritation at the waste of time in what was clearly going nowhere was often evident. We never knew what to expect at the airport, either, going through customs and passport control, on our trips out of the country. What would they ask for, what would they require, what would they threaten we never knew, ahead of time, and it varied, so you could never feel fully prepared. The implied threat was that, by being delayed, you would miss your flight, if you didn't pay. But we never paid, and we never missed a flight; we did suffer pains of anxiety wondering how long we would have to hold out. When compared to this, Mexico is a blessed relief. People from places where this type of practice has been gradually minimized- it is never completely eliminated, anywhere, it just becomes more rare- arrive in Mexico and suddenly find themselves behaving in ways they never would back home. Convenience, they say, or just observing local custom, or fear motivates them. But, whatever the rationale, they mainly do it because they know they can get away with breaking the laws of Mexico in this way; how, because they've got the official on their side in the deal! ____________________ For me, this is not a moral question, though there may be moral issues involved. I simply look at it as an issue of good governance. People will say the government of Mexico is bad, and that it's bad mainly as a result of corruption, but then practice corruption, themselves. One of the most serious ways in which corruption damages a country is that it undermines the effectiveness of the government. Laws and programs designed to make the lives of Mexican citizens better are put in place, often after a long period of thinking through possible solutions to problems, and a long and hard struggle to get those laws and programs approved, only to find they can't get them properly implemented because of corrupt acts- acts of the officials who are supposed to carry out these programs, and enforce these laws; and, corrupt acts by the people the officials come in contact with; that is, the public. Take, for example, my story of being stopped and accused of drunk driving. The officer had reason to believe I'd been drinking. He smelled alcohol on my breath, and I admitted to having been drinking. It was his duty to enforce the traffic law, and take me in. Instead, for his own purposes, he was prepared to subvert the law and allow a possibly intoxicated person to drive away, provided he was paid. Had I paid him, we would have become partners in the deal. You may complain of bad driving, even drunk driving, in Mexico. Do you think corruption plays any role in the failure to enforce the traffic laws? Do you think you are any safer because others practice corruption in their dealings with the police? Probably not. ___________________ Most of the really big acts of corruption occur "between consenting adults." This is especially true in the business world, but the motives are similar, to buy convenience, avoid having to comply with some regulatory scheme, or to be sure that a government decision will be favorable to them, or their company. All forms of corruption involve seeking an advantage that the law forbids. Society pays a price for this kind of behavior. That's why it's against the law. I don't even need to look at the Codex of Mexico to know there's a law on the books prohibiting payment, in any form, directly or indirectly, to any official, for any act, for any reason. Whether to comply with any law, or follow any process required by law, is a decision each individual makes repeatedly, on a routine basis, no matter where they choose to live: everybody struggles with what to do in response, and arrives at their own solution.
THE MEXICAN 'BITE' MAY BE ON WAY OUT; Congressional Body Says Time- Honored Grafting by Civil Servants Must Cease By VIRGINIA LEE WARREN Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. October 6, 1946, Sunday Page 47, 568 words MEXICO CITY, Oct. 5--The Congressional committee appointed to fight the high cost of living in Mexico has made just about as much progress as such committees everywhere else these days. But through yesterday it had got around to deciding that the historic "mordida" should go. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ] I see they got right on to that, didn't they? :roll:
1946 was a very good year actually! 62 years ago going on 63 for some of us! Look at how many years it has taken to get from Tea Pot Dome to today in the States! And we still hear several times a year about Congressmen skimming. It certainly won't happen quickly in Mexico or any other country where it is an endemic part of the system. Low pay for people with guns and badges lead to mordidas and/or kickbacks from narcos and the smart ones don't even mess with $200 peso or even dollar mordidas anymore. Not when they can get $5000 a week from narcos.
IN Mexico City, they have a phone number advertised everywhere that you can call if a police officer insists on a bribe. I guess as soon as you start dialing the number the policemen does a runner. If they don't, the corruption squad show up. Maybe they need to do something similar in Cancun, and pass out a pamphlet at the airport with the number on it and an explanation. I bet that would clean things up pretty quickly.
