The Gray Art of Bribery?

[Lung Per]

Lung Per,
On the subject of PO boxes - not corruption - I recently renewed mine and the PO were having a "clean up" of all names and who was actually using them.
The lady told me that a lot of people had moved on and not returned keys so the boxes were effectively redundant. Quite a few had been sold on privately to other users so they were checking original records as well.
Whenever I go up there, there are always some boxes that are open - maybe someone didn't lock them up properly - but it suggests that there may be some available. I would think that's even more the case as they go through the records. Keep on at them.
BTW, the fee has increased from 160THB a year to a whopping 500THB. Still a good deal. The deposit on the key is 300THB I think.

Thanks for your input, Lomuamart. I don't know if this was because my wife went to temple yesterday and mentioned me and the post office in her prayers or whether it was the frickled finger of fate or just a coincidence, but I had a call from the post office this morning. I am now the happy "owner" of a P.O. Box. I was not given an opportunity to express my gratitude other than verbally but it seemed as none other was expected. Service with a smile.

[thaiorchid]

Pete.
I am sorry about your friends, but my feeling is this has got nothing to do with money for buying a promotion, more likely money to pay back the moneylender or playingdebts. I checked with a local policeofficer, he just laughed and told me that on the Lieutenant-level, ofcourse it helps to well connected, but noway anyone would ever pay 200.000 for such a lowgrade promotion. So I am afraid your socalled "friends" tried to take advantace of your friendship, as we all are aware of, around here friendliness is considered a weakness.
stgrhe.
You have to raise madams allowance, so she can regain some of the face she lost by marrying a farang. Do not be cheap, buy her the promotion she so well deserves.
SJ.
I thought you were smarter. And I am not talking about DUI. You have been here for a long time, know the system very well, so you should be well aware of, that fines that amount to 5k-10k, can not be decided by the local police, but only by the courts.
Mr. "BIGFACE" Thai stopped the way you were, would have paid 500-1000
and gone with a chokdee.
Mr. "smallface" in his 20 year old pickup, would have emptied his pockets
and the police would have ended up with 89 baht for their pensionfund.
Mr. "Supersucker" pays 5000 on the spot, to avoid getting locked up and maybe paying 10.000 later.
Behaving like that, we are not part of the problem. WE ARE THE PROBLEM !!
I am sure that on the rollcall in the morning, your registretion number is given out as a bonus.
thaiorchid

[Mork]

Corruption is alive and well in the most highly developed countries as well as in Thailand. The really big difference is that in Thailand everyone from a lowly police constable or PO clerk can participate whereas back "home" you are expected to have a Harvard MBA or at least a securities license to participate. Oh and the numbers involved are so much higher..... we don't even bother to call it corruption unless there are billions involved..
Remember Michael Douglas's line in Wallstreet....."Greed is right, Greed is good...greed works" Thailand same same...

PS...I'm not supporting it....just living with it.....

[hhfarang]

One U.S. Senator is reported to have said (while campaigning for election), on the subject of government spending:

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money!"

[Mork]

Yea.....billions don't really cut it any more....you have to talk in Trillions now...I suspect this is because many people can actually comprehend what a billion is...or maybe relate to it in some way....but a Trillion???
I love the "Cash for Clunkers" program. On top of massive national and consumer debt the US government now gives people $4,500 taxpayers money in exchange for older vehicles (so called gas guzzlers)...which together with manufactures rebates make up a 20% down-payment on new car. They can now "qualify" to finance the balance and so take on even more debt! We seem to have developed a new political "technique" to bamboozle people.....make it so big they don't understand it so they just let is pass. The heath care reform bill is over 1,000 pages and seems like nobody has read it yet.....but they want it passed ASAP. The stimulus packages are so big...nobody knows what 2 Trillion looks like....or what exactly is being stimulated....but they pass anyway.
Germany had a cash for clunkers program which resulted in increased sales for a while, but what happens when the program ends....sales stop again and now the car makers in Germany are forecasting very poor results in 2010. I don't know why it would be any different in the US....unless of course they decide to just keep throwing more and more money (a billion here a billion there) into the program to keep it going indefinitely.. The second couple of billion has already been voted in....so who knows.

[Wanderlust]

Thinking about that 'Cash for Clunkers' program, another side effect of it would be to reduce the revenue received by the government in duty and taxes on gasoline/petrol, as part of the idea is to have people buying more economical cars, on top of the main idea to boost the domestic car industry. Ironically it will also put some people out of work too - people who have been servicing the old clunkers to keep them going, as well as the parts manufacturers providing the bits needed for the old clunkers. Someone hasn't thought the concept through very well have they?

[Big Boy]

Pete.
I am sorry about your friends, but my feeling is this has got nothing to do with money for buying a promotion, more likely money to pay back the moneylender or playingdebts. I checked with a local policeofficer, he just laughed and told me that on the Lieutenant-level, ofcourse it helps to well connected, but noway anyone would ever pay 200.000 for such a lowgrade promotion. So I am afraid your socalled "friends" tried to take advantace of your friendship, as we all are aware of, around here friendliness is considered a weakness.
stgrhe.

Thaiorchid,
I've also written 2 similar accounts similar to Pete's. One to get a better teaching job, and one to get a pensioned tassebahn job. I've also heard several other similar stories. IMHO this kind of corruption is widespread, but maybe to admit it in certain circles eg to a Farang, could be seen as a form of losing face.

[Farang]

,,,,, as we all are aware of, around here friendliness is considered a weakness. thaiorchid

Why am I not amazed that this particular gem comes from a strong guy like you?

[STEVE G]

As far as paying for promotion goes, it should also be pretty obvious that there is going to be large price difference depending on where the position is, as it's going to be more lucrative in Bangkok or Pattaya than some market town in Issan.

[Condoking]

Yea.....billions don't really cut it any more....you have to talk in Trillions now...I suspect this is because many people can actually comprehend what a billion is...or maybe relate to it in some way....but a Trillion???

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

[Lung Per]

Yea.....billions don't really cut it any more....you have to talk in Trillions now...I suspect this is because many people can actually comprehend what a billion is...or maybe relate to it in some way....but a Trillion???

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

LOL

[PeteC]

A bit more on this. Pete

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1 ... -structure

[Super Joe]

SJ.
I thought you were smarter.
You have been here for a long time, know the system very well, so you should be well aware of, that fines that amount to 5k-10k, can not be decided by the local police, but only by the courts.
Behaving like that ,,,,,

I never said I wasn't aware, if you'd bothered to think about it, if I thought it was ok for those sort of on the spot fines I wouldn't have talked about it as c-o-r-r-u-p-t-i-o-n.

Speaking of 'smarter', perhaps next time, before you label people supersuckers and criticizing their behaviour regarding paying over the top fines, you could at least ask why. 2 of them ushered me behind their pick-up on an isolated road, I was up to my waste in the undergrowth and they were deliberately intimidating one either side of me, it wasn't your usual helmet check set-up. Both of them [comment edited out SJ].
The situation just didn't feel right for me to demand they respect my rights under the law and ask to borrow their pen to write their numbers down

And no I'm not smart and I was in the wrong as admitted in my post about it. Behaviour for having a beer in the car fair enough.

[crazy88]

I live in soi 88 and know those ***** well .Forced one into diving into a ditch once .See previous post a while back .I,and my family have had no problems since .Might be because we now pay 1000 bt per month for the local police to patrol around the houses which they diligently do at various times of the day or night to their credit .Corruption annoys me but as previous posters have pointed out it is inherent all the way through the system here and whether you pay on the spot or at the station it gets divvied up in any case .Anyway it doesn't matter anymore because the prime minister has vowed to stamp it out .

Crazy 88

[Khundon1975]

Forgot to say....................Thailand is no different from anywhere else really, apart from the fact they're a little more open about it. The same applies to "corruption". In Thailand it's called corruption, while in the west it's known as "expences" as most Brits have come to discover.

Fines for no helmet, licence, etc...........pay it at the police station and the sergent gets the money, or pay it the side of the road and the constable gets it instead. At the end of the day, what's the difference apart from the fact that the constable probably needs the money more than the sergent does.

Just as Pete pointed out.......do we try and change them, or do we let them be?

Takiap

In 1999 the wife and I were in BKK late night and decided to stay at a hotel rather than drive home.
Following morning when we went for breakfast there were four traffic cops having brekky and on the table was several mounds of money, approx 40K Baht.

The wife ear wigged and established that one pile was for 3 of them, one for the sarge, one for the Captain and one for his boss.
Shit does go up hill in LOS.