Word: bribes
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Meanwhile, Okhotin alleges, customs officials proceeded to make the first of several explicit offers for him to bribe them with a portion of the money he had brought for impoverished protestant churches. After asking for $10,000 initially, Okhotin says—upon the delivery of which he says they promised he would be released—an official knocked the offer down...
Stephan P. Sonnenberg, a Harvard Human Rights Project Fellow and a student at Harvard Law School who has worked closely with Okhotin in the last months, says that once Okhotin turned down their bribe solicitations, the officials were bound to ratchet up the legal pressure...
...their bullets; and gangs, operating under the auspices of crooked bureaucrats, police and army-ranger elements, siphon off water before it reaches the taps of most Karachi apartment buildings and sell it in the city from tanker trucks, according to municipal workers. An industrialist who says he refused to bribe health inspectors saw his tiremaking plant shut down when they invoked a little-observed 19th century British law requiring factory walls to be whitewashed. On the Karachi Stock Exchange, insider trading is commonplace and conflict of interest is rife. Some of the exchange's board members are also leading brokers...
...even to change a light bulb or put gas in their cars." As a result, he says, police stations become "revenue-generating centers" and catching thieves and murderers is a secondary occupation. Police earn money by shaking down prostitution and gambling rings, and they will often demand a bribe even to register a complaint for burglary. A constable's monthly wage is only $69; a typical middle-class salary in Karachi is $2,000 a year...
Bush creates a straw man: the critic who says his plan "only helps the rich." The actual criticism is that it mainly helps the rich. The much smaller tax breaks for lower-income people are vital too. They provide cover and act as a bribe. For a few hundred dollars, the government buys your support for a plan worth millions to those who already have millions...