techstepgenr8tion wrote:
http://iht.com/articles/2008/09/04/business/04bribe.php
This is another one of those international law and customs scrupels issues. I still remember in a business, society, and government class I had back in college they'd talked about baksheesh payments in these regards and how yes, some of these countries demand them and yes, in the western world they're seen as scandalous and made illegal by our own business practices. Halliburton is a huge oil infrastructure company, I can see where with Nigeria being a bigger ticket oil producer now that they would have wanted the contract to do the building and most likely whoever was in contest with them for the contracts - likely would have paid the same bribe for the same contract.
The thing I wonder about though, countries who have laws against baksheesh payments - the corporations in them should be criminally investigated for accepting and paying these bribes, I agree. However, should the countries who demand them be sanctioned in some equal measure and is there a measure where really, the rest of the world has given them something to some degree where they aren't meeting their half of the deal when they demand bribes? I wouldn't doubt some people will be looking at this as the latest Cheney-Halliburton craze but, when it comes to any companies who are dealing with such contracts in places like the middle east and Africa, its hard for them not to take a roll in the dirt just by the nature of the situation - maybe next time and from now on they should let local companies build these things, let the pipes bust, refineries break down, and maybe they'll need the help too badly in repairing and reinforcing shoddy work to really care too much about needing to take a bribe to see who gets the contract to clean up the mess.
The problem I see is that the western governments (USA in this case) are trying to extend their laws to apply to areas outside of their jurisdiction. Under ordinary circumstances, that should not be allowed - if an American goes to Holland, what they do in Holland should not be subject to US law, with possible exceptions for extreme cases (ie, terror plots or acts of war). Do we want the laws of Saudi Arabia to stifle free speech in America?
14 Sep 2008, 9:47 am
