re: beetljus this is what is facing the aussies in
beetljus, what I said is that I've never seen anybody setup as you were relating. Do you personally know anyone who actually has been setup with drugs being planted on them? The way the system was (is?) corrupt is that anybody who has been caught committing a crime and obviously guilty could buy a not guilty verdict. They obviously do not get off completely free as the amount they have to pay is in accordance with the seriousness of the offence and sometimes it may have been better to do the time. In effect the punishment is reduced to a fine. The corruption is not so much that someone has escaped punishment if your accept that the bribe was a fine, but the fact that the money does not go into government revenue. So in many ways justice has still been done. As for these allegations that Corby was setup, just who would be so stupid to sacrifice that amount of drugs to setup someone who obviously had no capacity to pay, think about it. Any cases of corruption or bribery that I have come across have been in situations where I could get some advantage, and I looked at it as if I was paying extra to get my photos done in 1 hour rather than 1 day or if I was paying to use a tollway to get to my destination quicker as we do in Australia. If I was ever approached by someone wanting extra to perform their normal duty my response was "Sure I can help you, but how are you going to help me?" If they were not able to offer me any advantage I would tell them no deal. The only place where it really annoyed me was Bali. Tourists there told me that when leaving Bali you had to put money in your passport in order to keep the immigration happy. To me that was not on and whenever I exited through Bali I would not pay. The immigration officer would always go through the same routine, when he didn't find any money in the passport he would ask if there was something for him, I would then tell him that I could help him but ask how was he going to help me. He would then keep going through the passport looking for something wrong, all the time the line would be getting longer and longer and others in the line would start grumbling about missing their plane. The fact was everything was on my side, as my bags had been checked in there was no way the plane could leave without me and if they had to come and find me it was the immigration officer who would have to do the explaining, not me. Eventually he would admit defeat and wave me through, no doubt trying to make up his loss on the next poor sucker. I really hated going in or out through Bali, mug tourists have ruined it for everyone.
