15 Jan 01

This from a friend who trains foreign nationals:

"We were conducting interior-of-building exercises with Simulations. I was playing the role of a burglary suspect:

‘Boris' (from Russia), who shot me in the face as I had my hands up trying to surrender, brusquely made the point: ‘In Russia, the police and the courts have better things to do than worry about the welfare of common criminals.'

‘Mike,' a Mexican national who is the local director of operations for US corporation, shot me without warning on the grounds that he needed me out of the way before he could get to my partner, who he knew was in the next room. Afterward. I mentioned that forensics would clearly show that I was posing no credible threat when I was shot. ‘No problem,' he replied. ‘You simply pay a fee (bribe) to police personnel. I am an honest citizen with plenty of money. I have just shot a lowlife criminal in my own house. The police in my country are poorly paid, and they are badly in need of money for their families. I give them the money they need. The problem goes away. Everyone is happy. The system works, eh?"

Lesson: "Justice" is relative. It depends upon the prevailing philosophy in the place you find yourself. Other people and other cultures operate under different rules than we do in the USA, even though "justice" is always the stated goal.

/John