It's impossible to do business in Africa without bribing people, all these laws do is put Western companies at a tremendous disadvantage compared to Chinese ones.
In my first real job about a decade ago, I asked the APAC/China rep why the prices were 30-40% higher... "The hookers and bribes tax. Hookers and bribes"
> impossible to do business in Africa without bribing people
Why?
> all these laws do is put Western companies at a tremendous disadvantage
While attempting to address a serious problem. You could say this of any law.
> compared to Chinese ones.
Not a standard I care about or am willing to be held hostage to. Moral sacrifice to capture international business is pretty gross. Probably why it wasn't even hard to pass the law.
The explanation I've heard before is that when you need anything from a thoroughly corrupt government, as simple as a building permit or a visa for a foreign employee involved in a project, officials will simply not process your request without a bribe. They believe it is owed. End of story.
I don't like the explanation in the slightest. But I do see how it might shut down opportunity if you can't overpower the obstacles, and aren't willing to bribe.
The utility of US laws against bribing foreign officials is to break down the expectation by those officials of a bribe. But, from a game theory point of view, if China is willing to bribe, this becomes much less effective.
The same happens in Latin America as well. If you want to get through the layers of bureaucracy without being stuck for years in a process, you have to pay up. And it has to be a well-connected government official. That’s mostly the reason I don’t bother with anything entrepreneurship related here.
Because there is no mechanism in basically all of Africa that would put some kind of limit on it. No strong governmental institutions, no moral framework, no religious framework. And to the contrary, the African continent is largely antithetical to western/European moral, ethical, and philosophical limitations.
People just assume Africans are the same as Europeans and Asians, etc. because they’ve had it hammered into their minds all their lives, but reality is that we are all quite different and that’s good in some ways and bad in others, but it’s different.
Err totally wrong the entire north Africa has strong religious frameworks, and take Egypt as an example of a powerful government. Plenty of other places too.
I knew I should specify sub-Saharan Africa, because there’s always that Reddit tier knowing and willful idiot contrarian that just can’t help themselves from just being opposite for sake of being opposite, due to a severe mental derangement that compels them to be that way.
We are not talking about North Africa here, we are talking about South Africa and South Africa like places, which would mean sub-Saharan Africa, not Egypt or Algeria or Tunisia. You lack refinement and do not contribute anything useful, and may want to reflect on why you have that contrarian compulsion. No one is talking about North Africa. All the intelligent people here know we are talking about Africa in the context of South Africa. You clearly lack fundamental skills to distinguish such things.
to my christmas list. I don't think the law or war are appropriate tools for establishing international morality, but maybe the right ones are somewhere in these.
US oil companies like ExxonMobile have survived on the international market just fine, despite the laws preventing them handing out bribes for the past several decades.
There are several examples of bribes being publicized and the guilty company losing out on big contracts as a result (e.g. from ECHELON spying).
Yeah, I have a friend who worked in South-East Asia for a while - he said that his company paid "agents" whose job was specifically to pay the bribes on behalf of his company so that they themselves wouldn't get in trouble for paying the bribes.
It looks like Americans can claim a 1st Amendment protection against prosecution of these laws provided they are acting as individuals and not on behalf of organizations.
I'm sure they think the US is a settler-colonialist entity. I mean how could it not be considered one? We still have the little bit of the native population that is left on reservations.
I think you're making the mistake that "settler-colonialist" is some kind of demonic brand that condemns everything that it might be applied to to perdition or at least cancellation, but its really just a plain description of how history has brought us to this moment in time. There are egregious cases and less egregious ones.
"I think you're making the mistake that "settler-colonialist" is some kind of demonic brand that condemns everything that it might be applied to to perdition or at least cancellation"
That's precisely what they're doing. Anyone with even a casual understanding of the modern American hard-left knows that's what they're saying and anyone who says otherwise is obviously, willfully lying.
I wouldn't describe myself as "hard-left" but I am in a milieu where the legacies of colonialism are routinely discussed and I can personally tell you that there really isn't any intent to "cancel" everything associated with colonial powers or any bullshit like that. Are you sure you're not taking your cues about what the "left" believes from right wing media who select the most absurd tumbler posts as evidence for what project the "left" is up to?
In general, identifying the most extreme opinions consonant with a general set of ideas will, no surprise, furnish you with extreme opinions. The "hard right" in the United States wants to "obliterate trans people from public life" and install a "Red Caesar" to de-secularize the United States under righteous authoritarian rule. It would be stupid of me to associate those beliefs with, for example, Mitch McConnell or conservative members of the supreme court, though see below.
The fact is that there is _no organized left_ in the United States. Those kids posting memes on tumbler have no power, Bernie Sanders (a moderate by the standards of European democracies) couldn't take the Democratic nomination from a liberal capitalist. Getting your brain twisted about the "far left" is deranged. The far right, on the other hand, is much more politically organized and engaged, as evidenced by the fact that they are, among other things, banning books, passing legislation, and gumming up congress as we speak.
Unfortunately idiots run the state but IMO California has the greatest geography in the world. It has the most amount of experiences one can get than any other state, some countries even. There a great variety of people and cultures here, only rivaled by NYC. Despite the fires the weather is fantastic most of the time.
It's definitely gotten worse to live in these days (homeless, dumb politicians, rent, traffic, etc) but it's something I would put up with because it's truly a great location. I really wish someday someone competent would come to office there, but alas.
Not saying California is perfect, absolutely not. A shithole some might say, but there's so much Cali offers that you can't get anywhere else.
source: I'm from California, grew up SoCal, went to uni in NorCal. Went and seen it all. Unfortunately now I live in Seattle due to job reasons.
Oh, there's a lot about California that makes it completely intolerable. Unfortunately there's a lot about other states that make them completely intolerable as well. Pick your poison.
I absolutely agree that in the long term they’re a much better option. But my drag-around gas generator cost 500 bucks, while my solar system was $22k and I got quoted $18k for a single battery.
If we're talking long-term, the generator will easily outlast the solar panel and/or battery if you maintain it properly (which is honestly very trivial as upkeep goes).
He already has a battery, a Honda EU2200i to supplement it during blackouts would only be $1,200. Outrageously cheap compared to installing a 2nd home battery.
Elagabalus was of Arab heritage and he was a priest who worshiped a representation of Baal, the very controversial and very foreign God he wanted to make #1.
The article is a book review, that is not the context I see when I read that condemnation. Maybe the book makes that case, but the review does not.
And, referencing your other post, I don't think the scenario in seventeenth century England is comparable to third century Rome. The Roman pantheon was already on the downswing, allowing a priest of Elagabalus to become emperor. A century later Constantine would make a similar move, leading to the still dominant Christianity. Had Heliogabalus been a competent man the move may have been a huge success.
I'd be more than happy to join a cult and do their bidding if they got me a good job at Google with good long term prospects, it sounds like a fair deal to me. Mr Lloyd would have been much better off working out a deal with the cult rather than suing his employer, perhaps he could have nominally joined them and tithed 10% in exchange for their nepotism; it's certainly what I would have done.
