There is the other side of the coin
Editor:
Your editorial (see the WBJ, July 23-29), admirable and correct, reminds me, however, a little of the judge's hard-line views at the start of the movie "Traffic." But there is the other side of the coin. For every bribe taker, there is a bribe giver.
When I first started working in Poland in 1990 it was my impression (perhaps a little naive) that corruption was limited to traffic cops and customs officials. In the last five years it has risen to the very "highest levels" of the government. But before we become too critical of Poles for taking bribes of increasingly larger amounts, at increasingly higher and more sensitive levels of government, we must look also at the morality of those who
come here to do business. In some countries, bribes are even tax-deductible business expenses!
Much of the blame for the chaos overtaking the Polish economy can be laid directly on corruption, it's true. I personally am for zero tolerance. But as "Traffic" suggests, zero tolerance needs to be equally applied to both the demand and supply sides for any positive result to emerge.
Perhaps Pogo was right: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
Zachariah Allen
Warsaw
