From this Topic: Fibre got taken out :(

 

@grimwulf

 

You have my sympathy, given how much work, entertainment, social connection etc. is delivered over the internet these days, losing your connection for any length of time is like losing a limb.

 

I did want to chime in on the bribe request you received though.

 

Bribes like that are very common in other countries - in some you can barely interact with a service without bribing or tipping each individual you come into contact with to move your case through the morass of corrupt bureaucracy.

 

It's obviously very rare here in New Zealand, but it's a creeping corruption - once established - if some get away with it, they tell their mates/colleagues who also do it - and it slowly becomes an expectation or even an obligation - as they're well aware how frustrating it is to be stuck waiting.

 

When I first read your note, I thought, hell I would have just paid the $60 - but on reflection - it's a really slippery slope. How long before it becomes a bidding war to get your case to the top of your local installer's queue? How would you feel if some bloke down the street jumped ahead of you because he paid the guy a hundy? Then there's migration to other industries - what if your builder moved to another job just because the other guy paid a sweetener?

 

So on reflection I'd pass on the info you have about the guy to the Chorus guy earlier in the thread - this is something that really needs to be stamped out before it gets established.

Interesting you should say that and I fully agree with you and what should I read into today's Herald:" New Zealand ranked world's least corrupt country

There is a huge difference between 'Mates Rates' and 'Bribery'. But even 'Mates Rates' can be dicey. In America 'Bribery' is called 'Lobbyist's' and of course you might be impeached. In Greece they discovered the hard way about corruption as they nearly went broke as everyone kept their money in the mattress so they could avoid tax and pay the local official's.

No - it is far better in the long run to put up with officialdom and how slow that can be, than to go down the road of corruption with all its coble stones and pot holes.