"para endulzar su dia"

The above expression relates to some practical advice I was given years ago during the course of my travels to Mexico.

It means, "to sweeten your day," and while there is nothing wrong with sweetening people's days, the context of the usage of that travel phrase might very well be considered immoral, especially by moral absolutists.

I was advised (by a very experienced bilingual traveler to Mexico) that it's an ideal choice of words to use in situations when one must respectfully and discreetly offer a police officer a bribe.

But bribery is wrong, right? Of course it is. That's a given. But what is also a given is that the entire government system has for years been built on, dependent on, bribery. Everyone, from the lowliest village cop all the way up to El Presidente, expects to be paid, and the higher up the pecking order you go, the higher the price. If you find yourself unlucky enough to be arrested down there (and it isn't hard; greedy cops will appear out of nowhere to shake down Americans simply because they want money and have the power to get it), you're in quite a predicament. Whether you've done anything isn't the point. If they say they found marijuana on you, or that they saw you taking a dump in the park, it's their word against yours. And if you actually did something, forget it; an ordinary fender bender is often considered legitimate cause for arrest. And as most people know, Mexican jails are no fun. Sure, you can howl about your largely nonexistent "rights" all you want, but sooner or later you're going to have to pay up. And the more trouble you're in, the more it costs. If you are in jail, it costs more to get out, and if you need a lawyer to help get you out, it's a lot more expensive. And if you end up in court, you have to pay the lawyer to pay the judge, and that can get even more expensive. But if you're smart enough to know how to handle the arresting officer properly, you can save a lot of money. Saying "esto es para endulzar su dia" is a non-confrontational way of saying the money is a gift and not really not a bribe, and it doesn't put the officer on the spot. "Can I pay the fine now?" is another one.

Such conduct is immoral. But what is more immoral; paying $50.00 to a corrupt local cop, or having to shell out hundreds of dollars later to a corrupt lawyer and a corrupt judge? Depending on one's point of view, the latter might me more immoral than the former, as you're pouring more money into an inherently corrupt system.

Suppose you're a principled moral absolutist. Is rotting in a Mexican jail the right thing to do?

I do not mean to advocate corruption here, but am I? Is there a duty of strict honesty in dealings with crooks? If a burglar asks you where you keep your valuables, should you tell him the truth? When the Gestapo knocked on the door of the people harboring Anne Frank and asked whether there were any Jews hiding in the house, were they under any duty to tell the truth? (And if the government decided to condemn all pit bulls to death and I was asked whether Coco was a pit bull, would I be under any duty to disclose the truth if that would get her killed?)

I realize that this is all an exercise in line-drawing, but who gets to draw the lines? And why?

Have a sweet day.

posted by Eric on 08.25.10 at 09:39 AM





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but who gets to draw the lines? And why

You do, because you are responsible for yourself.

If you haven't, try reading Stranger in a Strange Land.
I know Heinlein gets a bad rap, but that's a very darn good book. One of the biggest themes is how you're responsible for yourself.
It's much more philosophy than sci-fi.

In it, a human raised on Mars is trying to learn to become human.

Heinlein unveils so many fundamental things that most people don't know about themselves that it's a very interesting read.
He usually got technology wrong, but he knew people.

Veeshir   ·  August 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Moral Indians from Amritsar to Kerala have revolted against a culture of corruption, and taken dead aim at bribery.

http://boingboing.net/2010/02/05/zero-rupee-note-that.html

By slipping a venal hack a zero-rupee note, they announce both that they know the game, and that they will no longer play.

Now we need additional currencies: peso, bolivar, ruble to start.

Oh, and a special US dollar version, for use in dealing with extortionate bureacrats; e.g. filing fees for inappropriate licences, intrusive zoning laws, immoral tariffs on sugar and the like.

Robert Arvanitis   ·  August 25, 2010 11:53 AM

After I got sent to Venezuela, nearly the first thing that management instructed me on was how to finesse bribes onto expense reports. It was a necessary instruction. Cops in Venezuela do not talk about “endulzar su día, but they do have a standard spiel, which made me suspect they got instructed on same in their training.


At the same time , I will put in a good word for Venezuelan cops. I got into town at 6:30 in the morning in a taxi, after having boarded a plane at 8 a.m., without having been given instructions on how to contact the company after hours. I went to the police station to find out if they had the phone company for the company manager’s home. They did not. They police were hospitable enough to offer me a bed in the police barracks, an offer I gladly accepted. The police drove me to the office in the morning. Per management recommendations, I gave the police several bottles of whiskey. This was not a bride, but appreciation for their kindness.

Gringo   ·  August 26, 2010 05:38 PM

At some point the transaction crosses the line between bribery and extortion. Even if bribery is immoral, becoming a victim of extortion is not.

notaclue   ·  August 27, 2010 08:30 AM

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