Another Straw
Having seen all of my patients and seeing that there were no others awaiting consultations who would need OT, I left work at about 3:30 yesterday. I was low on cash so the thought of stopping at the Canadia bank which doesn’t charge me a fee occurred to me. But I decided to just head home At my usual left turn I passed it up because the bus behind me was honking its insanely loud horn. I could have gone around the New Market at this point and cut a section of busy road out of the trip, but I decided to double back and get on the main road. At the intersection of a two large streets I made the right turn as usual with the light red just like everyone else.
As soon as I rounded the corner a cop steps out about twenty meters ahead and waves me to the curb and onto it. He then walked to the wall fifteen feet away from the street and motioned me over. He and his cronies, two of them, then go on to read me the riot act about making an illegal turn on red, blah blah blah. He threatened to take my piece of crap, though reliable, moto into impound and one of the other cops prodded me for a bribe.
I held my ground for several minutes telling them I was volunteering at CSC, which they recognized. They congratulated me for my kindness and asked how much I would be giving them. Having opened my wallet to show them my uncle’s far out of date driver’s license my measly ten bucks was showing. I took advantage of this to say I didn’t have much money and needed it for the rest of the month. One of them said “you have money, it’s in the hidden compartment.” So I unzipped the extra compartment and showed them it’s lack of contents.
We actually had a pleasant conversation. They told me the details of why the license was out of date, what the new license looks like (showing me a stack of about thirty they had confiscated,) when the turn would be legal (green light,) and how much it would cost to go apply for a real bonafide license ($25.) The funny thing is they never brought up the fact that the registration sticker on the moto is six years out of date or that the license plate is rusted and held together with baling wire.
They asked for six bucks, two for each. I tried to talk them down to five, an exorbitant some in this place so that I would have five left. But to no avail. I actually wanted to laugh when I handed over the money and we both thanked each other. If not for my absolute disgust at public corruption, corruption by those whose purpose it is to serve their people, it would have been a rather pleasant experience. Certainly it isn’t their fault that those above them keep their wages low just for the reason of being able to easily bribe them. As always, the rot comes from the top and its stench is overpowering at times.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Savuth, was this conversation with them in Khmer?? Holy cow you’re a fast learner….and I’m just talking about the bribery system. ; )