I was struck the first time I went through the airport in Manila that I had to pay a fee in cash before proceeding through security, I’d receive a paper receipt, and then hand that receipt a person in the booth immediately past the one where I’d paid it.
While it was an imperfect system, officials had created a mechanism that allowed them to verify each payment and track how much had been paid. It was a system built to limit corruption by the individuals collecting the cash (although did little to limit corruption by those higher up).
There are a couple of truisms when engaging in questionable conduct,
- Don’t put details of your conduct in writing. There’s always a paper trail, and it’ll look bad at your trial.
- Don’t use euphemisms for criminal conduct, because you’ll look obviously guilty when asked to read those allowed at your trial.
That’s true all over the world, it seems, and not just for those worrying about U.S. courts and subpeonas. Here’s a rounds up how bribes are solicited in Africa – worth knowing for any tourist who will visit there. 25% of Africans “who used public services or interacted with police” report having paid a bribe in the prior year. The other 75%, presumably, aren’t reporting it – either out of fear of reprisal or because it’s de rigueur that it isn’t worth noting.
“Give me something,” demands a woman X-raying bags at Enugu airport in Nigeria, conceding impressively little to anti-graft efforts. Others make small concessions to subtlety. “Can you help me?” asks an immigration officer in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
…Some officials, for example, like to keep citizens well abreast of their food and drink preferences. “I really want to drink a Nescafe,” declares an airport security guard six times as he frisks your correspondent in Burkina Faso. In Uganda traffic police find ways to mention their favourite soda. In South Africa such requests are so common that bribes for driving offences are known as “cold drink money”.
…In Kenya police sometimes ask for chai ya wazee (“tea for the elders”). In Nigeria police officers might suggest that they are simply trying to do their job by saying they need fuel for their patrol vehicle. All still expect cash.
There are numerous anti-corruption efforts the world over, with varying degrees of genuineness. Corruption is certainly bad for institutions which support economic growth, even as it can grease the wheels that makes economic deals possible. Often anti-corruption efforts are used as a tool for the regime in power to go after their predecessors (just as it will be used to go after them by a future regime). This always works when everyone is corrupt!
I advise American travelers that we can’t bribe government officials. And I’ve always advised business travelers that they certainly can’t submit bribes as part of their expense reimbursements. However I’ve long encouraged having some cash in various places on their person, and hoped that their employer might offer a pay structure that bonuses creative problem solving when necessary to protect oneself from harm (not to pursue a business deal). It can help to have local services on hand to deal with immigration and other formalities.
The Economist suggests “feign[ing] ignorance” and taking requests for tea or soft drinks literally, offering to return with one. It’s easier to extort a local than someone who might make noise with higher-ups through a local embassy.
These corrupt places are not worth visiting for leisure. Plenty of bribe free parts of the world which is enough for any recreational desire.
For business travel, one can usually expense tips paid in cash, without receipt, to housekeepers and porters and the like. What makes a bribe any different from a tip?
And now the US has one of the most corrupt governments in the world, whose president has twice ( openly) extorted the president of Ukraine, has done away with rules prohibiting bribes in other countries, accepted money from the world’s richest man.
American cigarettes are also good “trading material”.
Well said, Gary. In addition to outright bribery, some poorer regions around the world have something that I’ll refer to as “mass begging”. We saw this in India (where I had traveled a lot), when eating at an open air establishment (usually because we were out a sightseeing excursion of some sort). As many as 50 beggars would show up en mass and threaten to make our mealtime miserable, at which point our local host would take them aside, and promise a certain level of payment if we could eat our meal in peace first. As a retiree, I’m ok with a certain level of bribery and begging (mass or otherwise), but will no longer travel anywhere that jeopardizes my safety.
The same corrupt African countries continue to hold out their hands begging for HIV medications. Sorry guys, it’s time you paid for your own medications. Bye.
In the US, we call them “resort fees” (or similar)
We just got by a corrupt police officer at the Nairobi airport (it was called a “fine.”). The crime was for taking a picture that said “ no corruption zone.” Cop said I took his picture
My response was to abandon any plans to the country
The shame is that local businesses, honest ones, would have probably made at least $10,000 from our return.
Or…you can have the President of the United States demanding and getting $100 million in donations to affiliated entities in return for not persecuting law firms and media companies. But I guess that’s not bribery; it’s extortion.
In California we call them outrageous Taxes by corrupt politicians (all of them)
In South Asia it’s called “tea” or “tea money” when they want a bribe or a bribe to be paid to another. That it’s hot or cold, that is what they can mean when referring to tea in the local language.
India’s Modi was said to be a tea seller. He now sits on top of a country with the exponentially biggest corruption payments that the country has ever seen.
But this kind of crooked business is now also becoming more common and extreme in the US since a lawless US President got elected in the November 2024 general election.
All good reasons to avoid Africa and any African products.
I had a passport sized piece of white cardboard in my passport to serve as a bookmark to the ID page. It was not a bribe and certainly not money. In Singapore, they took my passport and handed me the card back then processed the passport.
accepting bribery as part of the cultue is a significant part of the reason the buildings fell down and killed thousands in the recent earthquakes. vendors chosen for reasons other than having the best product/service at the best price.
A vision of things to be if the TSA is replaced by private companies (or, given the institutionalization of bribery in the US, even if it does not)
> These corrupt places are not worth visiting for leisure. Plenty of bribe free parts of the world which is enough for any recreational desire.
Agree w/Erect. No need to visit the USA and its legions of underpaid workers with their hand stretched out for a bribe/tip.
@derek: I take it that Singapore is the kind of country where the officers don’t even want to be suspected of taking a bribe? “No, sir, I will not accept from you this …. uh … blank piece of cardboard.”
In many parts of the world, bribes are necessary for relatively normal situations. In the USA, the bribing is more hidden, but giving public money to people who have not earned it (this excludes most Social Security since the people receiving it earned it) is essentially bribing them for votes. Pork barrel legislation is similar.
Don’t worry, the Trump regime has issued a diktat making it completely legal for Americans to bribe foreign government officials: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/pausing-foreign-corrupt-practices-act-enforcement-to-further-american-economic-and-national-security/
This definitely won’t mean open season on American travelers.
I followed a foreigner through TSA, they must have been very familiar with “tipping” security, and palmed some money to the TSA officer. He was not happy receiving the money, I’m sure there was paperwork to report attempted bribery. It’s not clear what TSA was going to do with the money, but the officer who received it wasn’t going to keep it
I’ll admit, I was a little late to the party on this post–I regret that because I care deeply about this issue. Corruption is a cancer. It’s on ‘both sides’–and transparency and accountability is the cure.
In 2024, Snyder v. United States, 603 U.S. 1, the United States Supreme Court held 18 U.S.C. § 666 prohibits bribes to state and local officials, but does not make it a crime for those officials to accept gratuities for their past acts. So folks, it’s all about ‘timing’ and ‘what you call it.’ Absurd.
I’ve said before on here: Laws are a human construct. Enforcement is what makes them real.
As I’ve also said on here: ‘the fish rots at the head,’ meaning, if our leaders are setting a bad example, it will inevitably ‘trickle-down’ to everyone and everywhere.
Notice how selfish, greedy ‘leaders’ and everyday people do objectively awful things to one another, then just simply say: ‘it’s just business.’ Ok, fine, but that should be the last ‘business’ you’ll do with us. However, with regulatory capture and monopolization, we are practically forced to continue to do business with bad actors. Unless we demand real change and actual enforcement, it’s only going to get worse.
What a privilege it can be to ‘ignore’ this problem, and just simply pay the ‘gratuity.’ But, I feel for the folks who cannot avoid corruption. Honestly, I think it is coming for all of us this time around. Good luck, everyone.
@jns — Yes, there really is corruption at-home as well. Yet, we’ve basically stopped enforcement of ‘white collar crimes’ which is where the real significant ‘theft’ has occurred (not mere ‘petty left’). The shell companies, lending on stocks, tax evasion, buyback schemes, pump-n-dumps, insider trading, etc. all should be illegal and if already then prosecuted to the full extent of the law. No more slaps on the wrist. Alas, the current regime is just going to make it all worse. It’s atrocious.
@TProphet — For those of us who still dare to travel internationally from the US, we’re about to find out. I’m a bit more concerned that we’ve betrayed our allies, like Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, etc. to the extent that they will ‘spit on’ us as mere tourists (figuratively, hopefully, unless you are in-to that, in which case, no kink-shaming here). Time will tell.
@Erect — I like many of your comments on here. However, I must disagree on this one. Same with @Mary for piling-on. Fellow commenters, please understand that many incredible places and people around the world deal with such corruption. It doesn’t make those places or people any ‘worse’ than anywhere else–it means that they are dealing with a real problem, one that can happen here too, if we let it. The people there need help to deal with it–to learn that it’s wrong, that there’s a better way, and to actually enforce laws and norms that support a better way. So, instead of judgment and exile, I wish we would do more to ensure that the rule of law, equity, fairness, and enforcement of such liberties were worldwide.
@Jeff W — I am no fan of this administration, but the USA is simply not the ‘one of the most corrupt governments in the world.’ Yes, we are now lead by an authoritarian, who breaks laws with abandon and seems to not be held accountable by anyone or anything. Yet, we still have civil servants, courts, judges, and citizens who uphold their oaths to the Constitution and still try to ‘do the right thing’ each and every day. We are in decline, but not dead yet. Don’t lose hope.
@Miguel95 — That is a detestable viewpoint, sir. Those USAID programs that previously provided critical care and essential support to those in need around the world, including many of the poorest countries in Africa and elsewhere, literally saved lives and halted the spread of deadly, preventable illnesses, which could otherwise spread to the United States in time (think, Ebola). Further, there were local, US businesses growing food, creating supplies, manufacturing medicines, whose jobs relied on those programs–so it harms us back home, too. The abrupt ending of these programs was cruel and ironically ‘inefficient’ too–we just let prepaid food and medicine rot, instead of actually helping people. This regime has truly abdicated our ‘soft power’ to the likes of the CCP, who will inevitably step-in gleefully to earn the world’s trust instead. In the past, these programs were bipartisan, yet somehow the right-wing propaganda made them into a boogeyman. Even former Senator, now Secretary of State, Rubio used to champion USAID. It’s an example of how lust for ‘power’ and ‘status’ can destroy one’s character and harm countless others. If you actually cared, you’d know this is not the right way. But I can recall your comment history on here, so I know you simply don’t care. Well, wait until it affects you, personally.
@Craig Jones — There’s nothing wrong with Africa or products produced from there. Rarely is much exported anyway. The coffees from East Africa (think, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, etc.) are still excellent. Much of the chocolate we consume is from West Africa (think, Ghana). Yes, I wish there were better enforcement of laws to protect the peoples in those countries, who suffer the most from others’ greed. But, please, don’t disparage the continent or its people so broadly. Most of the people there often work far harder than anyone from anywhere else. They deserve dignity, peace, and prosperity, like we all do.
$20 to get walked through security at Hyderbad’s airport was well worth it. Saved probably 3 hours and didn’t miss my flight. Went in through the out-doors, escorted by an enterprising employee of an international airline. They did what could pass as security checks, but without the hoop jumping common with a chaotic airports.
Leaving Nigeria an official took my bag, carried it two feet, and put it on the belt. “Am I your friend?” He asked. “Sure”, I replied. (I knew what was coming). “Do you give your friends presents?” he asked. “Of course” I replied. “I give you all of God’s blessings”. He frowned and waved me on.