[4ad]

I lived in Romania for 20 years, a country more civilized (I use that term very loosely) than Belize, and even here, what he is describing is very common. In fact, the article doesn't describe the full picture. The bribery is not only with the police, is with everybody in a public function. This includes any bureaucrat (believe me, we had many) and doctors. No bribery, poor or nonexistent treatment.

There are some people in this thread who suggest that the problem is that people accept the status quo. That if nobody would pay anymore, the system would fix itself. There's a huge cultural gap that makes this hard to understand, but people in these countries don't want to end the exploitation, they want to become the exploiters themselves! The mechanism that allow the system to continue are reinforced by the new players. There's a feedback loop in place that makes sure the system accepts only a certain kind of new players.

[Evbn]

It is like the apochryphal caged monkeys experiment. People learn that corruption is then only way to get ahead, and who wants to be a martyr? One person can't change the system, some sort of massive coordinated action would be needed-- but how? Hence, rebel groups and freedom fighters and whatnot, but those have their own problems.