Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lord
Talking about India.. My 10c..
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I was in India 2 years ago, and Chennai and Bangalore are a far cry from what they were years ago.
And airports are bribery free, and if you are stuck in a customs counter for more than 1 minute an officer walks over and asks the customs fellow what's wrong .. unlike before where every bag was literally ransacked with the ruse of finding contraband, and a lot of things get left behind conveniently when the bag is stuffed back .. only random checks happen. (I was told that smuggling has gone out of fashion with the more open economy that nobody bothers to bring in things that Customs can hold and ask for bribe .. )
Actually when I was in both Bangalore and Chennai, my bags were not opened, when I went and when I returned. add to it the dozens of domestic flights .. well, they are pretty busy to bother asking for a bribe .. and with the last 5 years of tele-expose of officials caught on camera, officials are terrified of even suggesting bribe. And there were even videos of police officers crying when they were caught and the anti corruption police were notified.
And I had to spend exactly less than a minute at Immigration both ways, and customs was just a chalk mark .. no more ..
And yes, the population is there, but the country has found a way to become more civilised .. of course, the 'national heritage' of ogling at women, or trying to 'jack' (poke your hand into women's breast) stil exists, but to a lesser extent
And with the new found people power, there is this feeling of 'catch a corrupt official' theme going on ..
Unlike the Philippines, with "PEOPLE POWER" they are busy digging themselves backwards, from trying to vote Estrada to power and endorsing Marcos' family and defending the Late Ferdinand Marcos' possibly burial as a soldier with full military honor.
Not that I am defending the Indian pride, but .. seriously, every time I visit Manila, especially T1, and the areas around Malate and almost everywhere except Makati proper, they are still a mirror image of India 20 years or so ago .. and it only seem to get worse ..
Oh, do some look up on Philippines news, you will see that more than half the news is about resurgence of NPA, MILF .. I don't see brighter skies ahead .. sorry to vent my thoughts ..