Aurornis
4 hours ago
Crackdown on unauthorized development.
Apparently the old way was to build in unauthorized locations and then pay the fines as part of the operating budget. The new plan is to enforce the existing regulations and try to have them demolished.
When a story about laws actually being enforced is news, it’s a good reminder that the weight of the law holds very different meanings in different countries.
vctrnk
2 hours ago
In the phrase "you _____ follow the law",
- Most of Latin America is 'should/oughta' - North America is more like 'have to' - Europe is 'need to' - And majority of Asia is simply 'WILL'
(disclaimer: I'm from LatAm)
andai
2 hours ago
What's the difference between those last three?
jghn
2 hours ago
"have to": If I don't, they'll shoot me
"need to": It is a moral imperative for me to do this
"WILL": Because of course this is the case
Rover222
2 hours ago
Africa: what is law?
cute_boi
an hour ago
in Africa small bribe is sufficient.
alephnerd
an hour ago
> And majority of Asia is simply 'WILL'
Nope. It's also "should/oughta" as well - even in developed Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan where bribery in development tenders is treated as the cost of doing business.
GAN Integrity [0] and the Yeun Yuen Ang's unbundled corruption matrix [1] is the best way to think about corruption and judicial compliance risk.
To quote the 2016 remake of The Tick:
"Goat: I'm going to speed-dial the police
Arthur: You pay organized crime weekly to protect your store and you say nothing
Goat: At least the organized crime is organized"
LatAm isn't that different from much of Asia or Eastern Europe - the only difference is the bulk of FDI that would have gone to LatAm shifted to Asia in the 1990s-2000s because of stronger linkages thanks to Japanese and Taiwanese financial partners. And European FDI in LatAm shifted to the CEE, Balkans, and Turkiye thanks to the EU expansion and the Eurozone crisis overimpacting Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France.
One of my acquaintances at the HKS who's the goto researcher on anti-corruption (eg. Worked directly with national governments in Asia, the UNODC, and the OECD on corruption and compliance standards) has themselves argued that LatAm (especially Brazil) got overly penalized following Lava Jato due to the lack of intermediaries. For example, American FDI into Asia is usually done in conjunction with Singaporean, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese partners who take the legal and operational burden which acts as a firewall but American and European FDI into LatAm is direct, which increases liability and compliance risk.
[0] - https://www.ganintegrity.com/country-profiles/
[1] - https://oecd-development-matters.org/2020/06/25/unbundling-c...
aylmao
27 minutes ago
> When a story about laws actually being enforced is news, it’s a good reminder that the weight of the law holds very different meanings in different countries.
I don't think the weight of the law holds very different meanings in different countries, so much as the weight of the law holds very different meanings for different capital levels.
In the USA like in Mexico, there's plenty of cases where companies will just count fines as operating costs.
DANmode
3 hours ago
It’ll be interesting to see if there are any holdouts, or developments let alone.