[Vnbiz] On the Cambodian Border

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

A little tidbit about the Cambodian border.  I flew into Cambodia from
Hongkong.  At the Phnompeng airport, things started to get very confused at
the customs line.  People didn't form lines properly; they jumped line
and talked and joked loudly.  Some customs officers ran around, looked at
people in line and sometimes asked someone in line some seemingly
inconsequential questions amd made them stressed.  I told myself: "Looks
like a perfect scene to run a bribery operation."

Sure enough, when my turn came, the customs guy glanced at me a couple of
times, turned my passport up and down a couple of times, then asked in
Vietnamese something, with some Cambodian accent.  I didn't hear clearly, so
I asked in English:  "What did you say?"  He said: "Co tien...."  I only
heard two words, but I understood the content, however I asked again,
forcing him to talk louder: "Sorry, I can't hear you."  He said again, "Co
tien tui khong?"  I said: "Sorry, I don't have cash."  He then said, "Hai do
la."  I said, "No."  I started to get annoyed and told myself, "I am not
giving out a penny in robbery bribe.  If you want to play rough, I am ready
to play rough."  The man looked at me for a second and probably realized
that he had hit a dead wall, he quietly finished the rest of his work and
returned the passport to me.

My companions also have US passports like me, but they look caucasian, so no
one asked them for money.

On my way out, again at the customs line, the (beautiful :-( lady officer
glanced at me a couple of times and then turned and asked her co-worker
something in Cambodian.  I told myself: "She is asking him if she can play
game with me."  Sure enough, she looked at me and said, "Five dollars."  I
said, "Sorry I don't have cash.  I have credit card.  If you want, I can
give you my credit card."  She quietly returned my passort to me.
But here is something else, more fascinating.  The folks on the airplane
from Hong Kong was at the Hongkong customs line with me, and then a
couple of hours later they were at the Cambodian customs line with me.  Same
group of people, but completely different behaviors.  In Hongkong, they were
orderly and quiet and polite.  In Cambodia, they became disorderly, they
jumped lines, they talked and joked loudly and made the atmosphere more
confusing and stressful. I told Bruce, my travelling companion: "Do you see
how the same group of people act completely differently between Hong Kong
and Cambodia?  This is an outstanding demonstration of the effect of a
system on the same group of people.  In a good system, everyone behaves
well.  In a bad system, everyone just simply behaves lousily.  Superb lesson
on management."

Just a couple of notes to share with you.

Hoanh

-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney of Law
Washington DC
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz/attachments/20061207/4d9a54b5/attachment.html