Government As Corrupt Policeman, Japanese Descent From Heaven, And Swiss Bank Accounts

Perhaps not altogether surprisingly, a number of city officials who were in charge of overseeing the construction of the Sampoong Department Store building, were found to have received bribes for looking the other way when the owners made illegal changes that eventually brought down the structure. Those officials were jailed, along with Sampoong executives and construction company officers. In an ideal world, omniscient and benevolent government bureaucrats with a deep sense of public service strictly enforce building codes that prevent Rana Plazas and Sampoong Department Stores from being built in the first place. However, in the real world, in the world in which we live, bureaucrats are often neither omniscient nor benevolent, and the only deep sense many have is an uncanny, almost canine, sixth sense for sniffing opportunities to line their pockets with bribes from those they are supposed to regulate…