To bribe or not to bribe

The British have a death wish. 

A British made TV program tonight broadcast a documentary on the dodgy dealings in Brazil of Rolls Royce, one of the few manufacturing companies left in this country, being exposed for paying bribes. The thrill of the exposure and the excitement of the lead commentator in turning the stone to see what's under it was palpable

 

But it's not RT the Russian program maker who are broadcasting the scoop it's our own  BBCs, Panorama who seem determined to bring down Rolls Royce.
In the ways of investigatory reporting, the story of handing over bribes to obtain the contract, which is common in certain parts of the world, is condemned the Brit who is interviewed and who specialises in the legal aspect of the ethical veracity of bribe paying. It is clear in his condemnation that it's wrong, irrespective of the fact that if you didn't pay a bribe the work goes elsewhere to someone else who "was" prepared to pay the bribe.
International global based business deals across boarders with very different business practices. Cultures vastly different from ours are expected to conform to Western standards. The reality is, standards depend on whom and where they are applied and the reality is that nations exist in the world where bribery is common.
The self important voice of the investigator who rather gleefully tells us that Rolls Royce's finances are coming under strain and the company is in a bit of a tail spin, is reporting  as if the news and the investigatory report were simply a virus in a petri dish to be probed and analysed as a sixth form project but of course it isn't. Rolls Royce and its ilk are the basis of our survival.
Of course bribes shouldn't be paid but Pratt & Whitney or General Electric have the advantage of a large domestic market and even higher revenues from the military. This business is not construed as a bribe but it is a significant advantage as America continues to buy strategically from its home grown manufacturers.
The deals that go on within Russia are never the meat and two veg of RTs reporting.
The internecine conflicts within the high tech industries in America are never the grist of a CNN investigatory program but we in England flout our morality like a poor man flouts his new shoes.
Perhaps the program maker has the script already written where we too go down the drain and he is last man standing.