Also… the locals want to do things the right way, and the foreigners go with the flow? Think I might disagree slightly with that. For those who have become fantastically rich in the “wild west” of Central Asia, no doubt this is true. For average locals and average foreigners, it’s a different situation.

Far more often I deal with locals who not only don’t think or want things do be done “the right way” but they have only a vague idea of what “the right way” might be unless they’ve seen how things are done elsewhere.

Traffic cops and driving licenses are a good example. Many locals think nothing of paying outright for licenses for themselves or their relatives, and don’t bother to take driving classes or examinations (and it shows out on the roads). I tell people that you cannot hand a US traffic cop cash and drive away from a speeding ticket and they are dumbfounded. Whereas here, most would vastly prefer you do that than to do things “the right way”– because nobody makes money that way.