Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Business as usual: Wal Mart bribes in Mexico

Let's see: Republican't philosophy protects fabulously wealthy inheritance babies like the 6 of Sam Walton's heirs worth "more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined, up from 30 percent in 2007."

Seemingly, my great progressive savior stands ready to betray future Social Security beneficiaries--poor widows, disabled humans, and others of that ilk--by cutting benefit dollars, real actual dollars people will need tobuy food and medicine--you know, the non-essential items.

Who won the election, the guy who wants to keep using drone strikes which also kill innocents in Pakistan or the guy who would keep using drone missile attacks which create collateral damage?

[SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACÁN, Mexico — Wal-Mart longed to build in Elda Pineda’s alfalfa field. It was an ideal location, just off this town’s bustling main entrance and barely a mile from its ancient pyramids, which draw tourists from around the world. With its usual precision, Wal-Mart calculated it would attract 250 customers an hour if only it could put a store in Mrs. Pineda’s field.

One major obstacle stood in Wal-Mart’s way.

After years of study, the town’s elected leaders had just approved a new zoning map. The leaders wanted to limit growth near the pyramids, and they considered the town’s main entrance too congested already. As a result, the 2003 zoning map prohibited commercial development on Mrs. Pineda’s field, seemingly dooming Wal-Mart’s hopes.

But 30 miles away in Mexico City, at the headquarters of Wal-Mart de Mexico, executives were not about to be thwarted by an unfavorable zoning decision. Instead, records and interviews show, they decided to undo the damage with one well-placed $52,000 bribe.

The plan was simple. The zoning map would not become law until it was published in a government newspaper. So Wal-Mart de Mexico arranged to bribe an official to change the map before it was sent to the newspaper, records and interviews show. Sure enough, when the map was published, the zoning for Mrs. Pineda’s field was redrawn to allow Wal-Mart’s store.

Problem solved.]

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