coima
coima - argentine slang for bribe. well we thought we might see it in action for the first time yesterday. kathy, myself and two of our friends lucas and lili went to go for a jog. lucas decided to drive there as the area lili likes to jog in is a bit far from where we were. well, we made a turn onto to this major street here and suddenly realized the cops had set a trap. they were pulling everyone over who was driving one way because the road was only one-way till 1pm. (it was 12:45) granted there are barely any signs saying this and its hard to tell because the cars werent exactly taking advantage of the extra lanes open to them.we were pulled over with about 4 other cars. most people here have a very low opinion of the local police force (as they are paid very low salaries many feel they are no better than common thieves) so when you are pulled over most people feel it is just a way to extort some $$ out of you. usually the question is like "you know you did x, how can 'we' fix it?" lucas lives just outside the city so he began by telling the officer that he doesnt come to the city much, doesnt have any $$ and has foreigners (us) in the car. he didnt know, didnt see , etc... after some discussion and shockingly no money exchanged they let him go with what seemed like just a warning - whew!
we were able to go for a run in peace. tomorrow its off to Necochea , a beach town about 6hrs south of buenos aires for a wknd of beach and sea with desiree, gabriel and adriana.
posted by sethnem @ 10:11 AM
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