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Gold/Mining/Energy : Caussa Capital (formerly Antares) T.CAU -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CIMA who wrote (2087)	1/7/1998 12:02:00 AM
From: The Fix	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 4718

Off Topic Not ANZ bus. Yet. Hello CIMA......You Asked. "Can corruption in the former Yugoslavia be worse than in Indonesia?" First off let me state that I'm very bullish on the prospects of ANZ and it's future. This is one of the smartest structured companies that I've come accross on the TSE (Not many people know about this). I have never been to Indo and I don't have a real grasp of the level and degree of corruption in that country. Maybe Junadi (Hope I spelled it right) can add something to this. My understanding of Indo Corruption is that only the Top Dogs get "greased". I think that this has to do with the gov. structure of the country. Your avg. Indonesian is polite and low key/quite. In Yugoslavia/Serbia it's a different kind of corruption. Everyone wants a handout and the higher up you are on the totempole, the bigger the hand is. This way of life I feel steems from the fact that Yugoslavia has been Socialist for a very long time. The avg. Joe on the street always was told that the Government would always look after the people. In Tito's era there was no unemployment, no welfare system at all and everyone beleived in the cause and all the Socialist propaganda, Yadda, yadda da da. Now that Socialism has failed in Yugoslavia and the country has fallen apart. There is rampant unemployment, little value left in the Old Dinar (currency) high inflation and Western Sanctions have crippled the economy. The people have seen that Socialism has failed them and will do anything for hard currency. It's sad to say and I'm sure that Micheal can back me up on this but the Yugoslav people are "Lazy". They see the western way of life and figure that every thing is milk and honey in "America". So they see that someone is in there country to do business and they figure that anything that this westerner wants , he will need to pay for it. Bribes/tips/presents are a way of life to earn a living. Years ago I was going from Zagreb to Belgrade and about 30 KM. outside of Belgrade I was pulled over by the Militia (Police). The cop saw German rental Licence plates and thought that I'm the prime candidate for speeding that day. I had to go over to his Lada/Yugo and he asked for my International Drivers Licence (I had just slipped acouple of Lincoln's inbetween the pages), He saw the money and in his Broken english said something to the fact....."Follow me, nema problema (no problem). Well I got an official escort on the Highway into Belgarde. This guy all of a sudden was my best friend. The company that I worked for had set aside money in it's budget for greasing purposes of the Business counterparts. This is always hidden in Financials when anyone ever reads statements. Just to correct Ossie but Yugoslavia/Serbia is not part of the E.U. yet. Fixer