First business, then morals

Prompted by the Patria affair in which the Finnish arms company Patria allegedly bribed Slovenian officials to win an arms deal, Risto Pennanen examines the different moral standards prevalent in the global business sector: "Small and sparsely populated Finland is an individualist society in which laws are important for security. ... In countries like China, Russia and Italy the advantages to be derived from a deal are much more important than legal regulations. ... In many countries bribes are seen as a token of friendship. ... Here in Finland officially offering a bribe is clearly defined as a criminal act. The Finnish way of thinking is clearly preferable in this matter, but five million people hardly stand a chance against the thousand-year-old traditions of a billion Chinese. ... Therefore Finnish companies face a dilemma on several export markets. On the one hand they want to stay clean, but on the other they want to do business."

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