Very few people understand the real reason why Kodak failed to dominate the digital world. It actually dates back to a 300 million dollar lawsuit which Honeywell won against Minolta over a patent for an autofocus system. The Japanese camera companies were so outraged over this perceived injustice that they vowed never to engage in technology sharing with American companies ever again and this ended up crippling Kodak's ambitions.
"they’re serious about “no entry” if you have tattoos"
That's nothing unusual in Japan, even Japanese people in Japan can't join a gym or get car insurance if they've got tattoos. They're serious about that stuff for a reason.
It's fairly unusual to strictly enforce it on foreigners. Every place I've been with a no tattoos policy generally overlook tourists with smaller unassuming tattoos.
I went to Japan for about a month as someone with tattoos. I didn't have many issues out and about but I was told in the gym and I could not have them showing.
I just wore sleeves over them and although less comfortable than my normal gym attire it was fine.
I was denied access to an Onsen because I honestly forgot about the tattoo thing for a while but was able to find one that was tattoo friendly. They were not mean or anything they just informed me it was policy. Completely understandable given the history.
My tattoos are very noticeable though. Like you would never miss large forearm tattoos, so it's probably hard for them to overlook for them and let it slide even for a foreigner
I was in a Shikoku hotel's public bath a couple month ago, and a guy with full on Yakuza back (and arms) tattoo came in to shower. No one batted an eye. Granted no staff was present, so no one enforced the rule. I also did not try to get a glimpse of his pinkies.
I think it’s very taboo regardless of the tattoo design. That said, there are also tattoo-friendly places, and ones where you can just put a bandaid over.
It's impossible to do business in Africa without bribing people, all these laws do is put Western companies at a tremendous disadvantage compared to Chinese ones.
In my first real job about a decade ago, I asked the APAC/China rep why the prices were 30-40% higher... "The hookers and bribes tax. Hookers and bribes"
> impossible to do business in Africa without bribing people
Why?
> all these laws do is put Western companies at a tremendous disadvantage
While attempting to address a serious problem. You could say this of any law.
> compared to Chinese ones.
Not a standard I care about or am willing to be held hostage to. Moral sacrifice to capture international business is pretty gross. Probably why it wasn't even hard to pass the law.
The explanation I've heard before is that when you need anything from a thoroughly corrupt government, as simple as a building permit or a visa for a foreign employee involved in a project, officials will simply not process your request without a bribe. They believe it is owed. End of story.
I don't like the explanation in the slightest. But I do see how it might shut down opportunity if you can't overpower the obstacles, and aren't willing to bribe.
The utility of US laws against bribing foreign officials is to break down the expectation by those officials of a bribe. But, from a game theory point of view, if China is willing to bribe, this becomes much less effective.
The same happens in Latin America as well. If you want to get through the layers of bureaucracy without being stuck for years in a process, you have to pay up. And it has to be a well-connected government official. That’s mostly the reason I don’t bother with anything entrepreneurship related here.
Because there is no mechanism in basically all of Africa that would put some kind of limit on it. No strong governmental institutions, no moral framework, no religious framework. And to the contrary, the African continent is largely antithetical to western/European moral, ethical, and philosophical limitations.
People just assume Africans are the same as Europeans and Asians, etc. because they’ve had it hammered into their minds all their lives, but reality is that we are all quite different and that’s good in some ways and bad in others, but it’s different.
Err totally wrong the entire north Africa has strong religious frameworks, and take Egypt as an example of a powerful government. Plenty of other places too.
I knew I should specify sub-Saharan Africa, because there’s always that Reddit tier knowing and willful idiot contrarian that just can’t help themselves from just being opposite for sake of being opposite, due to a severe mental derangement that compels them to be that way.
We are not talking about North Africa here, we are talking about South Africa and South Africa like places, which would mean sub-Saharan Africa, not Egypt or Algeria or Tunisia. You lack refinement and do not contribute anything useful, and may want to reflect on why you have that contrarian compulsion. No one is talking about North Africa. All the intelligent people here know we are talking about Africa in the context of South Africa. You clearly lack fundamental skills to distinguish such things.
to my christmas list. I don't think the law or war are appropriate tools for establishing international morality, but maybe the right ones are somewhere in these.
US oil companies like ExxonMobile have survived on the international market just fine, despite the laws preventing them handing out bribes for the past several decades.
There are several examples of bribes being publicized and the guilty company losing out on big contracts as a result (e.g. from ECHELON spying).
Yeah, I have a friend who worked in South-East Asia for a while - he said that his company paid "agents" whose job was specifically to pay the bribes on behalf of his company so that they themselves wouldn't get in trouble for paying the bribes.
It looks like Americans can claim a 1st Amendment protection against prosecution of these laws provided they are acting as individuals and not on behalf of organizations.
I'm sure they think the US is a settler-colonialist entity. I mean how could it not be considered one? We still have the little bit of the native population that is left on reservations.
I think you're making the mistake that "settler-colonialist" is some kind of demonic brand that condemns everything that it might be applied to to perdition or at least cancellation, but its really just a plain description of how history has brought us to this moment in time. There are egregious cases and less egregious ones.
"I think you're making the mistake that "settler-colonialist" is some kind of demonic brand that condemns everything that it might be applied to to perdition or at least cancellation"
That's precisely what they're doing. Anyone with even a casual understanding of the modern American hard-left knows that's what they're saying and anyone who says otherwise is obviously, willfully lying.
I wouldn't describe myself as "hard-left" but I am in a milieu where the legacies of colonialism are routinely discussed and I can personally tell you that there really isn't any intent to "cancel" everything associated with colonial powers or any bullshit like that. Are you sure you're not taking your cues about what the "left" believes from right wing media who select the most absurd tumbler posts as evidence for what project the "left" is up to?
In general, identifying the most extreme opinions consonant with a general set of ideas will, no surprise, furnish you with extreme opinions. The "hard right" in the United States wants to "obliterate trans people from public life" and install a "Red Caesar" to de-secularize the United States under righteous authoritarian rule. It would be stupid of me to associate those beliefs with, for example, Mitch McConnell or conservative members of the supreme court, though see below.
The fact is that there is _no organized left_ in the United States. Those kids posting memes on tumbler have no power, Bernie Sanders (a moderate by the standards of European democracies) couldn't take the Democratic nomination from a liberal capitalist. Getting your brain twisted about the "far left" is deranged. The far right, on the other hand, is much more politically organized and engaged, as evidenced by the fact that they are, among other things, banning books, passing legislation, and gumming up congress as we speak.
