> ...the corruption there is very thorough and continues well on down to the lower strata of society.
This coming from a person who apparently never lived in Cambodia and might never have even visited, but who tried and failed to sell software to Cambodians.
This is a perfect example of the Western superiority complex. The average person in Cambodia is 27 years old. Well over half the population lives in rural areas, where median salaries are under $300/month and higher education enrollment is not even 25%.
The implied suggestion that Cambodians are a more corruptible form of human is as sad as it is ridiculous.
Culture is real. Different countries have different levels of corruption. The US is currently getting worse on this measure.
The average Cambodian is a "poor" person trying to get through the day with limited awareness of the power structures in Phnom Penh. Even the ones who have some awareness of the system they live in know they're powerless to change it.
I wouldn’t be so worried about the corruption of my society if I thought there was something implicit that meant we wouldn’t be corrupted in the same way that others are.
Nor do I blame the Cambodians for their predicament. You’re tilting at windmills.
You didn't need to pay any advisors. It's very well-known that selling into Cambodian companies, all of the successful of which are owned by people who are part of the patronage networks, is typically pay to play.
But I still fail to see how this gives you any insight into the lower stratas of Cambodian society. The people who are living and working in Phnom Penh making procurement/purchasing decisions are not even "average" Cambodians. They're among the more fortunate.