The 'Who You Know' Doctrine

After I read this article, I could not help be reminded of the political scale in New Orleans.

Corruption in Hungary - It's WHO you know - paper
Budapest, December 3 (MTI) - A Hungarian wanting to manage an administrative matter had best know someone in the office handling it, reported Monday's national daily Nepszabadsag, analyzing corruption reports from private citizens and businesses.

While comparatively few people reported having to pay bribe money, nearly half the survey said their business was handled faster if they had friends in the administrative offices.

Fully 46.9 percent of the sample said their personal contacts speeded things up, although only 8.1 percent supplied a gift to support the contact. Even fewer, 3.2 percent said they had been asked for money to speed up their business, while only 1.8 percent said officials had asked them for money to approve a request.

The sample also found family services to operate best among the various offices of public administration, while they qualified employment centres as the worst. The least popular bureau - and apparently the one where one-third of people have had to contend with corruption - is the land title office, Nepszabadsag wrote.

New Orleans own brand is the 'Who You Know' Doctrine. 'What You Know' gets you nowhere in The Big Easy where political corruption continues to run rampant.