Fatal Strike: Paladins Mercenary Road

Chapter 879 The Game Behind the Parade

After making the decision, the highly efficient Mountain Eagle went out alone to buy food and water, and also replenished some weapons and ammunition.

Fighting inside a luxury hotel is extremely risky; if the two sides exchange fire, there is a high possibility of friendly fire.

If this situation occurs, both sides in the firefight will become a thorn in the side of the local government.

Because luxury hotels that often involve investments of hundreds of millions of dollars typically have a very impressive list of shareholders, offending them is essentially equivalent to offending both the local legal and illegal circles.

Therefore, Mountain Eagle and his team need a detailed plan...

With tactical goggles concealing his appearance, Mountain Eagle changed his clothes and hat and swaggered out of the apartment where he was hiding, wandering around the area.

After familiarizing himself with the surrounding roads, Mountain Eagle bought a few roasted pork knuckles from a restaurant called Caru' cu Bere, which claimed to have a history of over a hundred years. The knuckles looked decent, but they were dry and greasy. The sauerkraut rolls served as a side dish made him feel even more disgusted.

However, since we were already there, we figured we should at least try the most famous local restaurant, so we decided to queue up...

While waiting for his food, Mountain Eagle bought two bottles of beer, walked to the roadside, and chatted with some locals who were watching the parade.

Most people's English wasn't very good, but a middle-aged man with glasses who looked like a scholar heard Mountain Eagle speaking English, so he accepted the beer offered to him, and the two started chatting by a dimly lit street lamp...

Mountain Eagle: "Why are they marching?"

The middle-aged scholar said with a worried expression, "Because of government corruption..."

The mountain eagle blinked and nodded, saying, "Then there should definitely be a march to make those corrupt officials step down and get out of here..."

The middle-aged scholar looked at the mountain eagle as if it were a fool and said, "The mayor of Bucharest, Oprescu, has been exposed by the media for embezzling 6 euros, and he is currently under investigation."

However, the losses caused by these protests have far exceeded 6 euros!
These people don't believe in the law, yet they want to use it as a basis to try and bypass investigation and judgment, directly trying to remove Oprescu from office.

Looking at the middle-aged scholar in front of him whose speech was very "un-European," Mountain Eagle asked curiously, "Don't you hate corrupt people?"

The middle-aged scholar shook his head and said, "Of course I hate these corrupt politicians, but the reality is that Romania's high economic growth over the past few years has been led by these corrupt politicians."

Corruption should certainly be punished, but the law should determine what punishment they should receive, rather than using demonstrations to try to bypass legal procedures and force the other party to step down.

This is not a protest at all, but a political manipulation!
The people behind the scenes only want to overthrow the current government, not to truly address corruption, and certainly not for Romania's development.

Mountain Eagle was intrigued by the middle-aged scholar's attitude. He looked the indignant-looking fellow up and down and said with a smile, "But anti-corruption is always politically correct, so what they're doing isn't wrong, right?"

The middle-aged scholar paused for a moment, then sighed. Looking at the frenzied crowd in the distance, he said somewhat dejectedly, "But just because something is right doesn't mean it's correct!"

The middle-aged scholar seemed reluctant to discuss the topic further. He pointed to a group of 'civilian journalists' holding up cell phones and cameras not far away, and watched as a crowd of onlookers cheered for every conflict between the 'journalists' and the police. He took a sip of beer, looking dejected, and said, "They are all thugs and hooligans hired by NGOs."

They create news, incite conflict between the public and the authorities, and then disappear once a new leader is elected.

Then we find that the newly elected government overturns many of the previous administration's policies, and while some people benefit, those benefits are irrelevant to the majority.

A normal person might say, "But fighting corruption is always the right thing to do. Since it doesn't matter who's in power, if protesting can put a nail in the coffin of those corrupt officials, why not?"

But Mountain Eagle is not a normal person. Of course, he also hates corruption, but he has lived in Russia for many years and experienced a lot. He knows all too well the true nature of these Europeans.

The more honest a government official is, the less likely they are to do anything; conversely, those who are willing to take bribes are more likely to actually get things done.

The idea that corruption drives development may sound inhumane, but it is precisely a reflection of human nature.

Because being lazy and gluttonous is the nature of any intelligent being, why should I take on responsibility when I get no benefit from it? I'm already being generous by doing my job well.

The reality is that in multi-party electoral systems like those in Europe, without the incentive of corruption, officials simply won't do anything, let alone be 'efficient'.

Of course, corruption itself is wrong, and wrong is wrong!
Only scholars and elites, like those in front of a mountain eagle, will ponder the deeper logic behind it and devise solutions.

It's essentially about aligning with human nature and finding a way to both promote national development and minimize the harm of corruption.

This is not a fantasy; Europe and America have had a legal system for bribery for a long time, and have even enacted legislation for it.

The United States has mastered the art of disguised bribery through methods such as "political cash," "lobbying," "speech," and "book publishing."

And those who give speeches and publish books everywhere do indeed accomplish a lot.

However, this approach can lead to another phenomenon in multi-party systems: when you take money to do something, another group of people will try to sabotage it, and if you want to get rid of them, you have to get them to share the benefits.

In politics, this is called a compromise!

Of course, this is just a rough estimate. In reality, the political infighting and complex web of interests in a multi-party government can drive administrative costs to unbelievable levels.

If time could stop in the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the living environment in most European countries would be considered exemplary.

But as the saying goes, bad is bad, and no one who has benefited from it is willing to sit down again and discuss a way to restrain their rights.

Despite the fierce battles between political parties, they never actually touch upon the core rights and interests of either side.

Then corruption will gradually be amplified in this struggle and infighting, starting with taking some benefits and gradually developing into collusion with transnational capital to embezzle domestic assets.

This creates a very ridiculous contradiction: without corruption, politicians talk nonsense all day long without doing anything, their efficiency is outrageously low, and economic development stagnates; but corruption leads to a vicious cycle that eventually becomes uncontrollable.

Moreover, the larger the country, the more prominent this contradiction becomes.

The idea of ​​high salaries to encourage integrity and strict laws, as people imagine it, only has some effect in places like Singapore, where the population is small and tiny. However, even then, it can only be implemented because of the huge fixed income generated by their geographical location.

Applying the same method to New Zealand, where the government is indeed more honest, the level of inefficiency is so low it's almost despairing—no joke.

Only countries capable of breaking free from vicious cycles have the hope of embarking on a fast track of development.

Of course, there are governments in the world that are both greedy and inactive, but those are not included in this discussion.

The purpose of such a government is to continuously export the value generated in its own country to foreign countries, and those politicians are very clear about what they are doing.

However, the desire to truly develop a country, especially a large country with tens or even hundreds of millions of people, involves a series of factors such as human nature, power struggles, conflicts, politics, development, people's livelihood, balance, and ideology that can drive many people to the brink of collapse.

To find a balance between the various contradictions that arise in the course of development, we need scholars like the one in front of the mountain eagle, or other practitioners, to think, explore, and debate, and finally compromise to find a way that can be accepted by the majority.

Few Europeans think this way, and even fewer are willing to share it with a stranger...

Mountain Eagle curiously raised his beer and clinked it against the middle-aged man's, then said with a smile, "Your point is very insightful. May I ask what you do for a living?"

The middle-aged man paused for a moment, glancing warily at the mountain eagle. Then, perhaps the eagle's fur lowered his guard, he took a sip of beer and said, "Carlia Mannescu, I work at the University of Bucharest, and I'm also a financial advisor to the city government..."

The mountain eagle blinked at the simply dressed middle-aged man before him, extended his hand to shake Manescu's, and said, "I didn't expect you to be a university professor..."

Manescu shook hands with the mountain eagle, then shook his head and said, "I taught political economy for a while, but now I only work at the university, and my role as a government financial advisor is only part-time."

Manescu shook his head and said with some helplessness, "It looks like my part-time job is about to fall through."

Mountain Eagle paused for a moment, then asked meaningfully, "Why? Just because of those protesters and reporters?"

Mannescu glanced at the mountain eagle, shook his head slightly, and said, "The reasons are complicated and difficult to explain in a few words."

Since you bought me drinks, I advise you to leave Bucharest within a week and go somewhere else.

The mountain eagle asked curiously, "Why?"

Manescu shook his head with a complicated expression and said, "Because the Liberal Party will soon propose an early election, and in order to force the current government to compromise, the scale of the marches will definitely expand, and may even lead to some violent clashes."

Bucharest won't be safe then!

Mountain Eagle said thoughtfully, "Do those NGOs really have that much power?"

Manescu shook his head painfully and said, "NGOs can't mobilize that many people, but there are too many foolish young people in this country."

They simply don't understand what politicians who come to power with funding from NGOs ultimately take from this country!

After listening, Mountain Eagle nodded and said, "That means that if someone takes down the NGOs behind the scenes, the Romanian government is actually happy to see it happen."

Manescu, who had been watching the direction of the marching crowd, nodded subconsciously, then suddenly looked warily at the mountain eagle, only to find that it had disappeared...

(End of this chapter)