The only time I got hit badly for a bribe was at the Caracas airport in Venezuela.

It was blatant. Systematic. Though I pride myself on avoiding these encounters, I paid up that time — US$12 or so I could make a connection. Irked was I, but happily I bumped into a friend and we spent the last of his Venezuelan money in the bar.

Other times I have paid baksheesh, of course, but it was part of the normal course of business in those countries.

We “negotiated” a Park pass in Peru I recall. It was a fee that gringos normally did not pay.

In any case, Haiti is the bottom of the barrel. Finland the least corrupt.

Check the full list — CPI table / CPI 2006 / in focus / news room / home – Transparency International