ABSTRACT
Pragmatic descriptions of how people handle gifts or bribes as a businessman, aid worker, adoption agency representative, and often contain short statements explaining "how it works". When gifts or bribes are referred to as risks in day-to-day professional life, this chapter distinguish a "declaring," "stating of fact," or sober choice of language, a discourse of normality as well as comparisons with other occupational problems. Even accusations of taking bribes can be retold matter-of-factly as one of the risks of working life. The potential "danger" or risk of bribes is relativized through examples of even worse phenomena: illness, snakes, alcohol, and traffic. One may also display expertise by recounting various strategies for avoiding demands for bribes. A certain strategic triumph can be detected when people describe themselves as the victors in recounted interactions. When interviewed discuss the practices and morality of bribery, as well as distinguishing between private life and work life, they discuss various rationalities.
