bending the rules

I asked wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_the_United_States for US ayslum laws and got this:

The United States is obliged to recognize valid claims for asylum under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. As defined by these agreements, a refugee is a person who is outside his or her country of nationality (or place of habitual residence if stateless) who, owing to a fear of persecution on account of a protected ground, is unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of the state. Protected grounds include race, nationality, religion, political opinion and membership of a particular social group. The signatories to these agreements are further obliged not to return or "refoul" refugees to the place where they would face persecution.


And this:

Asylum has three basic requirements. First, an asylum applicant must establish that he or she fears persecution in their home country.^[3] Second, the applicant must prove that he or she would be persecuted on account of one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or particular social group. Third, an applicant must establish that the government is either involved in the persecution, or unable to control the conduct of private actors.

So I think it is clearly the law, and if your position is that we should obey the law, there it is.

I't's commonly said that central American governments are run by gang characters, but I have never heard that said about Mexico,  Well except  for Trump saying it that is.


So this Saturday I watched a Romanian movie, Graduation.  There's this doctor who returned to the country after Ceausescus met that impromptu firing squad.    Apparently he wanted to help rebuild the country into more of an honest government without rampant graft.  I assume he fought the good fight but was unsuccessful, and when the movie catches up with him he has a daughter undergoing examinations which if she does well enough on she will be able to go England to study.  The guy has lost all hope for his country and he just wants his daughter to live in a comparatively uncorrupt country.

But then she gets attacked, her hand is in a cast, and the examiners aren't flexible about giving her extra time to write the test, but when he goes before the police one of them mentions some high official that might be able to help him out, 'a really good guy,' who needs a new liver, but is way down on the list to get one, maybe something could be done about that.

It turns out it can, and this just leads to a whole world of deals being made,  But they don't quite see it as corruption, it's more a matter of 'really good guys' helping out other 'really good guys,' and the bad guys become the honest guys who won't go along with the 'really good guys.'  It turns out to have a slightly upbeat ending where the daughter ditches the scheme to get a good grade on her exam by crossing out some words on the form thereby identifying her paper as one to be given a good grade, and passes it all on her own, and maybe instead of going to England she is going to stay in Romania and fight the honest fight for good government.

It  got me to thinking about  bending the rules.  Back in my childhood the CTA used to let young kids on the bus free, or maybe at a reduced fare, and as we were waiting at the bus stop my mother looked me in the eye and told me to lie to the driver if he asked my age.  What?  Tell a lie?  My mother who has always taught me to be a good boy now wants me to tell a lie? 

I shrugged, Okay Mom, and she added that it wouldn't hurt if I slouched a little, and I did my best at that too.