I think it's funny that if you used to go to these countries for your job, and if you used bribery money, you could deduct it as business expenses.

The law was changed in 2002, where it was still legal in non-German context and not concerning foreign public officers. Now that is illegal too.

That doesn't mean there is non though, I wish it was true in Germany as well.

I've learned to see bribery as a relative problem, not absolute. In my view, if country A takes less bribe than country B, then country A is better - though both countries are corrupt :(

I've never been to Germany, but from what I've read/heard, Germany will probably score pretty high by my standard

Probably but it can be a stark contrast when it comes to personal experiences. I remember years ago a backpacker friend from Taiwan sending me a flood of messages about needing to leave Indonesia ASAP because she couldn't personally deal with the number of attempted scams and required briberies she had to suffer through.

There's also things like John Stossel's short documentary on setting up businesses in HK and in India.

It's not true in Germany either though...

You're telling me...