A fact of life

It is difficult to resist the impression that bribery and other questionable payments are on the increase. Indeed, they seem to have become a fact of commercial life.

My comments:

“Fact of life” is a great idiom. Fact refers to some irrefutable truth, as against falsehood. In other words, facts are real.

“Fact of life” literally means everything real that we find in life. Obviously not everything we find and face in life is pleasant, and that is the point here. “A fact of life” refers to something unpleasant, undesirable, negative – and yet it is something prevalent, unavoidable.

Bribery and corruption is one such fact of life – it’s ugly and yet it’s always present. Its presence, like the elephant in the room, is keenly felt.

In other words, there’s no getting around it.

You know what I mean: there’s no getting around acknowledging the fact that bribery and corruption exist. There is a way of getting around having to do it yourself.

There is a way, as they say, if there is a will.

Related stories:

Leave no stone unturned

Train wreck

Keep up with Joneses

Finishing touch

No great shakes

Warts and all

Catch -22 situation

Pull-up trey

I'm sold

Flip-flop

Sit on its hands

Casing the joint

Free rein

Bear the brunt of

Cross one’s path

Tribute projects

Off the beaten track

At the forefront of

Seat warmer

The rule of the jungle

On-the-go

On the fence

Wild guess

In the high teens

Touch up

Unforced error

Catch a break

City slicker

Political correctness

Gee up

Big mind

Blanket statement

Making knee-jerk changes is not in our DNA

Pick one's brains

A good eye

Thank one's stars for

Real money

Nodding acquaintance

本文僅代表作者本人觀點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.