Archive for the ‘Corruption’ Category

Stigmatize the Money

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

– Good article over at Truthout on the subject of how big money corrupts American politics and what one alternative to the system might look like.

– Dennis

– To the article…

Regarding the influence of right-wing media on governments…

Monday, May 28th, 2012

– Saw this quote by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair this morning in an article in the New Zealand Herald:

“Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said today that he couldn’t stand up to the Britain’s media tycoons while in power, telling an official media ethics inquiry that doing so could have dragged his administration into a political quagmire.”

– These big news organizations are, themselves, just one part of the multi-national corporations who are intent on controlling governments and their actions and laws for the ultimate benefit of the corporations themselves.   They influence governments, as shown here.  They take over mass media such as newspapers, radio and television to use them to promulgate their self serving propaganda,   And, for those who are following the Net Neutrality (, , , and ) debates and skirmishes, they are also seeking to control the Internet for their own benefit as well.

– And the irony is that most people do not know this is all going on and, when told, will deny it.

– Wake up people!   The thieves of your freedoms are in the house and well past your locked doors.

– Dennis

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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said today that he couldn’t stand up to the Britain’s media tycoons while in power, telling an official media ethics inquiry that doing so could have dragged his administration into a political quagmire.

Blair’s testimony, briefly interrupted by a heckler who burst into the courtroom to call him a war criminal, shed light on the canny media strategy used to create the “New Labour” image that repackaged his party as more mainstream and business friendly, bringing it back to power after 18 years in opposition.

Blair, who was premier from 1997 to 2007, enjoyed strong press support in his early years, including backing from media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s influential newspapers. But he found himself isolated near the end of his decade in power due in large part to his unpopular decision to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The greying ex-prime minister said he long had concerns about what he once described as the “feral beasts” of the media but had to tread carefully where press barons were concerned.

– More…

 

Housing NZ head questioned over trips

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

– This is the kind of insider trash that goes on in the U.S. all the time.  I.e., folks work in the government agency that regulates an industry, they meet with folks from that industry, they get cosy with them, then new laws, favorable to the industry, are passed and then the individuals involved leave government service and end up on the boards of the industries they previously regulated.

– I would have hoped that New Zealand was smarter than this but this story would indicate not.

– Dennis

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Two former senior Housing New Zealand executives went on a $35,000 trip to visit a software company in Britain just months before both quit Housing NZ and set up a private company which went into partnership with the same software company.

Labour housing spokeswoman Annette King yesterday questioned Housing NZ chief executive Lesley McTurk about a trip to London and Canada in June 2011 by Stephen McArthur and Roy Baker. The two were senior executives at Housing NZ who left soon afterward to set up their own consultancy firm, Tinakori.

The trip to London was for a conference held by Northgate – a software company Housing NZ has contracted for a major part of an $80 million IT upgrade. Northgate is now also a partner for Tinakori which was set up in February this year. Mr McArthur left HNZ in August 2011 and Mr Baker left in December 2011. Both are now directors of Tinakori.

Mr McArthur was the chief operating officer of Housing New Zealand and Mr Baker was the chief financial officer – both had significant roles in the IT project’s development.

Ms King asked Ms McTurk if she was aware the pair intended to leave Housing NZ when she approved the travel costs and whether there were questions about conflicts of interest.

Ms McTurk said she had no knowledge at that point that they planned to leave and believed it was appropriate the pair went to the conference given their role with the IT upgrade.

– to the original story…