Using the "C" word
Using the “C” word
There is an awful lot of hoo-hah about the use of the “C” word and I can’t for the life of me understand it. I am descended from a bunch of hooligans that swept down from Northern Europe and colonised and absorbed the ancient Britons, so maybe that explains my tendency to call a spathi a spathi.
I just don’t see the point in beating about the bush; not that you would do that with a spathi in any case. But I have always reckoned if the hӧttr fits.......
Of course many people don’t want us to use the “C” word despite the fact that there are examples of it all over the world at present and it is very much in the news at the moment both in the public and recreational areas. Of course the only people who object to its use are those who are up to their necks in it.
But I don’t care about them because they are all crooks anyway. So I am going to use the “C” word all through this blog and damn the consequences. It’s time somebody did.
Corruption!!! There; I said it and I will say it again many more times before I am finished here.
The Fall
We once used to take pride in this country and we walked about our land thinking we were so much better than many other places in the world and we told ourselves we had many sound reasons for doing this.
We reckoned this was God’s own Country, or Godzone as it was popularly dubbed. We had clean air, clean waterways, a good standard of living, beautiful green unspoiled countryside, great weather, microscopic levels of unemployment and NO corruption. Jack was as good as his master and the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us was not enormous and basically most people could realistically aspire to owning their own home on a reasonable tract of land etc, etc.
So what has changed over the last 50 years?
Well, basically nearly all of that. While our air is mostly still fairly good, our waterways have become shockingly polluted;, our standard of living has slipped back a good 80 years; our unspoiled countryside now consists of a much smaller percentage of our entire area than it once did and much of that is polluted; our weather is a bit more capricious; our unemployment levels are heading towards those of the 1930s and corruption is rearing its ugly and greedy head every other day. While Jack is still as good, if not better than his master, he will no longer dare trying to tell that to his master lest he gets the order of the DCM, and as for the gap between the rich and the rest of us – well that great iconic Kiwi band the Windy City Strugglers put it very well in their song, “Too Many Millionaires” (check it out on YouTube and their excellent retrospective album, “Time Comes Around”).
The Rise
A rich clique has risen in this country and now basically between them they own it and as is always the case when ridiculously wealthy people also gain control of things corruption is the inevitable outcome. Selfish greedies want control of absolutely everything and so they pour money into the pockets of politicians, the judiciary and the bureaucracy to ensure that decisions always go their way, their interests are protected and laws are enacted to protect their money.
It is the old story of what happens to a small child who is given everything it ever asks for. They don’t get used to anything other than always getting their own way and so that becomes a life driving force for them. They behave badly and get away with it. Courts routinely suppress the names of wealthy people who fall foul of the law.
Not mentioning any names
Take the case of the former National MP and businessman convicted of sexual assault that made the news briefly around the time of our last election. His victim was given name suppression against her will thus victimising her all over again and she had to take legal action to be able to reveal her own name yet he has permanent name suppression. Why? It’s certainly not to protect the victim; it’s to protect the rich twit – and what a twit he was too – but then he has friends in high places and it would have been embarrassing for them to be associated with him especially around the time they were trying to get re-elected. What else could this be than corruption?
Art for art’s sake
Then we have the case of the Electoral Commission banning Darren Watson’s song “Planet Key” forever because they deemed it to be either an election advertisement or an election programme; they couldn’t even decide which they were alleging. Admittedly the High Court overturned their ban, but now they are appealing that decision when every sane person who has heard the song knows that it is a piece of artistic satire and very entertaining as well, whereas beloved leader Kim Jung Key’s autobiography which was released at the same time was quite clearly a promo for him and nothing else. So why was a promo for Key allowed to be sold at that time while a piece of satire that did not flatter beloved leader banned for life? What else could this be than corruption?
Know your place
Then we have the case of the housing bubble in Auckland (actually it is spreading like measles all over the country). The Reserve Bank came up with a plan to “slow down the spiralling house prices and make housing more accessible to the average bloke”. So what did they do? They required a higher deposit to be paid on any investment properties bought in the Auckland region.
So how was that going to make these places more affordable? Any fool can see that by increasing the deposit can only have one outcome; the people who will be stopped from buying such places will be those with less money. The rich won’t be bothered by having to raise more deposit, and they will simply cover that eventuality by sticking the rent up on these properties so not only will housing not get cheaper for low income people to buy; it will also get more expensive to rent. So why did they do that? They can’t be so dumb they didn’t know that so you have to assume that is another example of corruption.
If you look at events that have been occurring in the country formerly known as Godzone (I think Warner Brothers might have taken ownership of our name now), you will find countless more examples of these sorts of things going on.
Politically incorrect
The Nats played silly buggers with the rules during the Northland bye-election and got away with it. More corruption? Although in that case it failed to get the desired result. And there was all that mess with Judith Collins and her husband’s business interests in China which ultimately led to her being moved from cabinet. However that was not so much because anyone was prepared to admit what she had done was wrong; it was because she was becoming an embarrassment to a party wanting to get re-elected.
Then we have a Government trying to force through the TPPA – a deal which would open us up to foreign businesses being able to call the tune openly on our legislation and governance. I guess it wouldn’t be corruption once it becomes law. However it looks awfully like it right now.
And we also have troops about to get shot at In Iraq after the Government pushed through a plan to send us into yet another foreign battlefield to fight yet another imperialist war for yet another country that doesn’t give a stuff about us. When you analyse that to find out who benefits it is clear to see that it is not us and that corruption has led to such an undemocratic measure being taken that did not enjoy sufficient support in the house to justify it and only got through because the lackeys that are lapping from the National bowl didn’t want to lose their supping rights. It has to be corruption.
The coup without any grace
But the latest and most blatant one of all is the one that even has the opposition parties using the “C” word in the house.
Muzza McCullywobbles has arranged to placate a Saudi businessman who probably spends more than our GNP of a weekend by giving him an $11M farm stocked with prime sheep because he was upset that we stopped him from engaging in the cruel practice of live sheep exports from our shores to his. Add to this beloved leader assuring the Saudis that we should be able to overturn that decision to stop live sheep exports - a totally unilateral statement by him devoid of any hint of democratic process. Just all powerful leader making an assurance which in theory he could only back up if parliament supported it, But which in reality he has no intention of involving the democratic process in at all.
Now if that ain’t corruption I really don’t know what is. It starts to make FIFA look clean by comparison.