Do I look that stupid? Don’t
answer that on the grounds I might have to clip you around the ear for being cheeky.
Apparently a Washington
based think tank (has there ever been a better oxymoron?) seems to think so.
The curiously named Social
Progress Imperative has just ‘published’ or rather a compliant and gullible New
Zealand media has just published for them, a survey that proudly announces I
and my fellow Kiwis are the freest people in the known world.
Now if that was actually true
it might be something to be grateful for given the appalling conditions that
exist in some countries. But much as I don’t want rain on anyone’s parade – oh alright
I do sometimes enjoy damping down some of the more ridiculous shows of
misplaced enthusiasm – I feel it is important to take issue with this survey/report/PR
exercise.
The first thing that strikes
me about such a report is that I wonder what criteria went into assessing
whatever ‘data’ they might have collected. Closer inspection reveals that
basically 12 ‘categories’ were assessed and given scores, which obviously would
have to be subjective guesses (educated or otherwise) by those compiling the
report. As that much is really a no-brainer it becomes obvious that placing
much reliance upon such a document would be foolish in the extreme. After all
one man’s freedom is another man’s bondage and any assessment of this type can
only be arrived at in the context of one’s own experiences.
So now that I have rubbished
the credence of this report, I find myself turning my thoughts to the purpose of it.
Why would somebody want to
produce a report like this, apart from the fact that they managed to get paid
squillions of dollars to do so? Somebody commissioned/ordered this report to be
done otherwise it would not have happened.
My first reaction is to
notice that the report has its origins in the USA. This is a country that
churns out many millions of reports each year that they then feed to a keen or
compliant press most of whom are owned lock stock and gun barrel by large
multi-nationals and who have the resources and the infrastructure to
disseminate these pearls of wisdom all over the ‘free world’ in less time than
it took me to type the last sentence.
My guess is that this was
commissioned (openly or otherwise) by a group of multi-national bodies
corporate. Anyone even vaguely familiar with human psychology will know that one
of the best ways to get people on your side or sympathetic to you is to flatter
them and make them feel good about themselves. Success is almost guaranteed if
they are aware that your flattery is based upon some sort of ‘scientific data’
that ‘proves’ to them that they are as fabulous as you have been telling them.
The US Government has been a
world leader in propaganda for an extremely long time and their influence
stretches far and wide. Countries like New Zealand have regarded them as major
allies all along and this is even more apparent when the treasury benches are
occupied by those from the right of the political spectrum. It is a rare thing
indeed for New Zealand to ever oppose anything the USA does and we so often
fall over backwards trying to accommodate them with their intelligence
gathering activities and by supporting them either physically or morally in
their military endeavours. We also ‘enjoy’ a favourable trade relationship with
them – although it doesn’t take a genius to work out who actually gets the most
favours from that.
Now don’t get me wrong, any
of my American readers; it’s not the American people I am talking about here it
is the pond-life that occupy their corridors of power. The fact is that much of
our own pond-life thinks the sun shines out of their algae encrusted bums.
So what really is the deal
here with this report? Why has it come out now?
I think there are two
obvious reasons for this report being released now and my diseased and
conspiracy addled brain says the timing of this is no coincidence. This is
election year and who stands to benefit from a report that screams in headlines
that we have never been so free?
Why that must be our
benevolent Government of course; the very same one that has expended so much
time and energy stoutly defending our right to privacy, freedom of speech and
democracy. Now what exactly have they done to move our freedom forward?
Oh yes, that’s right when
more than two thirds of those who voted against asset sales in a referendum last
year opposed asset sales they publicly announced even before the results that
they would ignore our views if they clashed with their own. The there have been
the breaches of the rights of the Tuhoe people and Kim Dotcom, the protection
of coalition partners who cross the line on matters of trust and then keeping a
Minster in power who has created an apparent conflict of interest during a Ministerial
overseas junket. And that is just the tip of an iceberg far larger than any
encountered by the Titanic.
Of course this is a
potentially good election year present for the current Government who coincidentally
(thank heavens for co-incidence) sycophantically adores of the US
administration.
But it is also a great
distraction. It distracts the attention of the masses from more important
matters such as that horrendously disempowering document the TPPA which our (same)
Government is so keen to sign up to and which the US administration wants us to
sign up to as well (more coincidence).
So while we are busy
celebrating our new found status as the bastions of freedom our Government is
busy trying to sell those freedoms off to multi-nationals via this cheerily
entitled Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement which will have us reduced to
minor partners in our own resources. This agreement will allow these corporates
to dictate what we do in what used to be our country, although even that
particular ownership must be under a cloud now. That is because the toothless
OIC seems keen to sell up endless tracts of land to off-shore investors while
the Government assists morally unsuitable migrants to gain citizenship and buy
up properties at ridiculous prices thus making property unaffordable for the
locals and the Government keeps selling NZ assets by the pound. The latter is
the biggest lie of all when they say they will only sell the majority of shares
to Kiwis but then later have to revise that because not enough Kiwis have the
dough to buy them.
Oh yes. That sounds like
freedom, doesn’t it?
And before I close I should
mention that closer examination of the SPI (or spy?) report reveals that all is
not quite as good as the screaming headlines might suggest. Our health system
is going down the toilet along with our general health and our high suicide
statistics and our eco system sustainability is shot to pieces. But we are ‘free’
to experience all that, so it must be alright.
It’s time more people in
Godzone woke up and smelled the rat in mi kitchen Come September let’s fix dat
rat.
