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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Radio NZ 4pm today


I'm on the Panel on Radio NZ this afternoon at 4pm

4 Comments:

At 25/5/10 11:07 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you going to mention the BP oil spill or is it too embarassing because your boy Obama has been negligent.

If this was Bush then you leftards would be all over this.

 
At 25/5/10 11:49 am, Blogger Bomber said...

Silly Anon, you must have missed last weeks war on news where I attacked Obama for taking his $70 000 donation from them, or the week before where I attacked BP over their negligence or a couple of weeks before that when I attacked Obama's greenlight of drilling in the Gulf. Tonight I point out how many drone deaths Obama has agreed to since becoming President.

I think you see what you want to see Anon.

 
At 25/5/10 7:15 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well I think you got needlessly outspoken by Michelle Boag there, but well done for at least being there to raise the way corporate interests are likely to dominate the upcoming Auckland Council.

I thought it was interesting that Michelle didn't argue that corporate interests would be monopolising the boards. She asked rhetorically "In who's interests do you think they're ganna be running the city?" but I don't buy the argument they are "community minded". I think the obvious argument that businesspeople are "not evil" is correct, but it ignores the simple fact that neo-lib policies work in their favour. Like privatisation, deregulation and the very system the council is turning into itself. It would take a person with more moral strength than most of us to advocate for others interests (Maori, lower deciles, Westies etc) and against their own interests. I just can't see a rich business man speaking in the interests of those that need representation most. This is why - whether they are good people or not, or whether they have excellent organisational skills or just excellent money making skills - the weight of self interest makes business rich unsuitable to represent Auckland as a whole.

One thing I don't understand: if they (the "Council Controlled Organisations" are unelected, who chooses them? The council, government? And are they really totally uncountable?

I haven't the time to read the draft acts, so I rely on people like you to advise us on whether there will be accountability, fair representation and a fair system likely to come out of these policy documents, or otherwise. So thanks for doing that and raising our concerns for those of us without "business experience" or connections.

btw I just have to shake my head in rueful disbelief when I hear comments like "you'd have to be *ideological* [to oppose privitisation]" like Rodger Kerr said. We all have ideologies, they are inevitable in thinking. People who say they don't, or use *ideology* as a slur, are being incredibly arrogant in that what they are really claiming is that they have the monopoly on truth. This is a way of thinking which is, ironically, the most corrupt, self-serving and wilfully distortive ideology of all.

 
At 26/5/10 11:43 am, Blogger tdes said...

Bomber vs Michelle was a serious lolfest :)

 

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