Posted by Dan Denning on Jun 21st, 2007
It sure seems like a crazy summer already in North America. June 21 is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This morning we read about a crowd in Austin, Texas pulling a man out of his car and beating him to death, after the car accidentally bumped into a four- year-old girl. Mobs are dangerous things, and not just in parking lots or at public spectacles.
In our on-line poll of which stock is the best to own for the next five years, “Other” has been overtaken by Fortescue in late-night voting. We thought it was an interesting exercise in taking the mood of the public. It’s not an exact science, though.
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Categories: Active investigations · Coorperations · Corperate power · Corruption · Endangered species · Exploration companies · News
I found this really cosy get together of business people and Politicians.
Helen Clark next to the CEO of Rio Tinto Aluminium NZ; Tom Campbell on one of the Photos.
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Categories: Active investigations · Coorperations · Corperate power · Corruption · Exploration companies · News
MECHANISMS OF CORPORATE RULETony Clark
The men who run global corporations are the first in history with the organisation, technology, money, and ideology to make a credible try at managing the world as an integrated economic unit.
Richard J. Barnett and Ronald E. Mueller, Global Reach
In the twenty-odd years since these words were penned, transnational corporations (TNCs) have consolidated their power and control over the world. Today, 47 of the top 100 economies are actually transnational corporations, 70 percent of global trade is controlled by a just 500 corporations, and a mere one per cent of the TNCs on this planet own half the total stock of foreign direct investment. At the same time, the new free market and free trade regimes (eg. GATT, NAFTA) have created global conditions in which transnational corporations and banks can move their capital, technology, goods, services – freely throughout the world unfettered by the regulations of nation states or democratically elected governments.
In effect, what has taken place is a massive shift in power, out of the hands of nation states and democratic governments and into the hands of transnational corporations and banks. It is now the TNCs that effectively rule and govern the lives of the vast majority of the people on earth. Yet, these new world realities are seldom reflected in the strategies of citizen movements for democratic social change. All too often, strategies are primarily aimed at changing government policies while the real power being exercised by the TNCs behind the scenes is rarely challenged, let alone dismantled. And when the operations of TNCs become the prime target for citizen action campaigns, there is a tendency to employ a more or less piecemeal approach to what is a deeply systemic problem.
As we approach the 21st century, it is imperative that social movements in both the North and the South develop a new politics for challenging the dominant global rule of transnational enterprises.
The following are some of the salient ingredients of the new powers that now give corporations effective control over the lives of peoples and nations in this age of globalisation, and then some suggestions as to changing the situation.
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Categories: Active investigations · Coorperations · Corperate power · Corruption · Endangered species · Exploration companies · News
The New Zealand public wants a set nets ban and the establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary to protect the critically endangered maui’s dolphin.
Public consultation undertaken by Forest and Bird, centred in Auckland, Waikato and Northland, has found almost total support for a set net ban (98 percent) to protect maui’s dolphins.
There was also strong support for the establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary off the northwest coast of the North Island, with 96 percent of respondents supporting a sanctuary to protect the dolphins.
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Forest and Bird conservation advocate Kirstie Knowles said today the strong public support for a set net ban and to establish a marine mammal sanctuary for maui’s dolphin meant the Government should include those measures in its threat management plan to protect maui’s and hector’s dolphins.
Categories: Active investigations · Consequences of seabed mining · Corruption · Endangered species
