Sunday, 21 November 2010

Is this the Beginning of the End of Capitalism?

In June 2009 I accepted a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I was appointed by three Departments: Architecture, Psychology and Educational Leadership. My work involved community engagement in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, working with local residents to resist and overturn the city's program of gentrification; in the Rothenberg Academy elementary school (a very poor, 100% African American inner-city school) to improve their academic performance and to build relationships between teachers and parents; and with the Myaamia Tribe, who are trying to rebuild their spoken language from written records. A report on my work in the community there can be found at:
You can also check out my website for new and freely downloadable PDFs on:

    My family and I came back to New Zealand to some shocks. We have had eighteen months of travel. We have been to the USA (many States), Mexico, Canada, Iceland, England and New Zealand. We have returned home to discover that the prices of all commodities has increased by no less than 50% during the time of our absence. A few things to think about:
    • The Commonwealth Bank of Australia lifted its interest rates more than 25 base points (by .45%) above the Reserve Bank recommended rate this month, putting further financial pressure on already stressed mortgagees, at the same time that the Bank's CEO, Sir Ralph Norris voted himself a $20.5M pay packet.
    • The Big Four Australian banks, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB have all increased their rates and all of their executives have given themselves massive pay hikes. Mike Smith (ANZ) $13.6M, Gail Kelly (Westpac) $12.1M, and Cameron Clyne (NAB) $7.1M.
    • At the same time, George Frazis the Westpac New Zealand Boss, became the highest paid executive of a New Zealand company with his $5.9M pay package at a time when the Ombudsman revealed that Westpac NZ had received a record number of customer complaints about its fees and bank charges.
    • We live in a country that is one of the world's most prominent exporters of dairy products. Fonterra, the primary dairy company in New Zealand boasts on its trucks that it delivers "2.5 tonnes of dairy produce to the World". Meanwhile, friends only half-jokingly tell me that they are "saving up" to buy a block of cheese (which costs an unbelievable $15 per kilo.) Then, just a few days ago, it was reported that the CEO of Fonterra, Andrew Ferrier, had just granted himself a $1.5M annual pay increase. 
    • At the same time, Fonterra is one of the greatest polluters of the New Zealand environment and one of the companies putting our greatest natural resource - water - under pressure from irrigation - costing the New Zealand taxpayer millions of dollars annually. Add to this the loss to the economy through the impact on the tourism industry - our largest export earner.

    You have to ask why, with all of the subsidies from the public area - water, pollution-cleanup etc., Fonterra can't have a two-tier pricing system with a domestic quota? They provide enough dairy product for the domestic market at an affordable domestic price BEFORE they sell the rest of their product on the world market.

    You have to ask WHY the Australian and New Zealand Governments don't pass legislation pegging the salaries of bank executives of banks that have received public bailout funds or that are engaged in wholesale foreclosures or price-gouging on fees?

    Multiply these examples a thousand times across the planet. Clearly something is out of whack! Is it the Beginning of the End of Capitalism? Will the people rise up in outrage and dismantle this corrupt economic system? Is it time we started taking to the streets? When does frustration turn to armed insurrection? How hungry or hurting do people have to be?

    Also, just remember that all of these people were educated in schools. Education promotes the kind of acquisitive, competitive, hierarchical, couldn't-care-less attitudes exemplified by these examples. We need to educate differently. Let's stop playing the Capitalist game in schools.! Some suggestions? Let's teach our children by example:
    • No competition
    • No borrowing!
    • No growth
    • No consuming
    • No Free Trade!
    • No Global Economy
    • Grow and buy local
    • Don't vote
    • Don't pay taxes
    • Grow-you-own
    • Resist
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