THE RECORD

April 21, 1999

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

Having lived in four countries under every known political system, I have long become immune to any form of sales pitch and propaganda. I opened my first business in BC in 1957 and still am the head of two small family owned companies. My 43 years in business do give me certain insights on the realities of how business operates and the hardships independent business people are subjected to in the hands of governments, but mainly by large corporations. Being a dyed in the wool private enterprise does not encourage me to wallow in the muck with the Fraser Institute and the political parties pushing the corporate agenda.

The traditional sport of government bashing has now become full blown, organized hysteria which is being promoted through corporate control of the media and by political parties which the corporations finance and own. These multinational corporations are trying to brainwash us to believe that when governments resign their duties to act for the public interest and instead give corporations a free hand, we shall enter a new Utopia of wealth creation through the unfettered movement of capital and globalized competition.

A very good example of such unsubstantiated claims is the letter by BC Liberal Human Resources Critic Katherine Whittred, MLA, in the April 7 issue of The Record. Ms. Whittred blames the BC government for the poverty gap between the rich and the poor without really saying anything, and without having any apparent sign of knowing what she's writing about.

It is well known and proven that the poverty gap is growing all over the world. The middle classes are disappearing and are forced into poverty in all industrialized countries. Globally 100,000 people die every day from the effects of destitution. This is more than were killed in the death camps of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, plus in both World Wars put together. The cause? Governments have trusted politicians in the pay of multinational corporations who promised Nirvana and delivered Hell.

Ms. Whittred may now call herself a Liberal, but is she a former Socred and Tory? Was she supporting and helping Liberal Leader John Turner's attempt to stop the FTA in 1988? Was she protesting when Jean Chrétien signed the NAFTA contrary to his promises?

If she supported Mulroney, the GST, the FTA and NAFTA, the MAI and this phony globalization, what gives her the right to complain and make empty promises to desperate and trusting people that her Party would turn things around by giving them more of the same? Why isn't she spelling out how they would do this?

To me the Liberals' hollow spiel is nothing more than an attempt to force the world under a corporate dictatorship by canceling all democratic citizens' rights and replacing civil rights with the demands of an imaginary marketplace. Just like the Soviet Politburo system, except controlled from a few financial centres. The Communists too called themselves democrats and I have seen them at work. The Nazis also promised wealth and freedom by doing away with parliaments they called "Quatschbude," or "Yapping shed."

When people talk about "excess taxation" they never mention that there are many hidden taxes that do not appear on the surface, taxes that are collected by big business. The amount of taxation one pays to the government is often dwarfed by the costs of privatized and deregulated services. I intend to write on this in detail in the future.

In my next column I plan to explain why the present monetary and market system simply can not permit any increase in employment without collapsing and why the promises of so called "wealth creation" are the same lies we got from Mulroney selling the FTA.

The same gang, the same hot air, the same waiting disaster.

Copyright (c) 1999, West's International