I wrote the article below in 2007. SJG
---------------------------------------
Do some of the “good” corporate citizens have no conscience, no morals, no ethics and no principles?
Examples: They invest in countries like communist China where slave labour has been used. They shut down plants in democratic countries in order to take advantage of cheap labour in communist China. Polluted and poisoned goods from China have been exported to other countries. The communist dictators in China brook no dissent. Dissidents have reportedly been tortured, and a one child policy in China results in forced abortions. Some Chinese people have been forced from their homes for the 2008 Olympic Games, but hey, this will be a good venue for the “good” corporate citizens to advertise at, and also celebrate.
Some of the “good” corporate citizens also like a “good” celebration in North America. Their company logos can be seen in “parades of pride” where men have marched naked and some in the parade can be seen making obscene gestures. One “good” corporate company was even going to give a pornography service on their cell phones. (which they later withdrew after protests by decent people.) Some also sponsor TV programs that promote pornography.
“The once underground pornography industry is now very much aboveground and impossible to avoid.”
“Profiting from that industry now are major corporations and mainstream entertainment companies. Annual revenues for the porn industry are estimated at about $10 billion a year.” [1]
Still, these “good” corporate citizens must believe they are providing a “good” public service?
Some other services the “good” corporate citizens have provided over the years has been investing in the communist Soviet Union before the fall of communism. While they were telling all and sundry about the dangers of communism.
“There is no incentive to place optimistic bets on the future when the companies who are today most committed to the [communist] East are the very same which cooperated with the Nazi system.” [2]
But hey, the corporate communists/fascists have to make an honest dollar somewhere! And during the second world war some of them even had business interests with the Nazis. But, money has no conscience: The Financial Post of December 28, 1996 had a headline, “BIS received Nazi gold stolen from Belgium- and knew it,” the article goes on to say: “The Bank for International Settlements received clearly marked bars of Belgian government gold stolen by Nazi Germany during the Second World War and refused to return it to Belgium unless all future claims for stolen assets were renounced,…”
Money has no allegiance to any country that’s why many “good” corporate citizens use offshore tax havens. There are no tax havens for the working people of today’s society. Sure, they get miniscule tax breaks on their tax returns, but the offshore outlaws get a free lunch at taxpayers expense. ‘…Tax havens are the seedy back street bars of the financial world, where corporations and multi-millionaires huddle in shadowy corners to pursue their business out of sight of respectable citizens.’ [3]
Citizens of many countries supposedly elect democratic governments and expect their political representatives to pursue good policies for their countries. Yet, are we seeing “good” policies? These elected rulers are allowing the “good” corporate citizens to proliferate pornography. They allow them to manipulate the tax system through offshore tax havens. They even bail them out with taxpayers dollars as witness the sub prime mortgage debacle in the United States. And some politicians after leaving politics finish up on corporate boards where they become a part of the “good” corporate citizenry
Stephen J. Gray
August 31, 2007.
Endnotes:
[1] http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=705
[2] Charles Levinson in his book,“Vodka-Cola” page 207.)
[3 http://www.uniset.ca/microstates/g_taxhavens.htm
(Books worth reading): “Vodka- Cola” by Charles Levinson and “Trading with the Enemy” by Charles Higham)
