thoughts about the OECD...

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Felix

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#7956 24-May-2006 13:12

There's been a lot of talk about the OECD and where NZ fits into OECD world rankings lately... But how many people actually know anything about the OECD?

Many people think it's a ranking organisation, independent of political and corporate influence... This is simply not true... In fact it's a neo conservative "think tank", sponsored (read owned) by the following companies...

ARP

Air France

AREVA

Boeing

CIER

Coca Cola

Dubai Internet City

EDF

Galeries Lafayette

GE Healthcare

German Marshall Fund of the United States

GlaxoSmithKline

Hewitt

Hewlett Packard

Hydro

Intel

The Islamic Development Bank

Keizai Dolyukai (Japan Association of Corporate)

LG Electronics

Maeil Business Newspaper (Korea)

Merck

Microsoft

Novartis

Pfizer

Protiviti

Prudential

Samsung

Société Générale

SUEZ

TOTAL

Unilever

Vattenfall

Visa International

Vivendi

Volkswagen

Here's the sales pitch from the OECD forum...

"As a multi-stakeholder consultation, the OECD Forum can provide your company with an opportunity to project its message and image into the international policy debate. Corporate social responsibility and public/private partnerships are increasingly at the heart of corporate missions and philosophies. But, to maintain confidence in market-based economic systems, dialogue and communication are necessary.

No other public forum has such a direct input to the creation and application of public policy."

What's the major driver for the OECD companies? Globalization!! That outdated destroyer of "emerging economies", what used to be called the third world.

Who do the OECD influence? Amongst others, the WTO, the World Bank, the International Moentary Fund, The Arab League, Islamic Development Bank, and Arab Monetary Fund... And of course your government...

What can you do? Nothing... Just let it happen... While you enjoy your faster broadband ;-)

Felix 5ive

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#36459 24-May-2006 13:59

I agree that OECD rankings can be completely useless. Anything that involves statistics can be viewed anyway you want to. Look at grocery prices that essentially unchanged over the past 10 years and yet Stastics NZ can somehow calculate the inflation figueres on completely incorrect information (even they themselves seem unable to provide their collected raw data for grocery prices)

You are however confusing the OECD and the OECD Forum. The forum is an annual summit of large multinationals.. Maybe it is there to try and spread the word on globalisation but it's not the OECD - merely a yearly forum they host.

Jama

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#36463 24-May-2006 14:54

According to Google, NZ is ranked third for p0rn searches in the world. Labour wants to see NZ at number 1 by 2010. I wonder if the OECD ranks countries by search terms?

JAMMAN2110

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#36464 24-May-2006 15:52

OECD sounds too much like a group of "stakeholders" with OCD about where there standing in the world.
Sometimes it's just too much

sbiddle

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#36470 24-May-2006 16:50

Jama: According to Google, NZ is ranked third for p0rn searches in the world. Labour wants to see NZ at number 1 by 2010. I wonder if the OECD ranks countries by search terms?

We were actually ranked 2nd for p0rn. 1st for sheep and 1st for rugby. Australia was 2nd for sheep and 4th for p0rn!

"Despite the interest in porn, neither Australia nor New Zealand make the top 10 for "sex". Muslim nations Pakistan and Egypt show the most interest in that search."

We still have work to do! :-)

juha

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#37563 3-Jun-2006 17:41

Felix:
There's been a lot of talk about the OECD and where NZ fits into OECD world rankings lately... But how many people actually know anything about the OECD?

Many people think it's a ranking organisation, independent of political and corporate influence... This is simply not true... In fact it's a neo conservative "think tank", sponsored (read owned) by the following companies...

Eh? I'm sorry, but that sounds like complete nonsense. Have a look at Wikipedia's entry on the OECD.

And of course, the OECD website itself.

[Moderator edit (BS): Fixed broken hyperlink]

Maybe you're confusing the OECD, a forum where governments can meet and compare policy objectives, with the OECD Forum?

Even then, I don't see any evidence of it being a neo-con think tank.

Not nice to FUD, Felix...

Juha

barf

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#37633 4-Jun-2006 18:38

Juha: its not all FUD!
heres a shocker about the European Comission, courtesy of the late Rob Donald:
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR6063.html

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juha

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#37639 4-Jun-2006 19:14

barf: Juha: its not all FUD!

heres a shocker about the European Comission, courtesy of the late Rob Donald:

http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR6063.html

But the European Commission isn't the OECD.

Juha

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barf

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#37640 4-Jun-2006 19:33

yes I know, my point is that if an organisation as large as the EC is not free from corruption and proseletysing policies, then we should take a second look at the OECD before blind trust is issued forth.

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juha

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#37642 4-Jun-2006 19:45

barf: yes I know, my point is that if an organisation as large as the EC is not free from corruption and proseletysing policies, then we should take a second look at the OECD before blind trust is issued forth.

I don't disagree with that because you should always be a hard-core sceptic, but it still doesn't make the OECD a neo-con think tank. There's no evidence of that. New Zealand is part of the OECD. The link you provided to the Greens website doesn't provide any evidence of corruption and proselytising either, only of the late Rod Donald saying there is EC pressure on NZ to open up to foreign interests.

You should always question and doubt. For instance, Business NZ came out swinging for Telecom with research produced by Azimuth consultants that seemingly said NZ was better off in broadband terms than the rest of the world. I thought the research didn't make much sense, so went through the figures for Computerworld.

Do the hard yards and you will be better informed.

Juha

barf

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#37645 4-Jun-2006 20:22

Given that Felix might not be a journalist, I can see FUD, but calling "FUD" here compared to real FUD by corporations is a different story.
Forgetting the accusations of "neo-con think tank", he's not exactly lying to us.

BTW great atricle there Juha

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juha

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#37646 4-Jun-2006 20:28

barf: Given that Felix might not be a journalist, I can see FUD, but calling "FUD" here compared to real FUD by corporations is a different story.
Forgetting the accusations of "neo-con think tank", he's not exactly lying to us.

Well, Felix will have to come out of the woodwork and anwer this one, but I will stick to my guns and say that the assertions in his post are entirely incorrect for the reasons I have stated.

BTW great atricle there Juha

Thanks. Wasn't easy, and meant hacking away until 3am.... :::grumble:::

Juha

Felix

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#37743 5-Jun-2006 19:44

Hi guys,

my apologise for not replying to this sooner- busy with work.

Juha, you are right! I am wrong. The OECD is mealy a description of several countries, whilst the OECD Forum is a group that lobbies on behalf of corporations.

However, the countries involved in the OECD are pretty much the result of many neoconservative think tanks concerted efforts to push certain agendas.

In that respect, I personally pay no attention to figures released by the OECD, or for that matter the EU, the WTO, IMF or World Bank.

I don't believe the digital divide is anywhere near as important as many other issues facing the world... not even close! It is my belief that feeding the poor, addressing the environment, reducing tyranny and so on are vastly more important the how many people can get their porn and gambling over with in quick time!

The argument that fast internet and connected communities will provide these things is really quite offensive when other means of addressing them have been available for decades and yet are not utilised.

I was wrong about the OECD as a group, but I stand by the fact that by definition, the OECD is interested in furthering the interests of big business.

Felix 5ive

bradstewart

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#37745 5-Jun-2006 20:02

Well put Felix. Couldnt have said it better myself.

Focusing on the speed and uptake of broadband is wrong, much more important things to worry about in the world.

juha

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#37747 5-Jun-2006 20:26

Felix: Hi guys,

my apologise for not replying to this sooner- busy with work.

Juha, you are right! I am wrong. The OECD is mealy a description of several countries, whilst the OECD Forum is a group that lobbies on behalf of corporations.

However, the countries involved in the OECD are pretty much the result of many neoconservative think tanks concerted efforts to push certain agendas.

In that respect, I personally pay no attention to figures released by the OECD, or for that matter the EU, the WTO, IMF or World Bank.

I don't believe the digital divide is anywhere near as important as many other issues facing the world... not even close! It is my belief that feeding the poor, addressing the environment, reducing tyranny and so on are vastly more important the how many people can get their porn and gambling over with in quick time!

The argument that fast internet and connected communities will provide these things is really quite offensive when other means of addressing them have been available for decades and yet are not utilised.

I was wrong about the OECD as a group, but I stand by the fact that by definition, the OECD is interested in furthering the interests of big business.

Felix 5ive

Ack... sorry Felix, but I would really like you to look at things again. Leaving aside the fact that you're making sweeping generalisations about a vast number of countries that can hardly be described as ruled by neo-cons, you need to think about what it means for ordinary people and small businesses to have better access to communications. Having more opportunities to earn money, being able to telecommute instead of physically having to move yourself, having access to thoughts and information - is that bad?

None of your arguments warrants Telecom retaining a monopoly and charging the earth for it, I'm afraid. Telecom had a sweet deal for a decade and a half, but screwed up towards the end of it and lost the protection against competition. However, the regulation may in fact be too late in coming and we'll be stuck with crap network access for the next decade as well at a minimum.

If OECD was as you say interested in furthering the interest of big business, surely it would champion Telecom's cause? Telecom is big business after all.

Juha

Jama

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#37748 5-Jun-2006 20:37

That damn big business ha Juha? I hear a large media monopoly might be picking up a few publications you write for....

'Fairfax putting the Fair in publishing' - yeah right.

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