Opinion! Opinion! Opinion!

When it emerged that NZers had apparently been overcharged 4.3 billion dollars by electricity companies using their market power, one word sprung to my mind. And it is a word I have yet to hear or read officially associated with this scandal.

How many times in the past years have we been told in dire terms of the imminent shortage of electricity, and how seriously me must conserve it. Oh, and because of the shortage, the wholesale price of electricity has to rise. Only, there never have been power cuts. I've had 19 winters in Christchurch and I have never experienced a power cut. But the price of electricity has increased, often on the back of perceived shortages.

Arguably one of the biggest industrial scandals of all time was when California suffered rolling electricity blackouts, allegedly because of diminished supply. It was, apparently, not because of lack of supply, but rather because Enron needed, one, to prop up their house of cards, and two, to make ever increasing profits for the top executives, who, while telling their investors to buy more and more Enron shares, were secretly dumping their own shares knowing that the house of cards was about to crumble.

There was no shortage of electricity in California. Blackouts were contrived to provide a reason to hike up the wholesale price. Enron traders were recorded laughing about this scenario and the potential profit it would bring. They were literally laughing all the way to the bank.

Isn't the connection palpable? Every winter we are warned of possible power cuts that never come. Every winter the price of electricity goes up, on the basis of that potential short supply.

While a little . . okay, a lot simplistic, the question should be raised whether, in context, Enron was a major contributing factor to the entire world recession. To bankrupt the world's fifth largest economy is no mean feat. That, on the back of the S&L fallout, certainly punctuated the global advance toward recession.

This makes interesting reading. I would love to see some of the connections to authority in New Zealand of those in charge of the electricity industry here.

Dollars for drongoes

Banking is like any industry, and has two things. Insider knowledge and jokes about processes and customers. And cock-ups. (Technically that may be three things, but the jokes thing is more a corollary of the first, not an independent "thing").

To the banking industry's credit, I am surprised mistakes this big don't happen more often than they do. People are coming out of the woodwork with their own stories of mistakes made by banks, which only goes to show that it DOES happen more than we're aware of. If Gao hadn't run with the money we wouldn't have heard anything about it until the next public gaff. Then Gao would be coming out of the woodwork saying he he was given ten million dollars by the bank, and having a good laugh about it.

Two other things are interesting. How badly the media have reported it, and, as is only just starting to happen, how Westpac is coming under more scrutiny about it's working conditions than I'm sure it wants to.

First, I heard, a Rotorua businessman had been given a "7 figure" deposit in error. Now 7 figures, if my math is correct, is 9,999,999 or less. The media was reporting at the same time that is was also $10m. Which is, of course, an "8 figure" sum.

Then we heard Gao had taken off with the ten million dollars. Then we heard that it was only six million he'd escaped with, Westpac had recovered four million. Then we heard Gao had applied for a ten thousand dollar overdraft, and we had to assume it had mistakenly been made a ten million dollar overdraft. Which is significantly different to a ten million dollar deposit to his account. Some bozo was saying on the news that there were checks and balances and if a 10m deposit had been made one of the balances would have been out (which is not necessarily true).

In today's SST, it seems confirmed that a 100,000 dollar overdraft limit was mistakenly turned into a 10m dollar one, which is much easier to understand because all that's required there is to drop the decimal point. Now it makes sense. I was trying to figure out in my head how ten thousand had become ten million via only a simple mistake. Harder to turn ten thousand into ten million, than a hundred thousand.

But also reported today is that Westpac is "vigorously pursuing" the outstanding 3.8 million. Huh? Where did that figure come from?

Point is, in the rush to get the story out, the media just grabbed any old numbers that vaguley fit the story, no matter how incorrect they were.

So it seems Westpac is only out 4m, with liens of at least a couple of million over properties in Rotorua and Auckland (if the media can be believed). So the bottom line is Westpac is only out by an amount similar to the CEO's bonus.

Which brings us nicely to Westpac's strong desire, I'm sure, to not get too much egg on it's face. It was only a matter of time before FINSEC made the connection between such a mistake and Wetspac's staff being under too much pressure. This mistake has nothing to do with staff being under too much pressure. It's a simple mistake, the kind made by the banking industry DOZENS if not HUNDREDS of times A DAY. Most of them are picked up by the checks and balance system. But some ALWAYS get missed.

To be fair, even in this financial environment, ten million dollars is not a lot of money, and if it ends up being a million or two, then in banking that is chicken feed. Bad debts of that amount are written off regularly.

Obviously Westpac doesn't want to set a precedent, otherwise the stuff ups they make every day will start costing them. If they make a mistake of only a thousand dollars, and you spend the money, are they going to pursue it? I doubt it. Ten thousand? Maybe. They just want people to think that if they overpay you you HAVE to pay it back. Which technically you do. However, the question is how hard will they pursue you for it.

Mostly, they don't want you to think they are incompetent, which they are not (well, relatively speaking).

But obviously Gao is incompetent. Why not transfer the whole amount to his mother's bank account in China and DISAPPEAR. The sister-in-law (so to speak) is gloating on Facebook? Geez. What a moron. They'll be caught and in a gesture of global good will China will extradite them. Westpac will cut their losses, but send them to jail anyway. It'll be old news by next week, and we'll only hear more about it later when they're caught, then jailed.

If Gao had any brains he would be holed up somewhere in deepest darkest China counting his Yuan.

What up with Idol, Dawg?

What. A. Crock!

If you can't trust reality TV, what can you trust? But it is now evident that American Idol is as manufactured and contrived as . . . as New Zealand's Dancing With the Stars.

I'm incensed.

As much as I love America, the only true Holy Land, I have to take issue with their MORONIC choice for the latest American Idol. Not since y'all shafted that cute little Clay Aiken boy have you engaged in such a monumentally farcical cock-up.

Adam Lambert was so clearly, so undisputably, so unequivocally the far superior showman, artist, and singer that his second placing has to be one of the great injustices of all time. Adam makes songs that SUCK sound good. Face it, some of the song choices were crap. But even the crap songs sounded great after being Adamised. I missed him doing Black and White - caught a snippet of it on the radio - so would love to hear the full version. If we could actually get it on iTunes, I would. When New Zealand catches up with that technology - probably in about 20 years, thanks whoever's responsible for that - I'll grab it.

Talking about black and white. The final song they both sung - No Boundaries? The versions were like black and white, white being pure, pristine, and perfect as performed by Adam, and black being pathetic, pitchy and painful as spewed out by that other guy.

How did he possibly win? How? It is unfathomable. I lost count of how many notes he missed tonight. You could count on ZERO fingers the notes Adam missed. And not only did he not miss any notes, he created some never-before-heard new ones. And Adam's so pretty. How did he not win? It's as ludicrous as Norm Hewitt winning a dancing competition. It's as ridiculous as Paula Abdul lip-syncing a song on stage. God forbid.

I am going to have to seriously reconsider supporting this annual event. I haven't been as disappointed since buying Reuben Studdarts debut (and only?) album. And I haven't been this angry since I missed out on tickets to Paul Pott's concert at the Bromley Working Men's Club.

Go Adam! I still love you. I'm not afraid to admit I think you're HOT! xx

Eyes glazed shut

I am truly a terrible Kiwi. Whenever I hear the words Edmund Hillary my eyes glaze over. Yawn. The Five Dollar Note guy. Fifty years ago he climbed a mountain that lots of people now climb practically recreationally. Big deal. He did some philanthropic work in Nepal. Perhaps he could have done something really dangerous like some philanthropic work in South Auckland. Now that would be daring.

His children are in a very public spat with the Auckland Museum. Apparently Hillary left some papers, photographs, diaries and what have you to the care of the Museum.

Of course, there are a million “provisions”, conditions under which the documents are to be handled. And now an argument has erupted about intellectual property rights and publication rights.

Mostly I’m sure it’s about money. Things like this usually are. Sure it’s about an “iconic” New Zealander and the family’s memories of him. Fair enough, but ultimately it will be about money. Who gets what percentage of the profits from whatever publication takes place.

I can understand both sides, although I think the Museum comes out looking like the bully. How could they possibly take on that family and hope to keep an ounce of sympathy from the New Zealand public? The lawyers will be foaming at the mouth with the prospect of a long, drawn out court battle to decide what most Kiwi’s already know. That the ownership of everything remains with the family.

Some things should not be reported. While I glaze over at the mention of Sir Ed, I don’t think whatever memory we have of him should be so posthumously marred by the greed and ineptitude of either the Auckland Museum, the remaining members of the Hillary family, or both.

And shame on the reporter who broke the story.

A guy thing?

I'm definitely not one for pain. I try to avoid it at all costs. I've had a gammy wisdom tooth for ages, and while it hasn't yet been much problem, I know it's going to be an issue in the (near?) future. And part of the tension for me is the knowing that at some point in the future I'm in for some considerable pain and discomfort.

So, I can't think of anything worse than knowing that at some specific point in the future I will have to endure an excruciating series of painful procedures. Imagine you're told that on September the 12th you're going to have each of your fingernails pulled slowly out while hot needles are inserted into the fleshy wound left by the extraction. And then just to make it really uncomfortable you're going to have your nuts squeezed in a vice to just-before-eruption-point.

How hard would the waiting be? The anticipation? The wondering? How could you concentrate? Do your daily thing? Read? Enjoy anything? I would spend the whole time a jibbering mess counting down the seconds to pain zero.

A girl at work is pregnant. My son's friend's partner has just given birth to a baby girl. A writer friend is due in June.

To be told that in seven or so months you're going to have to squeeze a large grapefruit sized object through a hole in your pelvis not usually bigger than a ping pong ball . . . well, you get the point.

Big ups to you, ladies.

Arm them, now!

In the wake of the Napier siege, Prime Minister John Key has said he doesn’t think the police should be armed. He says that the police have an approachable culture and he wouldn’t want to see that change. He also says that if they were armed, they would have to consider the possibility that anybody approaching them will potentially take that gun off them and use it against them

First of all, I think it is a disadvantage that there is an approachable culture in the police. This is the result of years of PC denuding of the authority once entrenched in the police ideal.

We need police who are the ultimate figures of authority. While there is room for the abuse of that position, if we were serious about having an effective police force, those issues can be addressed in training, and in effective independent oversight.

Within a certain element, the police are a joke. Particularly in the criminal fraternity, boy racers, gangs. Not because they are unarmed, necessarily, which is the current argument. But they are a joke, to some, because they no longer command respect.

Closely following on from that, it is only common sense that in some situations, police officers need to be more careful. If they are going to perform a “routine” drug bust, I would have thought that in today’s environment, it would be a no brainer that they go fully armed.

It is emerging that “everyone” knew this Molenaar guy was a loose cannon (literally) with a penchant for guns, explosives, and violence.

HULLO!!

Is there a gaping hole in the intelligence the police were working with? Or were they simply complacent/ignorant?

There cannot be a police force that is both “authoritative” and “approachable”. Personally, I vote for the former.

Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees

There was a documentary on TV. In it, a film crew was given intimate access to a day in the life of twelve of the most influential religious leaders in the world.

It was a fascinating insight into the lives of these men and woman, and I appreciate the dedication they each exhibited. But the inevitable "however" comes not in what was said and not shown, but rather what was shown and not said.

Deliberate or not, two things stood out in the lives of these people. First was an inordinate amount of excess; second, closely intertwined with that, was an unrepenting dependence on ritual.

Let’s assume for a moment that the dialogue ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament is accurate, and holds some meaning for the mainstream Christian religions, and possibly religion as a whole. Surely, arguably, Jesus’ harshest condemnation was saved for those indulging in disproportionate excess, and for those addicted to the accolades of men and the flashy nature of meaningless ritual.

“They love the place of honour at banquets and the chief seats on the synagogues.”

It’s hard to tell in the documentary who is guilty of the most appalling excess, but my vote goes to the Pope, followed a close second by the Sikh guy.

It is obscene the amount of wealth and excess these guys have access to and are swamped in daily.

Religion is undoubtedly one of the most lucrative industries in the world, and has been thus throughout history, right up there with the porn industry, the war industry, and the drugs industry. Interesting comparisons.

The property alone owned collectively by religion must be valued in the quadri-gazillions of dollars. Not only is there a church on every corner in nearly every country in the world, there are manses, corporate headquarters, schools and universities, and many of these are situated in some of the most valuable zip codes in the world.

Imagine the property value alone of Grace Church, on Manhattan’s Broadway. Or St. Marks just down the road. Or the All Souls church on Lexington. These alone must be properties worth in the tens of millions of dollars each.

I understand the need for a place to worship, but I think that need has been over-shadowed by the human need to do it not only in comfort, but in opulence, disguising their greed and pretence under a shroud of praise and offering to god. I have seen relatively small groups of Christians erect multi-million dollar buildings, and then routinely use only a third of the building’s capacity for a fiftieth of the available time each week.

The Catholic Church owns its own country.

With the risk of a fatwa hanging over anybody who criticises Islam, I won’t discuss the possibility that this religion may not be immune to its own system of perks.

Every day, the Sikh leader carries a book – albeit a very special book – a gold encrusted book into an opulent palace where begins a lavish ceremony of praise and indulgence.

I wonder what is the value of the art and historical pieces in that paalace or the Vatican?

Religion is as much an industry as a system of faith. I understand the need for it to be situated and sustained, but the nature in which that has been done is pure, unadulterated greed, immoral to the core, the personification of hypocritical.

How can the Catholic Church sit on what must be trillions of dollars of property, artwork and income, and claim to be concerned about poverty? The Pope and his army of bishops and cardinals certainly don’t look like they’ve missed many meals.

The Sikh palace sits on an island – perhaps for security reasons – far removed from the disease and civil war raping its country a few miles down the road.

Another smartass reference to the second biggest mono-theistic religion deleted.

to be continued . . .