Discrimination Not Prejudice:

I enjoyed a Radio NZ interview last Monday with Sean Wallace, "The Chaser" known as 'The Dark Destroyer':

Bradley & Sean

Mr Wallace is a Londoner, a barrister and a classy, learned guy - and while talking about his life he mentioned how it once was normal to see London's rental housing advertised as
'NO BLACKS, IRISH OR PETS'.

I remember that too - my Irish father served in the British Army in Europe and North Africa through WWII .. 7 years from 1938 to 1945 with the Irish Guards Regiment & Nos. 1 & 2 Commandos - but after the war he was looked down-on by some Brits.

- I also remember two lovely old ladies with tattooed numbers on the insides of their wrists.

My favorite cousin Pam married Archie - a Jamaican guy who was ex RAF - and my drinking buddy at family celebrations - and believe me they and their children knew all about racial prejudice.

- When we arrived in New Zealand mid 1970s - popular radio host Tim Bickerstaff  had just ended his (rugby related) PUNCH a POM a DAY campaign .. Some tried.

Racism and prejudice are mostly about fear, ignorance & power.

We humans seem to need to feel superior to others by pushing them down .. indeed there is a theory that one reason why we rose-up on our back legs - was so that we could willy-wave and challenge strangers with the monkey dance.

There are in our small blue world some who need to assert their superiority by taking wealth from their "inferiors'. - THAT is what it's all about. Their pile of cash is scraped together so that they can raise their mentally unbalanced heads above ordinary top-of-the-food chain animals .. so that they can look-down and survey the ants from a penthouse window with a drink in their hand. Full Stop.

Sadly these owners of For Profit Enterprise are the cause of much suffering and hardship below their feet. When there is  revolutionary war in some poor 'third world' state .. it is a dime to a dollar that the base reason is for control of mineral wealth and resources. Full Stop. - Ever heard of a "banana republic"?

I discriminate regularly when choosing the best tool or the superior reasoning in a discussion. - Discrimination is using facts as the basis of judgement.

Small Business should be supported .. I am totally in favor of private enterprise - the builder who builds, the carpenter who works wood, the farmer who farms, the miner who mines. But there needs to be legal limits.
 - National laws are futile against international operators. - We need worldwide policies to deal with worldwide problems and resources.

Corporate oligarchs seek "FREEDOM"  from government regulation to operate without constraints.

- We need to carefully discriminate between the policies of political parties ..
Any government that reduces corporate taxes is reducing the funding available for democratic control .. for Health, Police, Education, and for peacekeeping.  - and further are increasing corporate influence over our lives.

Full Stop.

Marty K.