Beyond Branding

   
Home page
The book
The authors
Updates
Pre-order
Contact us
Beyond Branding is written by members of The Medinge Group

The Beyond Branding blog


December 26, 2005

The great New Zealand Muldoon cover-up 

is presented as a decent, honest nation, and for the most part it is. But during every General no one dares mention the 1975–84 era, when (later Sir Robert) was Prime Minister.
   It’s as though both the major parties have agreed to cover the era up, or, when it is mentioned, such as on a recent historical series on TV One—or any other programme, for that matter—it must be slanted against Sir Robert. I have never seen a positive one since Muldoon’s passing, or, for that matter, during Muldoon’s lifetime.
   I wrote in response to this blog entry that New Zealanders are more ready to admit to Satanism than Muldoonism. But the writer of the post, Oliver, at least has the guts to talk about the era, and analyse the good versus the bad.
   He doesn’t say Sir Robert got it all right, but he did get many things right—things that both parties completely shun.
   There’s a distinct lack of when it comes to learning from the past, and that harms New Zealand’s chances of becoming an advanced . With an downturn predicted, thanks to the lack of in since the 1990s, they still aren’t learning.
   Muldoon is rejected because of (a) the —New Zealand politicians are afraid to have a PM with absolute power, lest such power be used against them; (b) the fact that used Muldoon-style policies to good effect in the last 20–30 years, and the public must not know. Shhh. We can’t let Kiwis realize what we have done. Roger and Ruth and now, Michael Cullen—the equivalents of the Chancellor of the Exchequer—need to keep this quiet. Letting rescue a few years back would have been fatal to the illusion, so, like some psychiatric patients who need to maintain a fantasy, let’s keep the at bay.
   OK, that’s in conspiracy-theory-land, and I mostly wrote it tongue-in-cheek. But like all humour, there are some elements of truth.
   My message is this: let’s just “get over it” and see what we can learn from this era, and what could have worked. After all, New Zealanders voted Muldoon thrice. New Zealanders—I mean most of the country who aren’t sitting on their hind ends in Parliament trying to kill any chance the nation has of working itself out of the coming slump—want to know.
   If New Zealand is to get its right, then it must be inclusive. It does well at incorporating the viewpoint of many people who would be against—New Zealand was, proudly, the first country to vote in a transsexual into Parliament—but it does not do well at incorporating the viewpoints of those who might want to shed light on the Muldoon era.
   The thinking goes like this: a Muldoon ally, Sir William Birch, wears a suit. Hence Sir Bill must not be listened to. (Now, they would if he was disabled, or gay, or both.)
   Even an unbiased foreigner, like economist John Kay, with his analysis of the post-Muldoon reforms, doesn’t get a fair deal in the New Zealand, its all too keen to report on the government telling Johnny K. Foreigner where to go.
   At the same time, the government is telling New Zealanders where to go, too. They are smart enough to see , with its more cautious of the 1980s, is economically superior and a better source for jobs—and care little for the great New Zealand Muldoon cover-up. If they could, they, too, would say, ‘Get over it.’
permalink
Comments: Post a Comment
Links to this post

Links to this post:

Create a Link

 

Authors’ and associates’ individual blogs

  • Johnnie Moore’s Weblog
  • Steal This Brand
  • Jack Yan: The Persuader Blog
  • Right Side up
  • Chris Lawer
  • Ton Zijlstra
  • Headshift
  • Partum Intelligendo
  • Goiaba Brazilian Music
  • Detective Marketing
  • Chris Macrae

  • + Add Beyond Branding to your Blogroll

    Add feeds

    Aggregated blogs

    RSS
    WML/WAP

    Old Beyond Branding blog entries


    Add feed to Bloglines
    Add feed to Newsgator
    Add feed to My Yahoo!


    RSS feed from 2RSS
    CompleteRSS

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    Get this blog via email

    Enter your email

    Powered by FeedBlitz

    Blogroll

    Previous posts

  • Sly and the Corporation Stone
  • Fly the friendly skies
  • ‘You must be American and boring to contribute to ...
  • to any club of city, what brand networks your citi...
  • Happy holidays, etc.
  • ad day 10, to club of Delhi with love
  • ad calendar day 9: to any citizen, put your city's...
  • To any city, do you have a social preneurial hub t...
  • To DC is green the new red, white & blue?
  • The author and the reader are united
  • Beyond Branding bloggers

    Chris Lawer UK
    Chris Macrae UK/US
    Jack Yan New Zealand
    John Caswell UK
    Johnnie Moore UK
    Malcolm Allan UK
    Nicholas Ind Norway
    Simon Anholt UK
    Stanley Moss USA
    Thomas Gad Sweden
    Tim Kitchin UK


    Blogarama

    Webfeed (RSS/ATOM/RDF) registered at http://www.feeds4all.nl


    Listed on BlogShares
    Top of the British Blogs
    Blog Flux Directory

    Business Blog Top Sites


    Feed Digest
    nfeeds.com