Guardian Issue 49

The

Guardian Political Review

Produced by the New Zealand Democratic Party for social credit Inc. Issue No.49

Winter 2006

ISSN1176-614X

What's in a name?

The Beetham connection

Funding public health

The Revenge of Gaia

IN THIS ISSUE

The gathering storm

A Christian viewpoint

Power to the people

Poorer for his passing

Run by hired hands?

| Economist 1908-2006

The real culprits

An extraordinary individual

The

Guardian

Political Review

Issue 49, Winter 2006

Produced by Guardian Publishing on behalf of the N.Z. Democratic Party for social credit, PO Box 18-907, New Brighton, Christchurch Tel/Fax: 07 829 5157. Email: nzdp.inc@xtra.org.nz Website: www.democrats.org.nz Editor: Tony Cardy, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400. Tel/Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: cardy@callsouth.net.nz

He says we must “hammer the message that supporting Lab/Nat simply means more taxes, more inflation, more controls and restrictions, a more uncertain future, less quality of life, less healthcare, more crime, etc.”

Take healthcare, for example.

Stephnie de Ruyter gives the solution to funding the public health system. It’s not complicated. "It’s that simple”.

EDITORIAL Hammer and Nail

I

n this issue, Trevor Crosbie hits the nail on the head when he asks “If Lab/Nat is the answer, why haven’t the problems gone away?”

The current push by the government and its cohorts to extend fluoridation is described by David Tranter as “a web of lies and deceit”. Democrats for social credit opposes “compulsory mass medication”. It is significant that the European Union has now declared fluoride a ‘medicine’ and its addition to the water supply “unlawful”.

Another policy plank to be hammered home is Binding Citizens Initiated Referendum (BCIR). This has just been adopted by the Wanganui District Council, thereby giving ‘Power to the People’.

(Using BCIR, 74% of residents rejected fluoridation!)

John Kennedy, the respected former editor of the Catholic publication, The Tablet, summed up our raison d'être: “The writing of Major Douglas, the founding prophet of Social Credit, saw the Socred monetary system as a means by which man would be enabled to develop to the full his intellectual, moral and religious aspects, he saw economic security as essential for the establishment of this individual freedom.”

CONTENTS 2 - Editorial 3 - Funding our public health system 4 - What manner of man was this?

5 - Democrat page 6 - Solomons Social Credit

5

7 - David Tranter 8 - Crosbie's Comment + Adrian Bayly 9 - People power

18

10 - Letters

3

6

11 - Islamic Finance 12 - Islamic Finance

27

13 - A view from the crow's-nest 14 - Obituaries 15 - Obituary - Jeremy Dwyer 16 - Reviews 17 - Review - 'At what cost?'

18 - Review + St Asaph's tribute

21

19 - Whitmill's World 20 - Whitmill's World

9

15

28

21 - A Christian viewpoint 22 - Water - a human right 23 - Water - Maori perception

28

24 - The 'Iran Issue' 25 - Dennis Kucinich, Rodney Shakespeare 26 - News Bites

14 Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 2

4

27 - News Bites 28 - News Bites + Membership coupon

Funding our public health system

By Stephnie de Ruyter Leader, Democrats for social credit

‘the health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend’ - Benjamin Disraeli

By definition the public health system exists to meet the health care needs of the public. It is a governmentadministered, publicly-funded, universally-applied service. Or that, at least, is what most people imagine to be the case. The reality in 2006 is very different.

The cost of health care is very high, in part due to increases in the cost of the purchase of hi-tech diagnostic tools, advances in treatment options, the increasing cost of pharmaceuticals and also to the cost pressures of specialist recruitment and retention in a highly competitive global market. And the administrative cost of the health bureaucracy seems to suffer from the sort of exponential growth which must be the envy of many businesses.

practice of government borrowing money from overseas banks and on-lending it through the Ministry of Health to DHBs. These borrowed funds are subject to the usual market interest rates which inflate the repayment figures making paying for capital expenditure such as the purchase of new equipment or the building of a new hospital an even more expensive component of the health budget. Our solution is for the government to borrow the money from our own Reserve Bank of New Zealand, without interest but with a small administration charge. In this way, the principal sum is repaid quickly and only once, not three times over as can be the case with interestbearing debt. We propose that the health sector have access to cheaper money. It’s that simple.

Of course there are many aspects of the health sector which could benefit tremendously from a move to Reserve Bank funding options. The aged care facilities which were either closed down or handed over to the private sector could be reestablished. Afterall, which part of “public health care” do our older people not belong in? They are members of the New Zealand public, their health determines their ability to participate in their communities, and many of them are in need of care. Yet they are excluded by virtue of cost of provision of the care they need.

The result is simply that health services in New Zealand have been rationed. Not all New Zealanders have access to health care in a timely, affordable manner. In fact we’ve been put on very short rations indeed. Those who can, take out private health insurance.

The government has devised any number of Those who can’t, wait….and wait……and “strategies”, many of which come with a wait. More than 12,000 tax-paying New “toolkit”, aimed at prevention or targeting Zealanders have been either removed from specific groups or populations. That’s all great, their places on waiting lists around the on paper, but is not going to benefit too many country or been advised that they soon will souls if in the final analysis the cry is “we can’t be. Instead of patiently waiting to see a afford it”.

We can afford it, all of it, if the specialist, they are to return to their GPs. It Well wisher.

Rev Canon Peter political will to explore the Reserve Bank Challen visits Gordon Greig in seems that only those in the direst need are funding option exists.

Christchurch Hospital.

Democrats able to receive the attention they are entitled for social credit have a sustainable to. On the face of it, some elective surgery A cynic might wonder whether the DHB solution for health funding. seems to be suited to lower priority status. structure was actually established to create a But given only a little reflection it is clear that any need for buffer between the government and the people on the health surgery is a situation which must cause discomfort, issue. Certainly the big dream of democratically elected inconvenience, reduced quality of life and may require representatives making good health provision decisions on additional care for the patient. behalf of local people seems to be fading as the impact of financial constraints is realised. What we need to remember is In addition to being cruel, it seems so short-sighted to leave that the buck stops with the government. That is where the patients until their level of acuity is high, and therefore more decisions about funding allocations originate. The government expensive, before giving them access to appropriate treatment. decides from whom the money needed shall be borrowed.

Some District Health Boards have accepted that they face a grim choice: balance the budget through finding efficiencies or cut services. Many DHBs have already cut all the fat from their systems but still believe they are under-funded for the services they provide. The DHB solution, despite being an unpopular one for elected representatives to choose, is to cut services.

Democrats for social credit believe that one of the most obvious flaws in the funding of the health system is the Guardian Political Review - Issue 49, 2006 - Page 3

Instead of band-aiding unbalanced books by manipulating waiting lists, the government needs to listen to Democrats for social credit and employ Reserve Bank funding mechanisms to deliver a sustainable solution for health funding problems. New Zealanders want and deserve an accessible, affordable public health system.

(This feature also appears on website www.democrats.org.nz)

WHAT MANNER OF MAN WAS THIS? Excerpt from an article in the August-September 1979 issue of the Guardian – the official journal of the New Zealand Social Credit Political League.

said, "New Zealand has been called 'God's Own Country'. but as a recent writer has said, it was 'God's Own Country in the devil of a mess'. We have realised that the progress of It is appropricivilisation ate that we look and advance at the measure of human of the man and happiness some of the can not be reactions maintained provoked by his with the "an extraordinary individual" work. present Had modern communications banking system. Our credit and currency systems have existed forty-five years ago, long been an impediment. We there is little doubt that he have been hypnotised by the would have been a notable world figure closely attended by so-called financial wizards, but the people are now awakening the world’s media. Even so, from that hypnotic trance and with all the limitations of news dissemination of those days he at last are claiming the credit for the people. In other words was a political phenomenon. it is social credit."

When he arrived in Auckland What sort of man was it that a welcome was afforded him in evoked such response the Auckland Town Hall. wherever he went?

People jammed into the building and afterward jammed “Major Douglas,” said into the large reception room at ‘Farming First’, is a man with a Milne and Choyce's building for quiet forceful manner. His a luncheon. voice carries wonderfully. He speaks fairly slowly, and every According to published reports of the welcome, "about word seems to be weighed or selected, though he does no 50 notables sat on the stage duplicate his addresses and and a full hall cheered Major speaks without notes. He is Douglas to the echo. The listened to with rapt attention.” chairman, Mr Manson, MP, welcom-ed Major Douglas. Mr He was an extraordinary J. A. C. Allum and Captain individual. There is no doubt Rushworth also spoke. The about that. He had the fiery leader of the Opposition, Mr blood of a long Scots ancestry Savage, and almost all the in his veins.

Auckland Members of The editor of the prestigious Parliament were present.”

English newspaper, the ‘New "The meeting broke up after English Weekly’ wrote that as singing 'For he's a jolly good soon as he read Douglas it fellow'." was “like a great flash of light” before his eyes.

At a civic reception given to Mr & Mrs Douglas in Douglas wrote, “Christianity, Palmerston North, His Worship Social Credit and Democracy the Mayor, Mr A.E. Mansford, The Jubilee year of the League is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of the man who, more than any other, is responsible for the battle over the reform of the money system.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 4

advancement of anything have three things in common: worthwhile at all. they are said to have failed, none of them is in the nature of And when, he said, the last a plan and every effort of some chance has gone, at that of the most powerfully moment there will come a great organised forces in the world is pause. "In that pause, a very directed to the end, not only few people who know what to that they shall never be do and how to do it can accepted but that as few possibly swing the world round persons as possible will even from a descent understand As soon as he read Douglas into catastrophe their nature." it was “like a great flash of to a move forward to the He also said light” before his eyes greatest era that there will mankind has finally come a ever known." moment at which every single aspect of evil will appear to be As he put it, to "a future more in ascendancy and that those splendid". looking out on the scene will fear there is no hope for the

In 1979 the Guardian celebrated the Jubilee Year of the New Zealand Social Credit Political League. The August-September issue included the feature: "What manner of man was this?"

(Copy supplied by W. Smaill)

AROUND THE DIVISIONS

Social Credit

Western

By Trevor Crosbie (Extract from report to Executive 20/5/06)

Regular monthly meetings are being held with guest speakers being invited to provide information on issues.

Don Bethune and Carolyn McKenzie are working on building a series of promotional lectures on economic alternatives (Monetary Reform).

The branch is intending to contact the Te Kuiti members and organise a local ratepayers meeting over severe financial problems with the Waitomo District Council which is borrowing money to pay the interest on its debt.

Hamilton Branch is holding a 'mini conference' in June to decide on activities and direction for the remainder of the year.

Hamilton are organising a 'mid winter' Christmas party In July, and invitations will go out to all members in the region and beyond.

That includes the Leadership team. (Good opportunity to give the troops a stir before the September Conference) We hope to have the chair of the Hamilton City Council roading committee as a guest speaker In August, so we can beat him up with our interest free funding policy for essential infrastructure. By then the euphoria over the government's roading money-go-round will be waning and he may be receptive to an alternative that could reduce the ever increasing rates burden.

Ron Harsant is collating all the information on signage sites as part of practical preparation for the next election.

Some members have been involved in the recent referendum over retaining FPP for Hamilton City elections and continuing fluoridating the water supply. The very well organised and professionally backed pro lobby won the day but the war ain’t over yet by a long chalk. The startling outcome of the referendum is that the conduct of a poll is entirely up the designated returning officer and his sole interpretation of the Local Authority Elections Act. There is nothing in legislation that ensures a level playing field for the vote.

In Hamilton the Health Department, the District Health Board, the Dental association and Doctors spent an estimated 100,000 dollars against the anti lobby's budget of 3600 dollars.

Given that the next target for introducing fluoride is the Deep South it could be a worthy task for the party to demand a set of guidelines and rules to ensure the outcomes of referenda are not skewed and that the intentions of the democratic process are indeed seen to be democratic. The other aspect of the Hamilton campaign was the extensive use of public funds to effectively direct public opinion with scientifically invalid information John Pemberton and Katherine Ransom attended a Grey Power meeting in Te Kuiti and two of our members reported back to us that they both spoke very well and were favourably received by the audience.

I look forward to contributing to seeing the change required to make our country a better place for future generations.

(See also ''Crosbie's Comment' feature)

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 5

www.socred.org.nz Will it be this?

Or could it be this?

Which is it to be?

The 2006 Party Annual Conference is to be held at the Pacific Park Hotel in Dunedin, from September 15-17. The venue offers good quality accommodation with conference facilities.

Registration forms with full cost details will be distributed in July, or copies may be obtained direct from the Conference Organiser, PO. Box 18-907, New Brighton, Christchurch.

Amongst the Constitutional Remits to be considered is Remit C.06.1 from Southern Division: "THAT the registered name of the party become the "New Zealand Social Credit Party Incorporated" and the abbreviated name to be 'Social Credit'". To be adopted, this remit requires the support of two-thirds of the Conference delegates.

It is certain to be an interesting and significant Conference.

Make sure you take part.

Pacific Park Hotel

OUR PEOPLE Democrats for social credit Executive Contact List (May 2006) Leadership: Leader Stephnie de Ruyter PO Box 18 907, New Brighton, Christchurch Ph/Fax 03 382 9544 Mobile 027 442 4434 Email: s.deruyter@callsouth.net.nz Deputy Leader John Pemberton PO Box 402, Matamata Ph 07 888 0054 Mobile 021 716 895 Email: pemberj@slingshot.co.nz Website: http://www.johnpemberton.co.nz Executive: Party President Neville Aitchison 321, 63 Remuera Rd, Auckland Ph 09 522 2743 Mobile 021 366 553 Email : naitchison@xtra.co.nz

Central Division Heather M. Smith 14 Broughton St, Wanganui East Ph/Fax 06 343 3038 Wellington Division Mary Weddell 57 Shakespeare Ave, Upper Hutt Ph 04 971 7143 Fax 04 914 2405 Mobile 021 701 598 Email: weddell@paradise.net.nz Canterbury Division Ray Palmer 57 East Belt, Rangiora Ph 03 313 8513 Fax 03 313 8583.

Southern Division Tony Cardy 26 Warren Street, Oamaru Ph/Fax: 03 434 5523 Email: cardy@callsouth.net.nz

Vice-president Katherine Ransom PO Box 402, Matamata Ph 07 888 0054 Mobile 027 471 6891 Email: katransom@slingshot.co.nz

Party Secretary Mark Atkin 5 Tarras Grove, Lower Hutt Email: valhalla@paradise.net.nz

Northern Division John Rawson Lookout Hill, No. 8, Whangarei Ph 09 438 9265 Email: jgrawson@hotmail.com

‘Guardian’ Editor Tony Cardy 26 Warren Street, Oamaru Ph/Fax: 03 434 5523 Email: cardy@callsouth.net.nz

Auckland Division C/o Neville Aitchison 321, 63 Remuera Rd, Auckland Ph 09 522 2743 Mobile 021 366 553 Email: naitchison@xtra.co.nz

Secretarial Support Margaret Hook 393 Marychurch Rd, No. 4 R.D., Hamilton Ph 07 829 5157 Email: nzdp.inc@xtra.co.nz

Western Division Trevor Crosbie 87 Poaka Ave, Dinsdale, Hamilton Landline: 07 848 1533 Fax: 07 848 1538 Mobile: 027 459 2625 Email: designafuture@xtra.co.nz

Committee Conveners

Eastern Division John Pemberton PO Box 402, Matamata Ph 07 888 0054 Mobile 021 716 895 Email: pemberj@slingshot.co.nz Website: http://www.johnpemberton.co.nz

Ex Officio Positions

Finance Committee David Wilson PO Box 60, Paparoa, Northland Ph 09 431 7004 Fax 09 431 8615 Email: wilson_df@xtra.co.nz Constitution Committee Neville Aitchison (refer President entry for details)

WORLD NEWS

Social Credit leader elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Solomons Social Credit Party Trust Board, Incorporated

SoCred Party SoCred House – Matavale Road Between YWCA & SIBC P.O. Box 1349 – Honiara City, Solomon Islands Phone: +677-22-320; Fax: +677-27-509; Mobile: +677-95-888 Email: solomonsocialcredit@yahoo.com Manasseh Sogarvare

To The New Zealand Democratic Party for social credit As you are aware, the Solomon Islands held its national parliamentary election on 5th April 2006 and our very own Solomons Social Credit Party (SoCred Party) garnered three seats contested by its official candidates with additional five seats contested by its financial members as an independents.

On Tuesday, 18th April 2006, the election by the parliamentarians of a new Prime Minister was held with three candidates including our Party’s President, Hon. Manasseh Sogarvare. The winner, Snyder Rini, met a strong outcry from the general public who demanded for his immediate resignation. When he refused to resign, on the very same day a riot erupted in the city of Honiara that targeted and destroyed the Chinatown and other business houses owned by the Chinese. The people blamed the Chinese for Snyder Rini’s win, saying the Chinese backed him up financially to lobby members of parliament into his side. This catastrophe cost the country dearly as the Chinese community control almost 80% of the country’s economy. Immediately, the new opposition side lodged a vote of no confidence against the newly elected controversial PM and asked the PM to resign honourably, rather than be defeated at the floor of the parliament. He resigned, and the current opposition nominated our very own Hon. Sogavare to be their candidate for PM with great applaud from the general public for him to be the next PM of Solomon Islands.

Our President, Hon. Manasseh Sogavare was the choice for the Prime Minister in order for us to implement social credit policies for the country's economic recovery which was devastated during the last week racial unrest. I'm quite sure it will the first time in the history of social credit that one of its political party ever take control of a national government. With this new development, we hope that fellow social crediters like you in New Zealand will help us in achieving our goal and be a showcase to all social crediters, worldwide.

The people are now clamouring for the government to implement social credit policies in order for the country to recover economically.

Best regards, Sri Ramon Jun Quitales, ll, Secretary General (Edited extracts from emails 22-27 April 2006)

Democrats for social credit

The Beetham connection

PO Box 18-907, New Brighton, Christchurch Phone/Fax: 0064 7 829 5157 Email: nzdp.inc@xtra.co.nz Website: www.democrats.org.nz

The New Zealand Sunday StarTimes reported (16/4/06): “Manasseh Sogarvare currently leads the Social Credit Party, which traces its origins to the New Zealand Social Credit Party and one of its leaders, Bruce Beetham, who hosted a student in his house. That student, Solomon Mamaloni, went on to become prime minister."

Thursday, 4th May 2006 Dear Sri Ramon Jun Quitales II I have just heard the very good news that Hon. Manasseh Sogavare has today been elected Prime Minister by the Solomon Island's parliament.

Please convey this Party's good wishes and sincere congratulations to him. The election of a social credit leader to the position of Prime Minister is indeed a momentous occasion which we celebrate with you.

Monetary reformers in New Zealand applaud your efforts to bring economic and social justice through social credit to the people of the Solomon Islands. We wish you every success.

Kind regards, Stephnie de Ruyter Leader Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 6

Fluoridation, surgery waiting lists - and other lies

By David Tranter, Health spokesman, Democrats for social credit Generally speaking, I find National Radio to be one of the last sources of intelligent broadcast comment in this country.

However, recent coverage of fluoridation raises questions as to whether the organisation is under government pressure to give balanced coverage when this government and the Health/Sickness Ministry are so obsessed with forcing fluoridation onto communities regardless of the massive evidence against such an agenda. So while I am usually a keen supporter of National Radio I recently found myself compelled to send the following message to the "This Way Up" programme (13 May) producers and host: "I sometimes find it hard to believe that National Radio gives so much air time to people on subjects about which they know nothing. viz the Hamilton F vote when the person commenting (at length) this afternoon proclaimed that for her the clincher in favour of fluoridation was when it was pointed out to her that fluoride is in the environment. What??!! So by that (un)reasoning anything could be added to the water.....

Bread and Circuses: 'Offerings, such as benefits or entertainments, intended to placate discontent or distract attention from a policy or situation' (dictionary definition)

people's lives and totally distorts the very concept of what constitutes elective surgery. To take just two examples I am familiar with, how can it be "elective" surgery when someone is losing their sight or clutching at a serious hernia? Would Pete Hodgson and his parliamentary mates think such conditions were "elective" if they suffered from them? Their approach doesn't even make economic Following Jim Mora's boot"I am receiving reports from contacts about a new wave of sense so even if they don't care about the humiliation, suffering and despair licking interview with Martin Lee on lies and deceit. We have been polite for too long. involved surely they do care that if National Radio on Friday afternoon We have accepted their phoney propaganda for too long. relatively, low-cost operations were the matter of balance regarding provided before people became more fluoridation appears to be seriously We have been acquiescent Kiwis for too long" seriously affected - in some cases out of kilter - especially given the resulting in loss of employment - then Health Ministry's current obsession vastly greater costs of subsequent welfare support for the victims could with forcing fluoridation on communities via the District health Boards' be avoided. A win-win situation as the lovers of jargon like to put it. utterly warped presentations of the subject. Surely it is time the various show hosts dabbling in fluoridation made themselves at least a little more Cries of "we do our best" from the corporate health bureaucrats cut aware of the subject - and gave equal air time to groups such as the New no ice with me either. My experience of the surgery booking system as a Zealand fluoride action group - or has the government decreed voluntary patient advocate has shown me a hopelessly complex system otherwise?" which couldn't have been better designed to make people give up if it had been done deliberately. I have experienced outright lies by the Such a slanted approach goes beyond this particular issue. Recent bureaucrats, endless roundabouts of patients repeatedly having to go to interviews with Health Minister Pete Hodgson and the minister responsitheir doctors when their conditions deteriorate, paying both doctor and ble for mental health issues, Ruth Dyson, have me wondering when other fees such as for opticians, and after all this - sometimes involving some astute programme producer is going to take a stand regarding the years of waiting - they get absolutely nowhere. mindless party dogma and tit-for-tat political squabbles which have come to characterise most public discussion of crucial issues like health. How Surely it is time to take note of the now widespread fear amongst are we ever going to solve problems like the DHBs' Ministry-driven those affected that if they complain they will be put further down the list. I debacle over surgery waiting lists while media interviewers allow their don't for one moment believe that is true - not because the corporate interviewees to blather on without confronting the essential problem health mob care but because the one thing they fear is publicity about deception of the public while the elected health boards are mere puppets patients tragedies. And I am quite sure that the stories that do make it to totally controlled by the Ministry and the local corporate offices. And how the media are merely the tip of an immense iceberg of human suffering. are we to reverse the tragic trends in mental health care when something labelled "deinstitutionalisation" has become a mindless mantra regardless As I write this I am receiving reports from contacts about a new wave of its often tragic consequences. of lies and deceit about fluoridation directed by the Health Ministry and their DHB corporate cronies. We have been polite for too long. We have To my way of thinking after 15 years of being immersed in the issues accepted their phoney propaganda for too long. We have been both locally and at national level, it is increasingly obvious that the post acquiescent Kiwis for too long. What does it take to get us angry enough 1993 corporatisation of health management is, despite claims to the to speak out? Or have we as a nation succumbed to the appalling contrary, being run on a health-as-a-business basis even more now than dumbing-down of television - too lazy to think for ourselves and content when it was National's specified approach as introduced by that arch to be lulled into a sense of false security by the modern equivalent of theory-before-practice minister of health, Simon Upton. How else could bread and circuses? the current waiting list farce arise but under this bean-counting, bureaucratic empire-building regime which plays ducks-and-drakes with David Tranter, Hokitika.

O.K. - all sorts of ill-informed people get lots of air time - Pete Hodgson being a prime current example - but what about the interviewer, who simply accepted this nonsense without comment? One can't expect hosts to be expert on everything, but common sense immediately screamed that the speaker was talking absolute rubbish.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 7

Crosbie's Comment

By Trevor Crosbie President, Western Division, Democrats for social credit "Anyone reading this is probably like the vast majority of people engaged in life in the 21st Century - swimming ever more frantically in order to keep their heads above a flow of circumstances and events they have little or no influence or control over" Of course that has been claimed before and indeed the present system has seen a series of crises over the past three hundred years which have been addressed by short term 'band-aid' solutions. However, the point will come where a crisis will turn into a collapse and the present situation, with growing energy deficiencies, resource depletion and environmental degradation, is increasingly being recognised as a 'tipping point', the like of which we have never before seen or experienced on a global scale. That could lead directly to an international economic meltdown of catastrophic proportions given the growing interdependence of the global economy.

M

edia headlines daily confirm the present 'system' for managing our collective affairs is not working particularly well for most people. Issues around health, education, crime, welfare, trade, If that event occurred, who would be charged with rebuilding the transport, taxes etc. have been around for most of my life and "a crisis 'system'? Unless there are alternative parties with credibility indeed the lives of my parents and grand parents. will turn into a collapse who are aware of the driver behind the situation, then the I note as well, despite the ever increasing 'pool' of and the present situation, with task will default to the same entities and individuals inter-generational knowledge and experience gained growing energy deficiencies, who created the situation. The owners and operators over the past 100 years, the established political resource depletion and environmen- of the debt mechanism will be in boots-and-all to parties around the world (being designated either as tal degradation, could lead directly ensure that whatever arises from the ashes will be to 'left' or 'right') insist on returning to the tried and to an international economic their design and advantage. failed policies of the past and repeatedly 'rehash' meltdown of catastrophic It is time to use all the resources and technologies them in various guises as 'new' solutions to the historic proportions" at our disposal to ensure that the work of those who have problems. year after year fought to change the economic foundation of It is no coincidence that virtually every nation on the face of this society (to ensure everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their dreams and planet is looking for solutions to the same range of issues. Surely that aspirations, within a society that provides their basic needs) is achieved. indicates the existence of a common driver behind that situation and the only element in common across all the various economies is the mechanism used to inject purchasing power, as an interest bearing debt, into their financial systems.

That is where Social Credit comes into relevance; in offering an alternative mechanism (interest free credit) to fund essential infrastructure and thus start to address the headline issues and promote a new vision of society based on the opportunities opened up by real reform of the economic foundation, on which the structure of society and the wellness of the people therein is built. The present system has reached a stage in its development where it is in itself the greatest barrier and hurdle to providing a solution and indeed history will reveal it as being the author of its own demise.

Look at the technological progression over the past 20 years and at the communications mediums being used by the younger generation Let us be the party that grabs the opportunity to market a new vision using the language that generation X can relate to. Target the next generation with an inter-generation message that demands their attention. Hammer the message that supporting Lab/Nat simply means more taxes, more inflation, more controls and restrictions, a more uncertain future, less quality of life, less healthcare, more crime, etc. It is called comparative marketing and is the most powerful technique in politics. If Lab/Nat is the answer why haven't the problems gone away?

In 2008 you can vote for more of what you have been getting - or vote Democrats for social credit for a change

THE DIARY OF ADRIAN BAYLY Nelson based Adrian Bayly keeps a close eye on the political scene in New Zealand and overseas, and reports regularly to the Guardian.

Jeremy Dwyer It is sad to hear that Jeremy Dwyer has died at age 58, but it is good to know that you will do an obituary in the Guardian. I last saw Jeremy at the Democrat conference in Hamilton in 1992, which he and Alasdair Thompson attended as Ma yo rs o f Ha s t i n g s a n d Co ro m a n d e l , respectively, to lend their support to the Community Credit campaign being launched nationwide. Several councils did give their support, including Nelson and Tasman in my own area. (21/12/05) Money myth exploded Henry Raynel of the Social Credit School of Studies has sent me a copy of ‘The Money Myth Exploded’. It explains the current debt financGuardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 8

ing problem and how social credit can improve it. It also shows how people can set up their own bank (like Credit Unions and Finance companies) using social credit principles.

(23/12/05) Canadian Social Credit I have a copy of Colin Whitmill’s publication: The Rise and Demise of the Canadian Social Credit Party’. It’s a shame that the Party disappeared, but its ideas have not faded. The last leader was J. Martin Hattersley QC, who visited New Zealand in 1986.

I remember going to hear him at a meeting in Waikanae, with Colin Whitmill and Eric Elliot. (8/2/06) Credibility problem Amy Hockey reports from British Columbia that the newly elected Conservative Government of Canada is led by Stephen Harper and his cabinet is made up from MPs from the Provinces and Territories. Harper already has a credibility problem, and his government is a minority one which could face a vote of no-confidence from the opposition at any time. (22/2/06) Mortgage home to pay rates The Nelson City Council proposes to introduce a

‘Rates Postponement Scheme’ and a ‘Reverse Mortgages Scheme’. The Rates Postponement Scheme, being trialed by six North Island Councils, is aimed at residential ratepayers aged 65 years and over. The value of the property must cover the cost of postponed rates and accrued charges. Repayment will be made from your estate after your death. Rates in some areas have risen to a level that makes it tough for retired people to meet the annual cost.

The schemes are a solution to some retirees, but it would mean that their children would miss out on an inheritance. (2/4/06) Community Credit needed The Nelson City Council has just released its 10-year Council Community Plan. Council plans to spend a total of $300 million in capital projects. The level of borrowing is forecast to rise from $47 million, to $83 million in 2009/10.

The Council is committed to paying off a $25 million loan on its water filter treatment plan over 40 years. If the government introduced the Democrat’s ‘Community Credit’ policy of interest-free loans from the NZ Reserve Bank, it would ease the debt burden of many City and District councils. (14/4/06)

M

ost New Zealanders, when asked, would say they live in a democracy.

However while this might be true to a certain extent, many are now starting to query just how much of a democracy they really have and if our governments have too much power?

Is what we have real democracy or just one day of democracy and three years of an elected dictatorship?

governments become out of touch with the will of the people. The trouble is we have no way of bringing about change until the next election and the only alternative then is to remove the current government and replace it with another government who to all intensive purposes will not be any more attentive to the wishes of the people.

The weakness of our current political system is that once a government is elected there are There have been many controversial few checks and balances between elections. issues over the last several years which Voters must accept whatever the governhave been passed, or stopped, by the ment or coalition of the day wants. government that appeared to be at This it often does without a popular loggerheads with what polls mandate or majority support of New reflected and what the people Zealanders and much of which is wanted. Issues like prostitution, introduced by a List MP abortion, voluntary who is not responsible euthanasia, lowering to an electorate and who the drinking age, civil cannot be thrown out at the next unions, removing the right to election as some would have us

by Steve Baron appeal to the Privy Council, GE, think. Or it becomes a pay off of immigration and nutritional some kind to a minor party for supplement law changes. Even in supporting the government.

Australia a new law has been passed which would appear to stop freedom of speech. It Better Democracy believes the people is no longer legal in Australia to give out should be able to make more decisions other information on voluntary euthanasia via phone, than just once every three years at a general fax or email. How long before freedom of election. The mechanism for doing this is called speech is curtailed in New Zealand?

Binding Citizens Initiated Referendums (BCIR) which has operated extremely well for over 130 So is it enough to have a vote once every years in Switzerland, several European three years at a general election and then countries and many US States. BCIR is not a simply trust replacement for the current system, it is simply those we elect an adjunct to it, the next step forward from to use their MMP toward real democracy. better judgment on It is a very simple process where on perhaps issues like one day a year, or combined with a general those above? election, New Zealanders would get to vote on Many an issue by issue basis to make decisions that politicians I directly effect them so long as the required have spoken number of signatures had been collected to to believe that trigger a referendum. At present this amount is we elect them 10% of those registered on the Electoral Roll to do a job and which is approximately 300,000 signatures, a make all the figure that would seem extremely high given hard decisions the Swiss only have to collect 50,000 on our behalf. signatures with a population almost twice that They tell me of New Zealand. they are far better informed than the general public on important issues. Well to a certain extent many of us might agree with that. In most cases we are happy to elect them to make the difficult decisions a government must make on a daily basis, but there does come a time when

People Power

Some also say that referendums are expensive and on the surface approximately $10 million per referendum may sound like a lot of money but in the overall scheme of things that is a drop in the ocean given the economy of our country Steve Baron and surely a small price to pay for democracy given we spent $30 million for our yachties to attend the next Americas Cup. It is also a lot cheaper for New Zealanders to hold referendums than in Switzerland because the Swiss must produce their official referendum pamphlet in several official languages. This pamphlet gives the pros and cons from each side of the argument and is posted to every voter prior to an election.

Over the last 130 years the Swiss have averaged only 3-4 citizens initiated referendums per year and they are the most recidivous users of referendums in the world.

It would seem logical, in a modern well informed society like New Zealand that we would want, and have a democratic right to make decisions on issues that directly affect us through BCIR. People are no longer prepared to accept that those in positions of authority always know what is best for them. It is time for change but firstly, New Zealanders must demand it of their politicians.

Steve Baron is co-editor of the book ‘People Power’ (reviewed in The Guardian Political Review Issue 46). He is also the Founder of Better Democracy (www.betterdemocracy.co.nz) .

Parliamentary and Law Reform Policy Democrats for social credit are committed to Democracy through a policy of Binding Citizens’ Initiated Referenda.

Wanganui gives 'Power to the People'

By Steve Baron (Extract from The Australasian Social Credit Journal, May/June 2006)

those on the electoral roll sign a petition.

Full marks have to go to new Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws and the six new councillors from the In January 2006, the Council initiated a referendum with five ‘Vision Wanganui’ team for questions. After well informed debate and disseminaliterally giving ‘power to the “The Fluoridation voting was tion of information, 55% of voters returned postal forms people’. Laws and his team for an overwhelming rejection (compared with only 49% in the 2004 local body have initiated Direct Democracy of changing the status quo" elections). in the Wanganui District Council The Mayor has hailed the voting response as a and have ensured that Wanganui now leads the stunning success, giving a clear indication that the Wanganui people rest of the country in this enlightened decision want to have a say in how their hard earned ratepayer dollars are spent making process.

Michael Laws Question 1 was WATER FLUORIDATION. 74% voted to have no Council initiated referendums proceed after a fluoridation.. Laws said: “The Fluoridation voting was for an overwhelmbalanced information campaign outlines the pro’s and con’s of each ing rejection of changing the status quo. referendum question. Originally non-binding, the council now considers "I compliment the campaign of the anti fluoridation lobbyists. itself bound by the voting results to date.

Wanganui’s decision was made on a factual basis not fear”.

Citizens may also initiate binding referendums if 10% or more of Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 9

But then again, why worry when we can add another poison like fluoride to our water.

Dr Robert Anderson Union of Concerned Scientists www.ucsusa.org

HAVE YOUR SAY JUST THINK I am moved to write in response to a beautiful letter of appreciation recently received from our leader Stephnie de Ruyter and the Party's executive. The reason is that for a number of years now, I have made a very small regular donation ($5 fortnightly) by automatic payment. This is not a great sacrifice and over the years adds up to quite a decent sum. We pay $10 per year membership, little enough to be part of an organisation dedicated to eradicating the greatest evil in the world today - our corrupt money system,. Just think what a fighting fund we could have if all the membership decided to go automatic on $5 per fortnight.

As a lead up to the 2008 general election, I suggest we seriously consider contending next year's local body elections throughout the country. In Wellington, we have had Green and Alliance councillors. Why not a Democrat councillor?

Coralie Leyland, Wellington FROM GARRY Thanks for sending the Guardian; it continues to be an excellent publication for which you can be justifiably proud.

Garry Knapp, Auckland SUSPECT SWEETENER I can’t help stifling a reflexive yawn when I read of authorities questioning yet again the safety of Aspartame. Scientists, including those of the FDA, rejected for years this nasty chemical which was forced through the regulatory channels by none other than Donald Rumsfeld. How many brain tumours this has spurned is any one’s guess. And, yes, it’s the same ‘Rummy’ who sanctioned the torture at Abu Ghraib. There is also the billions he pockets from the sale of Tamiflu as a major shareholder in the producing company. All in a day’s work for Rumsfeld.

Only last week I sat in a Tauranga Cafe and watched three young women, careful of their figures no doubt, spoon three heaped teaspoons of Aspartame into their coffee. This chemical breaks down into formaldehyde and methyl alcohol, both serious poisons, and yet it is still incorporated into diet drinks and foods, and children’s medicines. While big business ensures Aspartame is protected, wonderful alternatives such as Xylitol or Stevia are quietly buried. Xylitol, as well as having a low glycemic index, would even protect children’s teeth.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 10

IT’S NOT THAT WAGES ARE TOO LOW

I sympathize with people expected to live on very meagre wages, like $10.25 an hour.

Many New Zealanders are in this position.

The problem is not that wages are too low but living costs are at an unnecessary high level.

The Government could assist to prevent costs from rising at the rate they are, by being more proactive to arrest the rising spiral of the cost of living.

Petrol prices are rising due to external factors -but Government could remove GST charges from petrol prices. A tax on a tax is wrong.

We are already paying road taxes every time we purchase petrol or road mileage. It is immoral to claim GST on such an essential product as oil, which is one of the main commodities required for our nation’s production.

Government needs to act responsibly by taking decisive proactive action with our own Reserve Bank and make low or no interest community credit available to Government agencies, and local bodies for development or use of essential services. This is a simple and effective method in lowering our costs such as rates demands - which in return help to keep rents low for renters If Government also used the Reserve Bank to ensure banks charged a manageable interest rate on borrowing, this again would help to lower rents and mortgages.

In short, we need a Government to be responsible and do what we elected them to do - manage the economy for the people as a whole. Only then would we see less demand to increase wages, as the cost of living would decrease not increase.

Pauline McIntosh, Invercargill ANOTHER OVERSEAS TAKEOVER In the mid-seventies Ivan Illich's book Medical Nemesis spelt out how world-wide health services were being changed from a public good to a profit-driven business. New Zealand's so-called health "reforms" reflected this change in emphasis.

Now the proposed transfer of a Plunket service to a United States-based corporate gives further evidence to support Illich's thesis.

Apparently there have been problems with a lower than desired answering rate for calls to Plunket's help-line but it seems this has been caused by under-funding.

But - hey Presto! - it seems that government are going to give increased funding to the U.S. based multi-national that is supplanting Plunket. So why didn't government improve Plunket's funding?

Once again a New Zealand government is seemingly driven by the grey-suited, greyminded bean counters in the Health Ministry and turning their collective back on something that only needed fine-tuning - and better

funding. Why are we the only country in the world that so avidly gives control of anything and everything into overseas hands? Why do our so-called representatives in Parliament walk all over some of the finest long-term services that are valued by most caring New Zealanders?

Where will it all end? - when every Kiwi organisation we treasure has been ditched in favour of some foreign profit-driven outfit?

We should all be saying hands off Plunket but we won't, because that might mean missing a bit of a soap opera in order to write a letter. Once again I find my less peaceful side thinking that Guy Fawkes wasn't entirely misguided.....

David Tranter, Hokitika DEBT MANAGEMENT As of April this year the total (internal) public debt was NZ$32.785 billion. (Source Reserve Bank of NZ) but that's not all!

From the NZ Debt Managment Office in December 05 came the following information: "The New Zealand Debt Management Office (NZDMO) announced today that the government's 2005/06 domestic debt programme will now total up to $2,700 million (2.7 billion)".

The projected ongoing borrowing requirements over the next decade runs at over 3 billion per Annum. That tends to make a mockery of the very misleading "debt free" s t a t e me n t s c u r r e n t l y b e i n g ma d e b y Government.

The problem is that servicing that debt takes away from the ability of government to provide essential infrastructure at the levels needed to meet the needs of the people they purport to represent. We, the taxpayer, end up paying the extra taxes needed to pay those who 'buy' the debt created by the bonds, bills and various securities through the NZ Debt Management Office. That means that families have less and less discretionary spending power at their disposal. A raft of other negative outcomes flow from that situation.

The argument put forward for decades by Socred: that "If Government can cause the creation of all the above interest bearing debt in order to finance the provision of essential infrastructure then it has the power to cause the creation of interest free credit for the same purpose", is more relevant today than it has ever been in our countries history.

Until the issue around the interest bearing debt mechanism is addressed, and no party currently in our Parliament is prepared to do it, then the people of New Zealand can expect the historic infrastructural problems around health, education, welfare, transport, law and order, etc. to continue.

Trevor Crosbie, Hamilton Letters should be sent to The Guardian Political Review, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400, NZ. Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: cardy@callsouth.net.nz. The editor reserves the right to edit or abridge. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or the NZ Democratic Party for social credit.

ISLAMIC FINANCE - WHAT IS THE SITUATION? British Finance Minister Gordon Brown is drawing up plans to turn Britain into the most Islam-friendly economy in the western world. To comply with sharia law, financial products must not charge or earn interest, which is regarded as usury.

The Guardian Political Review sought a commentary on this proposal and Colin Whitmill approached Islamic financial expert, Tarek el Diwany, for his views. (Tarik graduated in Accountancy and Finance and has worked as a dealer in the conventional capital markets for several years during which time he lectured in the field of financial mathematics and options theory).

Tarek writes:-In Summer 2005, Michael Chussodovsky wrote an article on LIVE 8 and its campaign to reduce global poverty (http://www.globalresearch.ca). Here is a short extract from that article: The concerts are totally devoid of political content. They concentrate on simple and misleading clichĂŠs. They use poverty as a marketing tool and a consumer-advertising gimmick to increase the number of viewers and listeners worldwide. Live 8 creates an aura of optimism. It conveys the impression that poverty can be vanquished with the stroke of the pen. All we need is good will. The message is that G8 leaders, together with the World Bank and the IMF, are ultimately committed to poverty alleviation. In this regard, the concerts are part of the broader process of media disinformation. They are used as a timely public relations stunt for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is hosting the G-8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland. Tony Blair is presented as stepping up his campaign to convince other G8 nations 'to take action on poverty'

against all possible threats, whether commercial or ideological. So what if it costs them a few hundred million to do so? To co-opt Islamic banking and influence it from within may in fact be the cheapest strategy available. A member of the design team that won a recent industry award told me privately that the product "is a sham", that he "can't believe the scholars approved it". I can believe it. The methodology is working.

One of the main factors that has propelled us to this low point is, I believe, a lack of vision and confidence among leading Muslims to develop and implement a distinctively Islamic framework for modern financial activity. It is as if critical sections of Muslim academia and business have been intellectually colonised by the West. Hence one finds little difference in

Chussodovsky has identified a methodology here. It is used by the establishment to weaken a potentially threatening movement from within and, because it is a methodology, it can be identified elsewhere.

For example, with a few minor alterations, Chussodovsky's words suddenly become relevant to the Islamic banking industry: The Islamic banking industry concentrates on simple and misleading clichĂŠs. It uses Islam as a marketing tool and a consumeradvertising gimmick to increase its following among Muslims worldwide. Islamic bankers create an aura of optimism. They convey the impression that usury can be vanquished with the launch of more financial products. All we need is to set up more Islamic banks. The message is that Western bankers, together with their friends at the World Bank and the IMF, are ultimately committed to providing an Islamic paradigm. In this regard, Islamic banking conferences are part of the broader process of media disinformation.

Leading establishment figures are often presented as stepping up their campaign to convince others 'to level the playing field for Islamic finance' .

Methodology working The platitudes and gloss of LIVE 8 are repeated in the award ceremonies at Islamic banking conferences. Interest-based loans with Islamic labels win the top prizes but few people stop to ask who exactly is glorifying this trash.

Could it just be that these awards are a means of promoting the type of Islamic finance that the interest-based establishment wants? A type that doesn't threaten the existing financial paradigm? In the UK last year, the banking sector made USD 40 billion equivalent in profit.

It will try to guard this profit-making machine Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 11

www.islamic-finance.com

the material used to teach finance courses in the Gulf as compared to universities in London or New York, and the symptoms of this malaise have spread well beyond academia. A suit and tie still seems to earn the kind of respect that a thobe and beard cannot, even in the Islamic banking industry.

Some Muslims not interested in Islamic finance During my first week of employment in Islamic finance, I suggested to a director of an Islamic housing organisation in London that we should develop together a diminishing partnership home financing product. I told him we could prove a concept together. My firm's financing know-how plus his operational knowledge would fit together nicely, I thought.

We would share capital risk together. His clients need no longer fear negative equity, no longer suffer from debt stress. (This was a true diminishing partnership by the way, not at all like the interest-based loans that were to appear in the name of diminishing partnership a few years later.) After maybe fifteen minutes,

the director proudly informed me that he'd recently agreed a 5 year loan at 7.5% through Barclays Bank and wasn't interested in Islamic finance. Looking back I realise the extent of my naivety, imagining that a Muslim director of an Islamic housing organisation would be interested to develop an Islamic financing paradigm. But at the time, the thought uppermost in my mind was that my firm's business plan was in real trouble. If this was the state of the Muslim community, what hope Islamic finance?

The story repeated itself as the years went by. On a visit to a Gulf-based Islamic bank in 1996, I proposed the issuance of bonds with coupons linked to project revenues and redeemable at net asset value. A client of mine needed several million dollars to finance an infrastructure project in a stable Muslim country. I saw this as a great opportunity to launch a genuinely halal financial instrument that could act as a template for years to come. This particular institution had a balance sheet in the billions of dollars, but once again I found myself speaking with men who wanted to do "money-now for more-money-later" transactions, men who seemed incapable of thinking beyond the confines of a McGraw Hill textbook. The idea of tradable revenue bonds switched them off entirely, but when an executive from a big Western bank visited this same institution to propose a commodity cash-and-carry with a limp LIBOR related return, then this was a breakthrough! Truly innovative!

Soon a variety of technical sounding product names sprouted in the literature.

"Revolving murabahahs" and "notes issuance facilities" became the flavour of the day. Often, there would be a feature in some trade magazine, accompanied of course by the obligatory sentence to inform us that the Islamic banking industry is an exciting niche market worth $150 billion, growing at 15% per year.

Money-now-for-more-money-later In those days, commentators were still arguing that murabahah was just a temporary phase in Islamic banking, something to get by with until a truly Islamic product could be found.

People were saying "yes, I know, it's not ideal, but it's a start", "one step is better than no step", and so on. But it is quite possible that no step would have been better than that step because, in the formulation of modern murabahah, principles were established that have led us to tawarruq and a whole new selection of excuses. I am thinking in particular of the use of contract combination in the design of Islamic financial products but also, at a more general level, of the promotion of legal form over substance in so much of what the industry does. The resultant transformation has been remarkable. For decades in the Middle East, (continued on next page)

(Islamic Finance continued)

much of the Muslim public resisted tempting offers of interest-bearing loans from the banking system. The sinful connotations were sufficiently strong to block the borrowing impulse. But the emergence of tawarruq has changed all of this by providing a convenient fig-leaf for borrowing at interest. This largely explains why, for example, consumer borrowing in Saudi Arabia has leapt by more than 50% over the last year. It is therefore rather ironic to find a scholar who was for many years a leading voice in favour of those questionable legal principles now warning his ex-clients that their products are becoming indistinguishable from interest. The time to warn and prohibit passed long ago, Sheikh. Your fatawa commanded such a high price not because you were more capable than other scholars, but because you were willing to permit what others would not, and because your opinions suited what the bankers wanted to do.

The result is that the money-now for moremoney-later transaction has become a cornerstone of the Islamic banking business model, just as it is in interest-based commercial banking. The least we can do now is to make sure that those who opened the legal flood gates, so to speak, are not given responsibility for closing them again.

Influence of powerful banking establishments It is rather worrying that the collapse of the Christian prohibition of usury has left behind a similar story, one of jurisprudence and intellectual thought influenced by a powerful banking establishment. That influence has continued up to the present day. For example, the London Business School is a creation of the major British commercial banks and the Citibank Foundation spends much of its funds on financial education. A powerful anti-banking thesis is most unlikely to emerge under the patronage of such institutions, and the executives who grow up on that theoretical diet will know little of the interest-free economic paradigm. Yet such men are invited to develop and manage Islamic banking departments across the world.

The Western range of instruments (overdrafts, fixed income bonds, home mortgages, derivatives) are a fruit that can only grow upon a certain tree (the institutional framework of fiat money, a central bank, fractional reserve banking and so on) and that tree can only grow in a certain soil (the concepts of riba, gharar, speculation). We cannot Islamise this tree or its fruit any more than we can Islamise theft, but I am not advocating that we "go back to the Stone Age" or regress in some other way as orthodox economists occasionally suggest. We must simply plant our seed in a soil of our own, let the tree grow, and harvest whatever fruit results. Dr. Daud Bakar, who has spent many years researching the matter, finds no record of deposit-taking banks in the early centuries of Islam yet the Islamic Empire was advanced in every way given the technological limits of the time. Why then has the Western model of

commercial banking been so unquestioningly adopted by the modern pioneers of Islamic banking? Did we really think that we could transplant a model that grew so uniquely in the soil of usury to the soil of Shari`ah? The scheme should have been a non-starter, but it lives, sustained by the smoke and mirrors of the Islamic banking community, producing ever more absurd semantics as the years go by.

Muslim world can solve its problems I have believed for a long time that the Muslim world can only solve its problems if it first understands what those problems are. This seems an obvious idea to me, in Islamic banking and finance especially, but apparently not so to others. The continuing suspicions and legal confusions in Islamic banking have only reinforced the fact that something is badly wrong in the industry. It is especially sad that the industry has never seriously investigated the theory of fractional reserve banking, or recognised that it consistently predicts the development of the economic landscape around us.

Proposals Here are some of those ideas in brief: Serious moves should be made to reform the present interest-based monetary system. It should be replaced over time with a commodity based currency issued under the supervision of the state.

A 100% reserve requirement should be imposed on the sight deposit accounts of deposit-taking institutions and the payment of returns on these accounts should be prohibited by law.

As a transitionary step, securitisation and tradability of real assets should be encouraged so as to provide holders of money with an alternative liquid investment that does not suffer longer term devaluation due to the operation of credit creation by the commercial banks. With the elimination of fractional reserve banking, the need for such securities will diminish substantially.

Investment accounts should be operated as off-balance sheet items, and should be legally segregated from the payment transmission operations of deposit takers. The investment accounts would carry a 0% reserve requirement, and returns to investors as well as withdrawal rights from the accounts would be subject to the performance and liquidity of the underlying portfolio of assets.

Interest-based forms of finance should be phased out over time by statute, and incentives put in place to encourage genuine alternatives such as operating leases and installment payment facilities.

Without this vital re-appraisal of the raison d'etre of commercial banking, its Islamic Revenue bonds should be variant will in due promoted to finance course be infrastructure projects where absorbed by the an identifiable revenue interest-based www.islamic-finance.com stream exists (a toll road sector and project for example). These disappear entirely. This will happen because will be easier to administer than profit sharing there will be no substantive difference between securities since project revenues can be the two. Already those who pull the strings at directly observed, whereas profits can be the conferences are debating whether the word distorted through creative accounting.

"Islamic" should be dropped from the industry's marketing effort, and Harvard's 2006 conference has the integration of Islamic finance into the mainstream as its theme. Stephen Green, CEO of HSBC, goes so far as to suggest that the success of Islamic banking products "will be their acceptance in the mainstream financial community" (Islamic Banking and Finance Magazine #4, UK, 2004). No Stephen, it's precisely the opposite. The failure of Islamic banking and finance will be measured by the degree to which it is accepted in the mainstream. If such a dreadful thing should happen it will be a victory for usury and a defeat for Islam and for the suffering people of this world.

But if we are to Islamise modern day Islamic banking and finance, a number of radical policy changes are required. Where these policies cannot be implemented immediately, they should at least be put on the agenda for discussion. I do not care whether it is in the Muslim world or the non-Muslim world that such a debate takes place for they are reforms that will benefit all of mankind, as indeed Islam is meant to.

Diminishing partnership financing (of the kind in which capital risk is genuinely shared) should be promoted for capital investment and financing of large ticket items, in property and transport for example. Insolvency due to an unequal apportionment of risk between the user and provider of funds will then be a far less frequent occurrence, but a legal and financial framework should be established to minimise the negative social and economic consequences of those cases in which investments do fail. I am thinking here of good corporate governance, proper regulation of the financial sector, the establishment of mutual insurance funds, the promotion of good portfolio management practices, and so on.

Interest-free loans should be provided to lower income groups for home purchase, car purchase and education through a public sector agency. This would be the lowest cost option for society to fund many such purchases, and has been operated successfully in the past. For example, until recently, interest-free loans from the government were a major source of home finance in Saudi Arabia.

(Continued on next page)

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 12

A view from the crow's-nest

by Lt. Cdr. Dick Ryan RN RNZN (rtd) Dick Ryan of Kerikeri is a former Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy officer, Director of the Commission for the Future, and former Democratic Deputy Leader and Spokesperson for Defence and Foreign Affairs. He is a past Director for the QE II National Trust and currently an advisory Trustee of The Prince's Trust N.Z.

"For the last twenty-five years the Party has been pleading for the country to change to alternative energy" Oil is on its ‘run down’ period – but then so is our world.

For the last twenty-five years the Party has been pleading for the country to change to alternative energy to run our transport fleet.

Ethanol, CNG, bio-diesel, and electricity. We have heard not a peep on the subject by an y go vern men t an d n o w, ignominiously, it takes the President of the biggest oil guzzler to mention ‘ethanol’ in his State of the Nation speech.

Climate change is upon us threatening environmental disaster. Conflict in international relations and religion are building to total confrontation, and the PRC has arrived to counter the US as a superpower, threatening nuclear disaster. Yet New Zealand continues to act as if oil will continue to flow endlessly into Marsden Point, and has absolutely no contingency plans whatever for the arrival of any of the above.

‘Nobody could have forecast that‘, they will say.

‘They’ being the reactive politicians and the under informed reporters, all joined at the navel to the media moguls and the transnational establishment. Yet as the middle east changes their oil currency and delivers to China, we, as the most distant, small, western market will be the first to be cut off.

railway closure, diminishing coastal freighting, and a society losing its community spirit and co-operative nature.

As one who has spent considerable time and effort preaching selfreliance, it is somewhat frustrating that TWENTY YEARS AGO I listed its key elements in a submission to the Planning Council’s ‘New Zealand after nuclear war’. They were:

Independent

international and armed neutral de-

fence stance.

Energy self sufficiency Import substitution and Counter trade Organic farming (including fuel farming)

and

diversification

Post industrial production Communications era networking Complementary therapy (alternative medicine)

I then added " This second phase (of investigation) should begin as soon as possible, bearing in mind that it is the sort of planning that should have been under way Our market led ‘free slather’ has allowed the nation to pursue a totally TWENTY YEARS AGO, and we may well not be graced with another unsustainable path of spreading suburbs designed by the great southern twenty in which to implement the change of policy required for god ‘moto-ka’, vertical expansion of energy hungry CBDs, huge trucks survival."

Well, we sure as hell haven’t another twenty, so it's too late by half! and trailers designed for overseas freeways, and evermore centralised production and distribution. On the other hand, we have rural decline, (Islamic Finance continued) The use of margined transactions on financial markets should be restricted in accordance with Shari`ah such that at most only one counterparty can defer delivery of a countervalue to a future date. This policy will help to reduce speculative dealing in key areas Contract combination in Islamic banking should be explicitly prohibited under industry standards because it allows the synthesis of interest-based loans in the name of Islam. This would include a prohibition on the use of mutual promises for achieving the same ends.

A wealth tax should be instituted where it has not already been put in place in order to address issues of wealth inequality, and to address the harmful impact of monopolistic control over mineral and other resources in certain countries of the Muslim world. Zakat upon mineral extraction is a right of the Ummah.

Needed - a trustworthy legal framework Away from the purely financial arena, there is a more general reform that urgently needs to be implemented. Many Muslim countries desperately need a legal framework that an honest businessman can trust, a framework that operates speedily and impartially. The benefits of such a reform for economic and Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 13

social progress are hard to underestimate.

When one sees counterparties based in the Muslim world choosing English law and English courts to mediate their financial disputes, this really says something about the present condition of the Ummah. To think, lands under Islamic rule were once renowned as a place of justice for all. Now, in many cases, they are not even a place of justice for the Muslims.

To move forward we must have the vision to strike out in our own direction, upon our own methodology, to grow our own tree. We should know that the way to achieve a truly interestfree paradigm is to practice Islamic finance for the sake of Allah, not for the sake of profit, not even for the sake of economic development.

Then, when that paradigm has been built, the profit-seeking businessmen can join the party and play by the new set of rules. The strategy we see now, however, is the precise opposite of this. The rules are being set by the profitseeking businessmen and the paradigm builders are being ignored. The longer we travel on this road, the harder it will be to find our way back when the time comes. But let us not be disheartened by the task ahead. Many of the problems we face are the result of an un-Islamic framework. Derivative products are a cause of volatility, not the cure for it. Interest

is not a recompense for inflation, it is a cause of it. Take away that which is haram, instead of re-labelling it, and many of our economic problems will simply disappear.

Islamic banking needs a different paradigm I'm told that Brazil, the world's most indebted country, is cutting down its rainforest at the fastest ever rate in order to meet its debt repayments. The Amazon rainforest produces a large proportion of the world's oxygen supply, and at this rate of deforestation it will almost disappear within three generations. Where have we heard that interest might be the cause of such ecological disasters? Not in many places. It is the truth that dare not speak its name, the one the media doesn't discuss very much. In its present condition Islamic banking will not restrain this monster. Its clients will still have to repay debt at interest, in all but name.

They will still have to cut down the rainforest to satisfy their repayment schedules. So it has become a matter of global ecological importance that Islamic banking adopts a different paradigm, that it becomes more of a solution and less of a get-rich-quick bandwagon.

Tarek El Diwany (For more material see www.islamic-finance.com)

OBITUARIES John Bryant Winsloe Bryant passed on 16 December 2005. A Life Member, he served the Party in many capacities for over 30 years.

Becoming a member of the strong Awarua branch in the 1970s, he was a dedicated committee member, branch president, and fundraiser before transferring to the amalgamated Invercargill branch in the 1990s.

Having developed valuable people skills in his previous business life, Bryant became a priceless asset when assisting in the local party bookshop and party office.

He was an executive member as Southern Division president. In fact, but for medical misadventure curtailing his health for his final 25 years (requiring the use of crutches),

John Kenneth Galbraith 1908-2006 Extract from Associated Press article 6/5/06

Bryant would undoubtedly have represented the Party as a candidate. One of his fondest memories was canvassing in the Timaru byelection.

In a fitting tribute to a generous man, leader Stephnie de Ruyter officiated at the wellattended funeral service held in the local rugby clubrooms. Family members and friends also added aspects to Bryant's full and varied life, including his time in the territorials.

Bryant was an accomplished storyteller and possessed a special sense of humour, so we will all miss J.B. Winsloe and the wisdom of his 75 years.

Bruce Stirling

John Kenneth Galbraith, who died on 29th April, aged 97, won renown as a liberal economist, backstage politician and witty chronicler of affluent society.

During a long career, the Canadian born economist served as adviser to American Democratic presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, and was John Kennedy’s ambassador to India.

He was outspoken in his support of government action to solve social problems,

was one of America’s best-known liberals and never shied away from the label.

One of his most influential books The Affluent Society (1958) argued the American economy was producing individual wealth but had not adequately addressed public needs.

“The total alteration in underlying circumstances has not been squarely faced,” he wrote.

Professor Galbraith demonstrated how you have to empower people directly before they could fight for themselves.

Dick Ryan comments: It is quite enlightening how little has been said in the media of the passing of John Kenneth Galbraith.

I was lucky enough to be in correspondence with this economist, one of my greatest heroes, and I asked him why he didn't go public with the need for monetary reform. His response was that in his book 'Money, where it came from, where it went', he did indeed say it all, but that he did not wish to confront the Establishment as he enjoyed being part of their elevated circle.

Considering the way that alternative thinking is ignored by the mass media, I can't say I blame him.

Requiem for the Dollar?

By Mike Whitney (extract from Economic Reform Australia Information Network) Everybody knows the real reason for American belligerence is not the Iranian nuclear program, but the decision to launch an oil bourse where oil will be traded in euros instead of US dollars.

The oil market will break the dominance of the dollar and lead to a decline of global American hegemony." (Igor Panarin, Russian political scientist). An Iran oil bourse "could lead central bankers around the world to convert some of their dollar reserves into euros, possibly causing a decline in the dollar’s value" (Associated Press).

Currently, the world is drowning in dollars, even a small movement could trigger a massive recession in the United States.

Oil has been linked to the dollar since the 1970s. This provided the US a virtual monopoly which has allowed it to run huge account deficits without fear of crippling interest rate hikes. "If the dollar lost its status as the world’s Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 14

reserve currency, that would force the United States to fund its massive account deficit by running a trade surplus, which would increase inflationary pressures." (Associated Press).

There’s no prospect of the US running a trade surplus anytime soon. Bush has savaged the manufacturing sector outsourcing over 3 million jobs and shutting down plants across the country. His short-sighted "free trade" policies and enormous tax cuts for the rich ensure that Americans will be left to face skyrocketing energy costs and a hyperinflationary greenback. There’?s no way we can retool fast enough to "manufacture our way" out of the quagmire of red ink.

Currently, the national debt is a whopping $8.4 trillion with an equally harrowing $800 billion trade deficit. (7% of GDP) The everincreasing demand for the greenback in the oil trade is the only thing that has kept the dollar from freefalling to earth. Even a small conversion to euros will erode the dollar’s value and could precipitate a sell-off.

Presently, oil is sold exclusively on the London Petroleum Exchange and the New York

Mercantile Exchange both owned by American investors. If the bourse opens, central banks around the world will reduce their stockpiles of dollars to maintain a portion of their currency in euros.

Regardless, of the outcome, the profligate spending, budget-busting tax cuts, and the shocking increase in the money supply (the Fed has doubled the money supply in one decade) has the greenback headed for the dumpster.

Already, China and Japan (who hold an accumulated $1.7 trillion in US securities and currency) are gradually moving away from the dollar towards the euro (although the Fed has blocked the public from knowing the extent of the damage by abandoning the M-3 publication of inflows).

But, it won’t be "orderly". The dollar has lost 5% against the euro since April and is quickly headed south. The Iran bourse could be the final jolt that pushes the greenback over the edge.

Prepare the requiem.

OBITUARY

Jeremy Dwyer Jeremy Dwyer was elected deputy leader of the Social Credit Political League at the 1977 annual conference in Hamilton. He was just 29 years of age. Jeremy stood as Social Credit candidate for Gisborne in the 1972 General Election and for Hastings in 1975 and 1978.

(Extract from 'Hawke’s Bay Today' 12.12.2005)

time. During his five years at the college he became involved in many organisations Former Hastings mayor Jeremy Dwyer died supporting the college, including a group that at Cransford Hospice on Saturday night aged campaigned successfully in 1973 to stop the 58 after battling melanoma for more than a school being closed down. In 1976, his last year. Mr Dwyer, who once modestly year teaching at the college, he was elected to described himself as "a fixer" - someone who its newly-established board of governors, could pick up something in a bit of a mess going on to serve as board chairman from and sort it out - was a man who, above all, 1979 to 1981. enjoyed people. "He brought that trait to his wide-ranging roles and interests in politics, Mr Dwyer first came to public notice as a education, community tousle-haired, and international "People are turning to us everywhere moustachioed young relationships, marking because we represent the only real man passionately himself out as an promoting the policies political alternative" independent, progressive of the blossoming Jeremy Dwyer, 1978 General Election leader who was always Social Credit Party as accessible, approachable its star rose in the midand empathetic to people from all walks of 1970s. He was the party's deputy-leader and life.

Hastings candidate for the 1975 and 1978 general elections.

Jeremy Dwyer was born at Waipawa in 1947, the eighth of 10 children to Sam and Lillian Dwyer. He contracted polio as a child, which left him with medical problems that plagued him for the rest of his life and kept him in hospital for long periods. It was during his long days in hospital that he learned to write, and it was there, as he watched people come and go - and some die that he formed his basic philosophy on life: "Walk the talk, however you want to put it."Mr Dwyer followed two other generations of Dwyers when he became a teacher at Te Aute College in 1972. His grandfather, E. G. Loten, was principal from 1920 -1951, and his father, Sam, taught there for 37 years, serving as deputy principal for most of that

Jeremy Dwyer (left) with other Board members of the Earthquake Commission, 2005

In 1977, aged 29, he became the youngest councillor ever elected to the Hastings City Council. He was re-elected in 1980, but in 1981 stepped aside from both national and local politics "for personal reasons" and went back to teaching.

His political retirement was short-lived, however. In 1986, at the tender age of 38, he stood for and won the Hastings mayoralty. In 1989 he was elected mayor of the newlyformed Hastings District - a job he held until 2001, when he hung up his mayoral chain for the last time and began a three-year stint on the Hawke's Bay Regional Council.

People and humour always took precedence over formality with Mr Dwyer, and over the years he built up a stock of anecdotes. On a more serious level, his enthusiasm for nurturing harmony between people of all nationalities and ethnic groups drew Mr Dwyer and his wife Marilyn into many international links, from hosting AFS students in their Clive home, to being made an honorary citizen of Guilin, in China, in 2000, and Rapid City in South Dakota, US, which he visited in 1996 on a month-long study trip at the invitation of the then-American Ambassador to New Zealand, Josiah Beeman.

district council's first position for a Maori liaison officer, and tried to ensure all the marae in the district had an effective voice through the council's Maori Advisory committee. In 1998 he was awarded a Queens' Service Order for services to the community.

After leaving the mayoralty, Mr Dwyer became national president of Sister Cities New Zealand. He saw many opportunities ahead of the organisation, and looked forward to promoting tourism, business, and assisting people-to-people networking. He also took on the job as statutory manager of Te Aute College, helping that school and Hukarere draw up plans to survive and thrive.

In October this year, some of Mr Dwyer's closest former colleagues on the district council turned out to see him awarded Rotary's highest honour, a Paul Harris Fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to many sectors of society. Presenting the award, Havelock North Rotary president David Ward said Mr Dwyer was honoured for his work and achievements in education, local government, Maori affairs, and Rotary.

He is survived by his wife Marilyn, his son Sam and two stepsons Andrew and Matthew.

On the home front, he established the

A great son from a great family who have served Te Aute so admirably.

Ma te atua koe e manaaki e tiaki e Jeremy, moe mai ra.

Te Aute College tribute 20/1/05

"I am absolutely stunned that someone so young has died. I remember a thoughtful precise man who was organized and well presented. Attributes that we all wish for ourselves. And combined at the same time with passion and conviction, demanding others listen to the logic; and to front with reason if they disagreed. Not necessarily a colourful man but a man coloured by conviction. We are all the poorer for his passing" Neville Aitchison, President NZ Democrats for social credit Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 15

Wake up! Survive and prosper in the Coming Economic Turmoil

By Jim Mellon and Al Chalabi Published by Capstone Publishing. Price $46.95 Reviewed by Trevor Crosbie Economic Turmoil?

The doom merchants have been predicting it for ages, and today evidence of that global economic downturn. Is 2006 the year to hunker down, stock up the pantry with tins and torches and horde coins to use in a crisis, as barter or bribe? British financier and multi-millionaire Jim Mellon believes its sound. He's just co-authored a book 'Wake Up - How to Survive and Prosper in the Coming Economic Turmoil".

Following the Second World War the economic gurus gathered at Breton Woods to solve the issues of money and trade that had led directly to confrontation, conflict and a great global depression. The comments by Mr. Mellon reveal the exercise was a failure

I.O.U.

‘Cuts through the jargon and acronyms to show that the debt crisis is not just about money but about people, and its solutions are not about charity, but justice.’ BONO‘.

In this brave and provocative book Noreena Hertz weaves together a compelling argument against an unjust international order with a groundbreaking and empowering agenda for change.

Future Work

By James Robertson The full text of James Robertson’s book 'Future Work' is now available free from his website in pdf format. Links to the 3 different sections are on http://www.jamesrobertson.com/books.htm#futurework

Healthy Money Healthy Planet A review of Deirdre Kent's book appeared in the previous issue of The Guardian Political Review. This is an extract from a recent review in Touchstone, the Methodist Church’s newspaper.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 16

because the same issues are still at the sharp end of the debate on where local and global economies are headed.

The problem is that the primary driver of the inflationary process is being ignored and the focus is on ensuring the failing economic structures, built on a foundation of interest bearing debt, are propped up for as long as the debt merchants can keep wringing profits from their monopoly.

The concept of using debt creation as the foundation of virtually all economic activity must be addressed because that is the sole common denominator of the global economic problems on which massive amounts of time and money has been wasted too little positive effect. As a result of the confusion that reigns over the effects of the problem we are now in a Vietnam scenario whereby national economies must be destroyed in order to save them. The call is out to improve productivity (produce more) and increase exports but at the same time spend Something can be done to create a better and safer world for all of us. Everyone should read this book.’ BOB GELDOF In Africa, a genocide is taking place. 30 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS and the world is standing by and letting them die. In Latin America, rainforests are being razed at such an alarming rate that even the Pentagon now cites global warming as a bigger threat to world security than terrorism. In Asia, extremist organisations are gaining public support in places where the state is unable to deliver.

What links the three? In this ground-breaking book, Noreena Hertz argues that the common factor is the unresolved debt crisis of the developing world.

I.O.U. is a story of avarice, but also of vulnerability; of corrupt dictators and careless

less and save more. And people used to call Social Crediters the ‘funny money’ people!

The current interest bearing debt mechanism which puts 97% of our money into circulation is a concept that stems from the 17th century operations of the goldsmiths and was ideal to support the introduction of the industrial revolution. It has now past its use by date by at least a couple of hundred years and rather than being the platform for building prosperity and peace it is now the primary driver of the chasm between the haves and the have-nots, inherently inflationary and the greatest barrier to real wealth creation.

It is also incredibly in NZ a concept that is denied by both Dr Cullen and Dr Brash who believe that the only money lent into circulation is that provided by the people who have accounts with one of our 5 foreign owned banks. That hoary old mythology is even denied by modern economic textbooks.

If Mr. Mellon is proved to be correct it will be a sad commentary on today’s politicians and economists who for over a hundred years have rubbished and denigrated anyone who has demanded change to the mechanism of debt and a fairer system for all mankind. Surely that is not to great an expectation for future generations? lenders; of Cold War interests and Wall Street pressure; of developing country governments who get given it, and developing country people who have no access to it.

Noreena Hertz provides a radical blueprint for addressing the debt crisis. She argues that this is not an issue of left or right: it is an issue of right versus wrong; of peace versus war. It must be addressed now.

Noreena Hertz, author of the internationally bestselling The Silent Takeover, is one of the world's foremost experts or economic globalisation and a leading contributor to political debate around the world. She is the CIBAM Distinguished Fellow at the University of Cambridge, from where she obtained her doctorate.

(Copy for review supplied by Leo Glamuzina)

The message of this book, when it was published over twenty years ago, was that world society was in the early stage of a 'great transformation' of the kind that has occurred from time to time in history, affecting every aspect of human life.

One of its outcomes could be a liberation of work, taking further the earlier progressions from slavery to serfdom, and then from serfdom to employment — all three of which have involved most people working for a minority superior to themselves.

As that liberation takes place, more and more of us will work more freely under our own control than conventional employment has allowed. We will do what we see to be our own

good, useful and rewarding work — for ourselves, other people and society as a whole.

How relevant are those ideas in 2006? Have they been by-passed by the economic orthodoxy of Thatcherism and Reaganism, by the collapse of state-based communism and socialism, and by the unstoppable 'progress' of globalised capitalism over the past twenty years?

In my 2006 Preface I answer No, they haven't been by-passed. Quite the reverse. The world situation now makes the book’s ideas and arguments even more relevant than when it first came out.

YOU CANNOT SERVE God and Money, said Jesus. But whether we like it or not, those of us who claim to serve God also tend to serve what the author describes as “dirty money”. This is the money created as interest-bearing debt by private banks, but with the approval of the Reserve Bank.

It is this money creation that drives economic growth, and that commits us to a growing rather than a sustainable economy. In such a system there are always losers, because people and firms must go further into debt to avoid economic collapse.

Consequences include the growing gap between rich and poor, the horrific indebtedness of the Third World,

and the degrading of the environment.

The author spends the first part of the book outlining the dire situation that the dogmatic commitment to ‘dirty money’ is driving us into.

Unlimited economic growth on a planet with finite resources does not make sense.

The author does not leave it there. The second part of her book outlines ways in which ‘healthy money’ i.e. money that is not interest-bearing and that serves solely as a means of exchange, can be created.

May it help reshape our thinking, our money system and our dog-eat-dog society.

James Robertson

REVIEW

At What Cost?

By Robert G Anderson Published by R G and J Anderson Books, PO Box 8188, Cherrywood, Tauranga 3001.

Enquiries: 07 576 5721 or roberta@clear.net.nz Paperback 70 x A5 pp.

Price $12 post paid within NZ ($20 for 2 copies to same addressee).

‘At What Cost’ was launched by Robert since, and trying to get banks to debate openly on any aspect whatsoever of monetary policy Anderson in association with a friend who had or reform would be akin to asking Al Capone to retired after a career in banking. When Dr compile crime statistics. The political reality is Anderson heard how the banking system really often dismissed or denied by the public works, he knew the public had to be told. This because our view is too collaboration exposes “Only one political party has had the often formed by the the reasons for the courage to attempt to reform the reports of an obedient burden of student loans, banking system, the one promoting media. The Weltanschaumortgages that are now ung (a world view), which beyond the pocket of the principles of social credit” really controls banking, is most young couples, and praised as benevolent, altruistic and the constant need to increase taxation. progressive, when in fact it operates upon the The summary on the cover of the book starts practice of slavery and dominance. with a quotation by Ezra Pound: “In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse in earlier centuries.”

It continues: “We have all heard it said that money is the root of all evil, but when we understand how money is created in the western world we can then understand the main cause of most major problems: the need for ever-increasing taxation; student debt; national debt; inflation; pensions disappearing; currency crises and devaluations; depressions; and even failure of a government in a democracy to govern in the interests of its people.

“Money was invented to be a means for facilitating trade, but has become a tool used to govern the world. If you have any doubt about that, read on.”

The chapter headings give an indication of the book’s coverage: 1. “Do you really know how your bank works?” 2. The origin of money. 3. Money – myths and methods. 4.

More manipulations, power and control. 5.

Case Histories. 6. Solutions.

There is an Introduction by Donald Bethune QSM. Then in Chapter One Dr Anderson states: “…only one political party has had the courage to attempt to reform the banking system, the one promoting the principles of social credit. In 2006, this is the New Zealand Democrats for social credit Party. (see www.democrats.org.nz). During the Muldoon era, the then Social Credit Party – supported

by Bruce Beetham, Vern Cracknell and Garry Knapp – was denigrated by the funny money idiom used by the National Party to discredit the social credit system as a whole.

Unfortunately, back in the 1980s most of the public swallowed this oft-used one-liner, and the chance to reform the system was lost.

“The media have promulgated the idiom ever

“Nothing panics the international banking fraternity like a threat of exposure. When public become aware of the conspiratorial processes operating around them, the vast, interlocking power structure of the banking system shifts into high gear. Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, government policy makers, spin doctors and other opinion shapers in high places, start reciting carefully-prepared ‘lines’ designed to pacify the public and put them back to sleep.

money should cover all government needs some borrowing will be necessary - but commercial trading banks will no longer be allowed to create money out of fresh air to lend to government. By controlling the growth of the money supply, by using a professional state authority to decide how much the money supply should be increased, by regulating the interest rate at which banks “Social credit monetary policy is a lend to borrowers, there will be better control of blueprint for addressing the monetary crisis. It is an issue of inflation, and potentially other important economic sound economic sense” and social benefits.”

“Social credit monetary policy is a blueprint for addressing the monetary crisis. Again, it is not an issue of the left or the right, or of right versus wrong, or of peace versus war, but an issue of sound economic sense.”

Under the sub-heading: ‘The solution: a debt-free money system based on the social credit’, Dr Anderson comments: “Debt-free money is exactly what it says - interest free money that is created and issued. Although it is interest free, the sum may or may not have to be repaid: government has the option of writing off the debt. Debt-free money can be created and circulated as needed to increase the money supply. The amount can be decided by a state authority (e.g. the Reserve Bank) and allocated to the government to be spent into circulation. The authority would be in effect the central bank. In order to control inflation, the central bank would govern the creation of new currency and total issued credit. Its decisions would be independent of politicians, but would have to meet the objectives legislated upon by parliament.

“A government could use debt-free money for investment, to cut taxes, to reduce an existing government debt, or to increase spending on public services. It is not proposed that debt-free

Dr Anderson concludes: “Economies that rely on the fractional reserve banking system are in free-fall. This system may not crash tomorrow, or the next day, but it will eventually crash if it continues to prevail."

About the author Robert Anderson holds a PhD in science education, a combined honours degree in Chemistry and Physics from the University of Birmingham, England, and a post-graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Southampton. He taught Chemistry, Physics, Laboratory Technology and Nuclear Medicine at tertiary level for twenty years. In retirement, Robert researches, writes and lectures on issues of science, the environment and social justice.

Robert has authored 'The Final Pollution: Genetic Apocalypse' (2005) on genetic engineering technology, 'The Ultimate War Crime' (2005) exposing the facts about DU weapons and their effect on humanity, and the 'Exploding the Myth' series: ''Genetic Engineering, Irradiated Foods' and ''Electro Magnetic Radiation' and, with Dr Mike Godfrey, Medical Director of the Bay of Plenty Environmental Health Clinic,' 'Vaccination and Poisons in your Mouth, Fluoridation and Amalgam'. Robert also contributes regularly to New Zealand periodicals.

Comments on At What Cost by David Tranter Since becoming aware, for the first time in my life, of the fraud perpetrated on the public by the so-called banking "industry" (rip-off industry would be a better description) I have seen innumerable convoluted explanations of the social credit alternative, most of which are so difficult to follow that it is little wonder the public remains unaware of just how the banks operate. It was, therefore, a welcome change to read Robert Anderson's clear, concise account of the way that bankers have, in effect, been licensed by governments throughout the world, to extract outrageous interest from their captive customers when the whole process could easily be managed at minimum or even zero interest - to the benefit of all society.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 17

This little book, which can easily be read at a single sitting, sets out in six chapters the story of the great banking rip-off from, "Do you really know how your bank works?" to the final chapter ,"Solutions". It is so simple that I am absolutely staggered that no politicians in our current parliament appear to show any understanding of the blot on society they - and the banking industry - are perpetrating.

Read it. Be amazed. And then start writing letters to every publication you can think of, because only massive public protest is going to end the economic enslavement that is being practised on us all by a greedy, a profit-dominated industry which conceals itself under the welcoming veneer of, "Come in, we'd like to get to know you"........

REVIEW

The Revenge of Gaia

by James Lovelock Allen, published by Lane @ $29.95.

Extract from a review by Richard Mabey, The Sunday Times 29/1/06 (Supplied by Peter Challen, with footnote)

A

and life-forms had together evolved ways of maintaining a climate and an atmosphere congenial to life. He seemed confident that Gaia’s intricate connections, linking forests and oceanic algae to cloud formation, would be able to counter the earth’s warming from man-made carbon dioxide. Now, as global temperatures creep relentlessly higher and climatic disasters proliferate, he believes we may have already gone beyond the point of recovery.

fter Hurricane Katrina, a black Gaian joke went the rounds, couched in White House newspeak: “Successful mission against the Gulf of Mexico oilfields. Some collateral damage in New Orleans.” The widespread hunch that we’ll eventually get our comeuppance from a long-suffering nature has never been quite so precisely located, or quite that misanthropic. Nor is James Lovelock’s book about the coming crisis of global heating.

Although it reads at times like the Book of Revelation, his vision of the planet’s “revenge” isn’t one of a spiteful, smart attack against homo sapiens, but of a comprehensive collapse of the systems that have kept earth habitable for billions of years. If Gaia means the interdependence of all organisms on earth, then its breakdown implicates all organisms, though it is our fault, exclusively.

But the impending storm is the book’s crux.

What affects Lovelock profoundly is evidence that we may be approaching “tipping points”, when heating suddenly escalates because of feedback. At the current rate, global temperatures will rise by nearly three degrees in the next 50 years. At this point, the rainforests begin to die, releasing vast new amounts of carbon dioxide. Algae fail in the ocean and stop generating cooling clouds and absorbing carbon. The Greenland glacier goes into meltdown, releasing enough water to flood many of the world’s cities. Crop failures, human migrations, the emergence of “brutal war-lords”

In that sense, The Revenge of Gaia doesn’t represent any new thinking on the author’s part so much as a deepening pessimism about climate change and our reluctance to confront it. Global heating was not much more than a rumour in 1979 when Lovelock launched the Gaia hypothesis, an audacious vision of the living earth as an organism, whose geology

Footnote by Peter Challen: "I can’t resist adding this even earlier warning of the urgent need to understand and reach for co-operative interdependence, expressed with such eloquence."

The early warning we have hardly heeded yet In the preparation of the 1972 Report on the Human Environment for the very first UN Conference on the Human Environment one of the 178 consultants specifically urged the authors not to let the editorial staff ‘reduce the book to a mere recital of facts because salvation will ultimately depend on an emotional awakening.’

The last paragraph of the 299 page report refers to that urging.

“The whole idea of operating effectively at the world level still seems in some way peculiar and unlikely. The Planet is not yet the centre of rational loyalty for all humankind.

But possibly it is precisely this shift of loyalty that a profound and deepening sense of our shared and inter-dependent biosphere can stir

follow. We know the story, but not in our “real world” minds. Global heating is not yet part of our collective unconscious in the way the bomb was.

Creditably, if unwisely, our compassion is stronger than our anxiety. We give generously to the victims of climate-change-driven disasters such as famines and tsunami, and do nothing to stop them happening again. We know that, on a finite planet, economic growth which involves non-renewable resources must soon come to a halt, but continue to regard it as a virtue. Would anyone dare to put on a rock concert with the slogan “Make poverty the future”? The clear and present wins over foresight, every time.

to life in us. That people can experience such transformations is not in doubt. From family to clan, from clan to nation, nation to federation – such enlargements of allegiance have occurred without wiping out earlier loves. Today, in human society, we can perhaps hope to survive in all our prized diversity provided we can achieve an ultimate loyalty to our single, beautiful and vulnerable Planet Earth.

Alone in space, alone in its life supporting systems, powered by inconceivable energies, mediating them to us through the most delicate adjustments, wayward, unlikely, unpredictable, but nourishing, enlivening and enriching in the largest degree – is this not a precious home for all of us earthlings? Is it not worth our love? Does it not deserve all the inventiveness and courage and generosity of which we are capable to preserve it from degradation and destruction and, by doing so, to secure our own survival” From ‘Only One Earth – The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet’ Barbara Ward and René Dubois 1972

St Asaph’s Trustees - a Tribute gone, and the building has been sold.

In the early 1970s a group of social crediters, patronage of the St Asaph’s housies, to the point where the Society was making no under the leadership of the chairman of the The tremendous dedication of the Society’s Canterbury-West Coast/Tasman trustees is legendary: names like Region Jim Barclay, took on the Peter & Aileen Barrow, and responsibility of amalgamating Graham & Melva Butterfield are the Christchurch electorates’ well-known in the Party for their housies under one banner. Thus dedication and commitment. was born the ‘St Asaph Social & Graham started as the Society’s Welfare Society Inc.’. The Secretary/Treasurer, and still Society was charged with raising holds that office. That’s a funds to support the political wonderful feat. Melva has endeavours of a group aiming to attended housies, actioned all promote the monetary reform our Democrats outside St Asaph's: (l to r) Ray Palmer. Craig Butterfield, Veny financial transactions as well as country needed (and still needs). Palmer, Melva Butterfield, Arthur Shepherd. Stan Fitchet, Jim Gribben running the office for as long as This group was first known as headway financially. And so the Society’s anyone can remember. Loyalty of this calibre is the ‘Social credit Political League Inc.’, then the chairman, John Wright, recommended to the rare and valuable. The Division’s members ‘NZ Democratic Party Inc.’, and more recently trustees that the housies cease and manageregard these people with special affection and the ‘Democrats for Social Credit’. ment of the building be returned to the Party. hold them in high regard.

During more than three decades, many His recommendation was accepted.

The housies may have closed, but the hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised to May 2006 will be remembered by Christchgenerosity and hard work of the trustees will support the Party and monetary reform. Today, urch members as the month during which the always be remembered with gratitude. location & parking problems and competition forty year era of St Asaph Street housies Ray Palmer, from multi-housies, the casino and other ended. The final housie night has been and President, Canterbury-West Coast-Tasman Division activities resulted in a significant drop in Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 18

Whitmill's World Colin J. Whitmill reports from the U.K.

Transaction Tax not acceptable to economists In January 2006, the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel proposed a type of foreign exchange transaction tax on short term financial speculation to obtain money for the unelected European Commission.

Martin Weale, the director of Britain's National Institute of Economic and Social Research is reported in the Financial Times to have said I cannot think of an economist who is keen on the idea. Most people would say that speculation is something that you simply have to live with.

Such a response should surprise no one. At a time when 3000 hedge fund and foreign exchange operatives in London were to receive bonuses of $2,600,000 each on top of their highly inflated salaries for moving money around, and the rest on average $60,000, it would be difficult to find anyone in such a circle in favour of a transaction tax.

The bonuses - not salaries - accounted for 1% of Britain's GDP.

We've said it for years New Economics Foundation policy director Andrew Simms said that the way we viewed economic success in the UK had become a fossil -fueled fantasy. No accountiing system with a hint of common sense would view profiteering from the liquidation of a never-tobe-repeated natural asset as a good thing, he said.

He was commenting on the $30,000 million profit made by BP. The Observer newspaper revealed that, according to figures based on Treasury calculations, had BP taken into account its responsibilities for the resultant 1,376 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions its products caused, when costed out, they would have had to pay $78,000 million in environmental charges,turning a profit into a record breaking loss.

It is these types of externalities which businesses do not pay for, but are offloaded Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 19

onto the tax payer, which provide big business with so much power over people and the financial ability to influence governments.

UK for sale - same as New Zealand Will Hutton in The Observer (12-2-06) reported that Britain was being sold off at a rate unprecedented in modern times. Airports, ships,banks,gas pipelines, stock, exchanges,chemical plants, and glass factories, have, and will, fall into foreign hands without an eyebrow being raised. He forgot to mention soccer teams like Manchester United, Portsmouth, Hearts, and Chelsea.

Will Hutton was not quite accurate in his observation that no other economy is as open as ours (Britain's) and takeovers so easy. And, apart from the US. no other economy needs the inflow of overseas cash so acutely. Britain's industrial and financial jewels are being auctioned to pay for a record trade deficit. With no end to the trade deficit in sight, the auction will go on until the cupboard is bare.

If Mr Hutton had glanced down for a moment, he would have seen New Zealand, not in the same boat heading for the same economic disaster, but in the boat ahead, rowing like mad in the charge to disaster.

Blair and Brown march Britain to centralised control The slow but steady march towards a totalitarian style regime in Britain with big business corporations running the show and a tame Parliament obeying orders continues unabated and unchallenged.

Identity cards, with 50 separate pieces of information on each individual entered into a nation wide database, are to be forced on to people, private corporations are to own and manage state schools with taxpayer funds, any voiced opposition is quickly crushed under wide ranging anti terrorist legislation, people are forced to work for any financial crumb given by the government, local taxation is increased to control the middle class, and now the passage from local to centralised control has become a landslide.

And the facts are staggering. In the last ten years, over 3,700 post offices, 8,600 independent grocery stores, 4041 bank and building society branches, 700 doctors' surgeries, 13,000 independent newsagents, 30,000 specialist stores like butchers and bakers, and, for those who like to imbibe, over 1200 independent pubs have shut.

The closures are mainly the result of the predatory activities of big business supermarkets and government policies.

Jim Dowd MP reported that the impact of such closures, socially, economically and environmentally, can only be estimated, but the fear is that it will be consumers and communities who will suffer most - from restricted choice, entrenched social exclusion and a vulnerable supply chain.

The British government does nothing to stop them. And things may become worse. While local councils at present have some, but not the last, say in the siting of supermarkets, representatives of major American retailers including Wal-Mart, which owns Asda, one of the largest supermarket chains in Britain, are lobbying the World Trade Organisation to relax planning laws that restrict their overseas ambitions. They want to sweep away or liberalise laws restricting the size and height of superstores, hours of opening and environmental, historic or cultural development restrictions. As The Observer called it effectively stripping away the power of communities to control development of their neighbourhoods.

Combined with this, new laws leave the British people potentially at the mercy of future tyrants. Henry Porter, writing in The Observer (19-2-06) believed that what we are pioneering in Britain is a 21st century version of the police state - the controlled state.

It is worth remembering that Tony Blair's mandate derives from just 35 per cent of the votes cast in the last election.[27% of those on the electoral rolls]. No Prime Minister in the past 100 years has taken so much power for himself. (continued on next page)

people are working two jobs at a time and still failing to earn enough to feed their families, it seems impossible to call them lazy or selfish.

Whitmill's World (continued)

The former leader of the NZ Social Credit Political League, Vernon Cracknell, once said in a speech that New Zealand was developing its own Communist society. In Britain, we're nearly there.

The jewels don't last forever In 1951, the Bury (northern England) council bought a painting by local artist T S Lowry of matchstickmen fame and placed it in their museum for the locals, who had paid for it, to enjoy. The debt of Bury council is now about $26 million and so the museum has been raided and the Lowry painting sold off for about $1.3 million to help pay off the debt.

Of course, we know it won't help - the debt will climb again, but the jewels will have gone.

Public works - should each generation pay - and, if so, what?

An answer In a forthcoming book, Rodney Shakespeare effectively wrote an answer to the National/Labour/ all other parties mind set that it is all right to borrow money for public works with interest added and for future generations to pay their share.

Rodney commented that the allegation of the conventional mind is that where public capital works are concerned, each generation must pay its share of the cost, i.e., repayment should be made over the generations. Repayment over the generations is, in practice, what the present institution of interest achieves except that the repayment - principal plus interest goes on for evermore and is never completed.

The allegation is rubbish.

At the moment, when $1,000,000 is borrowed, the repayment is $3,000,000 or more. However, there is no reason why the repayment should not be exactly $1,000,000, plus administration cost. Anything else is putting a huge and unnecessary cost onto the public purse which, in effect, means putting unnecessary taxes on people for generation after generation. There is no reason why each generation should not pay its share, but they should be paying a share of $1,000,000 and not a share of $3,000,000.

The poor live in America Shockingly 37 million Americans live in poverty - 12.7% of the population. Under George W Bush, an extra 5.4 million have slipped into poverty and yet they are not the idle, the unemployed or the destitute. Many have more than one job, but the wages paid do not provide enough to live on. The gap between the haves and have-nots grows wider.

Billions of dollars are being taken from social welfare programmes to pay for the Bush/Blair adventure in Iraq.

In describing this appalling state of affairs, Paul Harris in The Observer [19-2-06] wrote In America to be poor is a stigma. In a country which celebrates individuality and the goal of giving everyone an equal opportunity to make it big, those in poverty are often blamed for their own situation. Experience on the ground does little to bear that out. When Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 26

There seems to be a failure in the system, not the poor themselves.

If it's money you want, it's not in chocolate Cadbury Schweppes made a pre tax profit of $2,270 million and took a 9.9% share of the world confectionery market, but that was all cocoa beans compared with HSBC which operates in New Zealand.

It doesn't need cocoa beans to make its profits, just a few computor screens, some staff and a much sought after product which it makes out of nothing- debt. After a provision for bad debts, HSBC made a pre tax profit of $29,900 million.

The Royal Bank of Scotland also made profits - a record pre-tax take of $20,540 million. [Isn't that the size of New Zealand's internal debt?] No wonder a newspaper business article gave the heading Why buy a bank? Because that's where the money is.

The world is awash with money Foreign exchange trading - mainly betting on money - in Britain, which leads the world in this activity, averages NZ$ 1,189,740 million a day.

[Observer 26-02- 06] In Britain that means $13,770,138 is traded every second of every hour of every day of every week To put it into perspective, the recent record British banknotes robbery of NZ$138 million would have taken 10 seconds of trading to lose or, to cover New Zealand's current trading deficit, it would have taken 8 minutes and 34 seconds - so obviously nothing for Michael Cullen to worry about.

They hate means-testing in London's East End That's the conclusion of Will Hutton writing in The Observer [ 26-02-06] He observed that partly because of liberal, middle-class guilt and partly because it has seemed rational to target money where it is most needed, the welfare state has transmuted into a means-tested entitlement system. He was commenting on racial problems in the East End of London arising from immigration and housing.

When one reads Helen Clark' statement to Parliament in February 2006, it is littered with terms such as eligibility, income thresholds and other means-tested euphemisms and therein lies the potential for danger for those enthusiastic champions of means-testing - the Labour Party.

Will Hutton concludes Better a welfare state that works for the majority on the basis of universalism and reciprocity and which people of every race understand than a welfare state that works for the minority and succours racism. The lesson is clear. Means testing and targeting are, in the long term, a social, racial and values disaster.

warrant publication.

At General Synod the Church of England made an apology for its part in 18th century slavery and pledged to campaign against modern slavery. The opportunity must not be missed to speak of its part in the most ubiquitous slavery of our day - slavery to debt, at almost every level of society.

The 18th century slavery was an economic issue and today we have even more slaves for which the church should apologise for its part in supporting such inhumanity. The modern day slaves include 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 who have been forced to leave school in order to feed their families.

These children work for a daily wage that is counted in cents, not dollars, while their labour returns millions of dollars to the big multinational corporations. And it is all to do with our current debt based financial system.

For 1500 years the Christian Church prohibited money making money, seeing that practice for what the present Pope, Benedict XVI, described recently (2/11/05) as "the usury that destroys the lives of the poor." That insight is rarely debated in the churches today, even though scholarly Muslims frequently identify the deep fault line of usury in global society as they encourage financiers to resist seduction by western methodologies of banking and finance.

In 2000, John Paul II appealed to banks and financial institutions to assist people in financial difficulties in order to restrain the "perverse" activity of usury. He pointed out, "If the banks only seek their own benefit, they cease to be instruments of development and become brakes on society." [The Pontiff spoke these words during an audience with 7,500 executives and employees of the Banco di Roma, who were celebrating the Jubilee.]

In his book, 'Grace and Mortgage - the language of faith and the debt of the world' the present Anglican Bishop of Worcester, states, 'It is also clear that those who would mount a defence of usury have a formidable task of explanation in relation to the huge weight of Christian tradition ranged against the practice.'

It is usury that drives the unsustainable short term dynamic in our economic system. Since ALL real economic activity is forced to compete with the phantom activity of money making money, not only human society, but the very Earth is choking in the grip of debt. I firmly believe that this understanding lay at the root of the prohibition of usury in all the world's major religions.

Let the churches lead a new debate on debt slavery with an apology for letting this matter lie buried so long beneath more fashionable contemporary issues.

Rev Canon Peter Challen

Anglican Church apology for slavery - 18th century only - but not interested in modern day slavery The following letter was sent to London Guardian daily newspaper and the Anglican Church Times .

Neither thought it of sufficient interest to

Colin Whitmill

COMMENT

JESUS, THE POLITICAL REFORMER - A Christian Viewpoint

By R.L. (Bill) Robottom Bill Robottom is a member of the Wanganui Democrats and an associate member of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice.

One of CCMJ’s most prominent members, Rev. Canon Peter Challen, visited New Zealand last year (see Guardian issue 47).

Josiah, King of Judah (638-609 BC) initiated a religious reform. The prophets of Israel denounced the reform as merely an outward show and not of God. What God required was justice. “Go to the aid of widows and orphans" and “every man to sit under his own fig tree" are recurrent themes throughout the books of the prophets.

Right from the start Isaiah begins (1:10-17): "The Lord is weary of your prayers and religious gatherings - what God requires is to see justice done."

Following in their tradition Jesus Was a political reformer not a religious and moralistic one. He ate and drank with outcasts and was a friend of prostitutes. His constant message was about the Kingdom of God. His first sermon (Luke 4: 1819): “I have come to bring good news to the poor – liberty to the oppressed.” His first commandment? "Love God!" His second? "Love your neigbbour as yourself!” Jesus tells the religious leaders what He thinks of them (Matt:23) and elsewhere in the Gospels. That is why He was crucified.

The modern church is focused on religious reform to save souls and boost failing attendances. Dismantling traditional structures and replacing

them with more 1iberal evangelistic worship is seen as necessary for a lost society to find salvation. Such individualistic worship may make a person feel good and convince the rich that the charity industry is preferable to social and economic justice - but it does little to combat evil.

The Church has got it wrong. The Great Commission (Matt 28:29): “Go, therefore and make all nations my disciples” is interpreted as a command to evangalise the world while avoiding any interference in its secular institutions. But "disciple" means "a follower of a person or belief; to set an example”. If the function of the Church is to promote the Kingdom of God as preached by Jesus, more than piety is needed. The Kingdom must be built on the four pillars of love, peace, social justice and equality, not on heightened religious activity. People want happiness, security and fulfillment. A Church whose foundations rest on those four pillars would have the political grunt to achieve those goals.

Mercifully, there are political movements here and abroad with ideals matching those of the prophets and Jesus. These are movements which advanced past state socialism and corporate capitalism, recognising that religious claptrap and personal morality have failed to solve the world's problems.

Man, poverty and riches

"The Solution"

From: Rev Canon Peter Challen

By The Pilgrims of Saint Michael

"We should all be eager to hear of, and to propagate, positive initiatives in regard to restoring structures of justice that work for everyone and protect the earth. I have just dug out these references to our engagement with justice."

The Pilgrims of Saint Michael is a Canadian group of Catholic patriots founded in 1939 by Louis Evan. Through their periodical 'Michael' they seek to contribute to the establishment of a more Christian society, based on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. On 10 February 1989 the 'Michael' office wrote to all the R.C. bishops in the world. The following is an edited extract from that letter:

In the Old Testament a twofold attitude towards economic goods and riches is found.

On one hand, an attitude of appreciation sees the availability of material goods as necessary for life. Abundance - not wealth or luxury - is sometimes seen as a blessing from God. In Wisdom Literature poverty is described as a negative consequence of idleness and of a lack of industriousness (cf.

Prov 10:4), but also as a natural fact (cf. Prov 22.2). On the other hand, economic goods and riches are not in themselves condemned so much as their misuse. The prophetic tradition condemns fraud, usury, exploitation and gross injustice, especially when directed at the poor (cf. Is 58:3-11; Jer 7:4-7; Hos 4:1-2; Am 2:6-7; Mic 2:1-2).

This tradition, however, although looking upon the poverty of the oppressed, the weak and the indigent as an evil, also sees in the condition of' poverty a symbol of the human situation before God, from whom comes every good as a gift to be administered and shared.

Although the quest for equitable profit is acceptable in economic and financial activity, recourse to usury is to be morally condemned: Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 21

"Those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them"(714).

This condemnation extends also to international economic relations, especially with regard to the situation in less advanced countries, which must never be made to suffer "abusive if not usurious financial systems"(715). More recently, the Magisterium used strong and clear words against this practice, which is still tragically wide-spread, describing usury as "a scourge that is also a reality in our time and that has a stranglehold on many peoples' lives"(716).

714 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2269.

715 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2438.

716 JOHN PAUL II, Catechesis at General Audience (4 February: L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 2004.

From Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Liberia Editrice Vaticana – 2004

P.C. 8 July 2005

"The Church, in her social doctrine, does not propose any particular economic or financial system; her role is limited to present the moral principles on which any financial or economic system must be judged. But, on the other hand, it is precisely the role of the laity to work for concrete solutions and the establishment of an economic system that confirms to the teaching of the Gospel and the principles of the social doctrine of the Church.

It is for this reason that the Pilgrims of Saint Michael chose to propagate the social credit doctrine - a set of principles set forth for the first time by the Scottish engineer, Clifford Hugh Douglas, in 1918. In our humble opinion, a comparative study of social credit and the social doctrine of the Church shows how the establishment of the financial proposals of social credit would wonderfully apply the teachings of the Church on social justice especially as regards to the right of all to the use of material goods through the allocation of a social dividend to all."

Two representatives of the pilgrims of Saint Michael undertook an intensive 4-week lecture tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2005 (see Guardian Political Review, Issue 47)

Water - a Human Right

By Colin Whitmill Water is a major issue when it comes to WTO negotiations and there is a big push to privatise water in India and Vietnam in particular.

A UN Human Development Report Officer writing in the Guardian 8 March 2006 said that in the third world most slum dwellers faced a choice between buying water from high cost private traders or taking a long trip to the nearest stream.

One wonders what will happen in India. India is due to receive, if it hasn't already, a $US200bn loan from the World Bank to link the major rivers in India for water management purposes, ie. privatisation. The infrastructure cost and interest for which will fall on the people.

These continuing disturbing trends has led the Christian Council for Monetary Justice to join itself with other organisations such as Christian Aid, War on Want and the World Development Movement in a declaration - details abridged below:We, the undersigned on behalf of our organisations, issue this declaration calling for water to be protected as a human right and public good.

1. We acknowledge : - That water is a basic precondition for all life. Without water there is no life. Having or not having access to water determines life or death. Thus water is a public good.

- Water is a human right. The "right to adequate food" is set down in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 25) and in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 11).

- Water has cultural importance. Water is not only an economic commodity it also has a social, cultural, medical, religious and mystical value.

- Water is becoming scarce. The high per capita use of water, population growth, wastage, lifestyle and destruction of forests, land and water reserves require that particular attention be given to water and to setting priorities for how it is used.

2. We demand: - That the human right to safe water be recognized at the local and international level in the same way as the right to adequate food. This right must be respected by all sectors of society, but states have a particular responsibility in this area.

- That water is treated as a public good. The State must take over the commitment to guarantee access to adequate drinking water to all of the population.

This guarantee includes retaining public ownership over freshwater resources and ensuring the institutions responsible for management and control of delivery systems are publicly accountable and acting in the public interest, fixing an affordable price for water, making the necessary technical and financial means available, as well as involving local councils and communities in decisions relevant to them on the use of available water resources.

The Waters of Life Extract from a paper by Mark Sircus Ac., OMD, Director International Medical Veritas Association. (Item supplied by Lowell Manning) Pure water, about one quart per day for every 50 pounds of body weight, is one of the absolute basic foundations for optimal health.

When we drink fluids laced with chemicals the body has to use more water to compensate and clear toxins from the body.

An essential quality of water is its purity. The waters that are fed into the body, if contaminated, will impact negatively on the function of the entire organism. Water contains a number of substances that are undesirable, and fluorides are just one of them," stated Dr. F. A. Bull, State Dental Director of Wisconsin.

We have to appreciate the sad reality that public health officials have no conception of pure water. Their water treatment strategies preclude such ideas. They keep pumping in poisons to purify (chlorine or chloramine and medicate (fluorinate) the water and do not warn the public of the dangers.

The question of fluoridation perhaps represents one of the most

disgusting manifestations of human consciousness in history. For the last fifty years high officials in the American government have ordered and forced public water officials to poison almost every man woman and child by medicating the water with fluoride, what was known then and now to be a carcinogenic substance.

When we struggle over water we are struggling with gigantic dark forces who would do us and our loved ones harm. With fluoride we have one of the most sinister forces in society expressing itself.

On August 30, 2005, eleven Environmental Protection Agency employee unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals called for a moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country. It is highly unlikely that anytime soon that these forces will listen to these 7000 scientists and public servants.

The reasons for this are hidden in the very nature of ego-centered human consciousness focused on greed and power.

One of the ‘Purposes’ of the NZ Democratic Party for social credit is: “To protect and enhance our world’s life support systems – air, water and soil - and preserve the richness and beauty of natural, biological ecosystems”.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 22

WAIORA, WAIKINO, WAIMATE Maori perception of water and the environment On 23 September 1986, a Public Meeting was held in the Auckland suburb of Papakura, prior to a referendum on the fluoridation of Papakura's independent water supply. Dr Robert Mann, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies at the University of Auckland, was a guest speaker.

Dr Mann detailed his opposition to fluoridation, and opened his address with the words "Waiora, Waikino, Waimate". Subsequently, the Pure Water Journal (Issue 1987/2) included a feature on Maori perceptions of water and the environment from material supplied by the Centre for Maori Studies and Research at the University of Waikato. The following is an extract:

Waiora Waiora is the purest form of water. It is the spiritual and physical expression of Ranganui the sky father in his longed-for embrace with Papatuanuku, the earth.

Pure water is termed Te Wairoa a Tane and, to the Maori, it contains the source of life and well-being.

Waiora is used in sacred rituals to purify and sanctify. The rain is waiora; contact with Papatuanuku gives it its purity as water for human consumption.

Waiora has the potential to give life, to sustain well-being and to counteract evil.

Waikino Waikino has both spiritual and temporal meanings. In the spiritual sense, waikino is water which has been polluted or debased, spoilt or corrupted.

In Waikino, the mauri (life force) has been altered so that the supernatural forces are non-selective and can cause harm to anyone.

Waimate Waimate is water which has lost its mauri. It is dead, damaged or polluted water which has lost its power to rejuvenate either itself or other living things.Waimate, like waikino, has the potential to cause ill-fortune, contamination or distress to the mauri of other iving or spiritual things, including people, their kaimoana (seafood) or their agriculture.

Water water everywhere but.....

The secret to life

Water - its availability and purity - is of increasing global concern.

Water is the ultimate solvent and is the secret to life itself. Water dissolves all the solid matter in the blood and cells. Water is the carrier wave of life and regulates the function of everything it holds in its bosom. Every function in the body is dependent on the proper hydration of the body. Without water we would actually starve because we need water to metabolize everything we eat.

Although water is the most common substance on earth and covers more than 70 per cent of the globe's surface, only 3 per cent is fresh water; 97 per cent is seawater or is too salty for drinking and agricultural purposes.

Water makes up 70 to 80 per cent of the human body weight. It carries protein, hormones, fats, salts and sugar.

Without water normal biochemical reactions cannot occur.

A lack of water can seriously damage the joints and cause thickening of the blood, which places an undue burden on the heart. Without sufficient water, the kidneys become exhausted in trying to eliminate fluids full of toxins, resulting in fatigue and indisposition. Under some circumstances, a person may die without water in just 48 hours.

It is recommended the average person drink two to three litres of water or water-based drinks every day to maintain good health. But the water should be unpolluted and free from toxic chemicals.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 23

We can live for about 3 months without other foods but will last only about 10 days without water. Next to the air we breathe, water is second in importance for life Every life giving and healing process that happens inside our body happens with water.

Dr. Alexis Carrel Nobel Prize in Medicine Left: 'Water Means Life': Stafford Macdonald, deputy chairman of Conservation New Zealand, displaying the appropriately worded poster.

What the Iran 'nuclear issue' is really about

By Chris Cook

Chris Cook, who wrote an article for the Guardian Political Review in Issue 45, is a former Director of the International Petroleum Exchange and is now a Strategic Business Development Consultant. As one who has experience in Iran and with Iranians, his views on the present situation were sought.

I

t is said that there is the reason they give; and then there is the real reason.

Nowhere is this more true, perhaps, than in Iran

Recommendation to Iranian Central Bank My experience with Iran began five years ago in June 2001 when, through my Iranian business partner, I wrote to the then governor of the Iranian central bank, Dr Mohsen Nourbakhsh.

This letter was written on the basis of my experience as a former director of the International Petroleum Exchange and in the aftermath of allegations I made in relation to market manipulation on the IPE the previous year, which were dismissed by a commissioner appointed by the exchange. I still regret that I used the description "systematic" rather than "systemic" of this alleged manipulation, but that is another story.

In this letter I pointed out that the structure of global oil markets massively favors intermediary traders and particularly investment banks, and that both consumers and producers such as Iran are adversely affected by this. I recommended that Iran consider as a matter of urgency the creation of a Middle Eastern energy exchange, and particularly a new Persian Gulf benchmark oil price.

It is therefore with wry amusement that I have seen a myth being widely propagated on the Internet that the genesis of this "Iran bourse" project is a wish to subvert the US dollar by denominating oil pricing in euros.

Feasibility study As anyone familiar with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will know, the denomination of oil sales in currencies other than the dollar is not a new subject, and as anyone familiar with economics will tell you, the denomination of oil sales is merely a transactional issue: what matters is in what assets (or, in the case of the United States, liabilities ) these proceeds are then invested.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 24

After a couple of years of apparent inaction, my colleague and I were invited to put together a consortium to tender for a project to create such an exchange and, after a presentation at the central bank in Tehran in May 2004, we were successful, as reported in the London Guardian at the time. We subsequently learned that the delay had been due to initial opposition from the Saudis and this opposition was withdrawn after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent US-led invasion of Iraq.

A major feasibility study was carried out in the summer of 2004 - for which - at the time of writing we still have not been paid by the Iranian Oil Ministry - and after this, the process became bogged down in turf battles between the Oil Ministry and the Ministry for the Economy.

Meeting with former President We met president Mohammad Khatami in December 2004 to resolve this problem and then spent considerable time with his close advisers, from whom we received powerful backing. Progress was made, to the extent that an exchange entity was incorporated and premises purchased on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf.

In the second quarter of 2005 the real opposition from within the Oil Ministry - from factions opposed to shedding any light on the sales regime - was becoming apparent.

However, as the battle was about to be joined, Khatami's period in office came to an end and the presidential election in August intervened.

Neither we, nor anyone we knew, expected the result of the election, still less the events after it. Three times over a period of three months an oil minister was nominated by the new president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, from among his trusted colleagues and three times they were turned down by the majlis (Iranian parliament), until finally an experienced insider was appointed in early December. Only now are further levels of appointments being made by the new minister.

Ahmadinejad is on record as saying that he

favors transparency in the Iranian oil market.

As anyone familiar with the City of London and Wall Street will know, transparency is the enemy of private profit, and it is this factor that was behind the delays in developing the bourse project.

However, we remain hopeful that the strategy we recommended, which is based upon (a) gradual and organic introduction of pricing built upon the neutral function of transaction registration and (b) a simple (and Islamically sound) partnership-based "clearing union" synthesis of bilateral trading and a multilateral guarantee, will in due course be taken forward.

Insight into current Iranian policy One of the most interesting aspects of the process was that during our brief spell of contacts with decision-makers, some insight into current Iranian policy was possible - in particular, the nuclear question. In our conversations we were left in no doubt that it suits both the US and Iran for the issue to be seen to be that of the Iranian "threat" from nuclear weapons.

In fact the issue is a proxy for Iraq: try looking in the media prior to the events in Fallujah, Iraq, for anything more than desultory mention of this "issue". But once factions in Iran funded Muqtada al-Sadr to the tune of $50 million and the US body count started to rise, then the issue began to attain its current level of importance.

Now that pro-Iranian Shi'ite elements are taking a primary role in the emerging government in Iraq, we see the nuclear temperature rising further.

The realpolitik is of course that those in power in the US and Iran have the reason they give - and the real reason - for what they do: and for the US, the real reason is, and has been for many years, energy security above any other consideration.

(Copyright 2006 Chris Cook)

Why he had to go Congressman Kucinich was a guest speaker.at the conference held by the American Monetary Institutei (see Guardian Political Review, Issue 47). Some, who remember the name from the 2004 American presidential primaries, have sought more background information about the man.

The following extract is from one of a series of articles on the website www.politicalcortex.com by Bill Hare about the 2004 American election,sub titled ''Why Kucinich had to go'.

Dennis Kucenich

Background Dennis Kucinich began his political career in his twenties and made national headlines at 31 by being elected mayor of Cleveland, one of America's major cities Kucinich v Big Business and the banks In a conflict that presaged the grave tragedy of Enron wielding a club over California by regulating the power it would release to the Golden State's citizenry unless disgracefully high rates were received, Kucinich ran foul of the powerful Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, opposing its effort to acquire the city's publicly owned electric company, Municipal Light.

In his winning 1977 race, mayoral candidate Kucinich campaigned against the sale. After he cancelled the impending sale a successful effort was mounted that resulted in him being forced into a recall election. He survived the effort, but by only 236 votes.

Bank pulls the plug on Cleveland As Cleveland Trust, the city's largest bank, would not renew the city's credit of $15,000,000 unless Kucinich would agree to the sale of

Municipal Light to CEI, the plug was pulled and Cleveland became the first major American city on December 15, 1978 to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression Big Business/Media interlocking When he announced his entry into the 2004 presidential race for the Democratic nomination, the Cleveland Congressman sharply declared "You're looking at a guy who believes he can beat a rigged game," A significant element of game rigging is the potent interlocking directorate of the mainstream media connected to the corporate structure with heavy emphasis on the world of lobbying.

Out of World Trade Organisation and Iraq Kucinich was the only Democratic candidate to adopt an Iraq War policy that, if implemented, would have ended the machinations of Dick Cheney in installing American corporations Halliburton, Bechtel and Monsanto.

Under the Kucinich plan, U.S. troops would have been moved out of Iraq, except for those that would comprise a United Nations

peacekeeping force.

Another Kucinich plank that generated consternation in corporate ranks was his call for immediate withdrawal from the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A third area where Kucinich raised hackles among the corporate elite was his call for the creation of a single-payer system of universal health care. The creation of health maintenance organizations and their octopus-like reach has generated billions of dollars while more Americans received no or inadequate health care.

Democratic presidential candidacy Despite the fact that Kucinich was a favourite of so many of the dispossessed, well informed grassroots progressives were also drawn to his poopulist message.

The key moment of the primary season came during a Democratic candidates' debate held in Arizona with ABC's Ted Koppel as moderator.

Kucinich's well-reasoned response harkened back to his quote concerning his quest for the presidency involving a "rigged game".

Big business money and politics Current populists like Dennis Kucinich are advocating the government financing of elections, which would break the stranglehold of big money.

Dennis Kucinich's candidacy emphasized three basic issues: (1) why the situation in Iraq needed to be internationalised with American troops removed, except for those that would serve as part of a peacekeeping venture; (2) NAFTA and the overall issue of globalization; (3) creating a single-payer system of universal health care.

It is hoped that Dennis Kucinich will try again for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

The Modern Universal Paradigm The following article has been extracted from a forthcoming book, 'The Modern Universal Paradigm', by Rodney Shakespeare, which relates to material produced in 'Seven Steps to Justice' which he co-authored with Peter Challen.

Justice for Women It is an extraordinary thing that all the big debates on politics and economics never seem to touch completely and accurately on the position of women. While half of the adult human population are women, the world in general really only understands men’s rights, and men’s liberties.

Conventional economics is for men Neoclassical economics has, at its centre, the notion of a completely self-interested individual.

That notion takes no account of the simple reality that most women spend a good part of their lives in situations where they are not being selfish.

Put simply, women are outside the formal economy. J.K. Galbraith said:- "The work of women is excluded from our national accounting and overlooked in economics in general."

Abuse of power A particularly depressing feature of the present situation is that there are no schools of thought coming up with any effective way of including all women in the formal economy so that they are paid for their work. Indeed, and quite amazingly, most (but not all) feminist economists have also sold out the cause of Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 25

women’s rights. These feminist economists socialist ones included - have succumbed to the nostrums of unfree market finance capitalism and now argue that any proposal for change must fit in with the principles of neoclassical economics. different situations throughout the world.

An independent earning capacity In practical, everyday life, most women's problems substantially stem from one lack, and one lack alone. Until that lack is addressed, the bulk of those problems will remain. The lack is of some form of independent earning capacity which need only be a small one.

Yet the situation of women can be changed.

Ensuring that all women have independent earnings can change it.

The Universal Paradigm looks forward to the day when everybody - women, men and children - will have some amount of income coming from their own individual capital ownership. That income would be in addition to any income they may be able to earn in the conventional labour market or other ways.

The jobs and welfare of the conventional economy can never be enough because many people cannot labour; many people, such as

carers, have arduous labour but are not paid; jobs are rarely secure; and jobs for most people Rodney Shakespeare do not pay sufficient so that at present, if there is to be provision of basics, there has to be massive redistribution in one way or another. To which can be added the humiliations and frustrations when having to obtain a meagre welfare benefit from the state.- and in many societies there is no welfare benefit.

With some form of her own income, a woman will be able to have more control over her life. If she wishes to enter the conventional labour market, that is fine. If she chooses not to enter that market, that is fine as well. The important thing is that she should have at least an element of choice.

Rodney Shakespeare is a UK tutor, and Visiting Professor at Trisakti University, Jakarta, Indonesia with a further appointment possible at the Asian University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. A Cambridge MA and Barrister of the Middle Temple, Rodney is co-author of three books including 'Seven Steps to Justice'.

TRADER JOHN

NEWS BITES - hunting through the media jungle! of paying members willing to support parties.

This has left them clutching dependently on the financial support of small numbers of tycoons with thick chequebooks who want to cluster around Mr Brown as Labour’s Prime Minister prospective. A tidal wave of money is already gushing in the direction of Conservative leader Mr Cameron, and the cascade of lucre will increase the more he looks as though he might win the next election. Both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron should contemplate the ruin money has wreaked on the reputation of Mr Blair.

THINK AGAIN, MR CULLEN

Media Release 18/5/06 From John Pemberton Finance Spokesman Democrats for social credit

AT SIXES AND SEVENS According to Roger Bowden, Victoria University’s professor in economics and finance, the Reserve Bank “is adrift on a sea of policy uncertainty. They’re a bit at sixes and sevens about how the economy works these days”.

Guardian Newspapers (U.K.), 27/3/06

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY The purpose of Social Credit is to make the Christian concept of freedom a reality, to offer the individual the capacity to decide his or her own destiny in voluntary association with others. Douglas described Social credit as “practical Christianity”… Each individual possesses a spiritual capacity, a creative initiative. It was the development of this spiritual capacity which Douglas taught was the only hope for a better world.

Frances Hutchinson, Fifty Years of Social Credit.

Colin James, ‘Commentary’ 21/12/05

THE CASE FOR SOCIAL CREDIT “It is submitted as a fact of experience that the results accruing from the working of the monetary system are not satisfactory to the community as a whole. The general picture is one of increasing debt, both public and private, increasing taxation, a continually rising cost of living, persistent insecurity as to personal livelihood, national prospects and world trade…”

‘The Case for Social Credit’, a submission by Miss M. King (Dunedin) and Mr R. Young (Hamilton) on behalf of the NZ Social Credit Association (Inc) to the Royal Commission on Monetary, Banking and Credit Systems, June 1955. (Item supplied by Bob Warren).

BULLYING TACTICS The new Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare (right) has accused Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer of bullying tactics over flagged plans to replace Australian-led officials in key government departments, such as finance and treasury, with Solomon Islanders. Mr Downer was visiting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

AAP 22/5/06 (See World News feature on Solomon Islands)

Bromhead, Sunday Star-Times

“Michael Cullen knows that the “borrowing costs” for the 2006 year could be as high as $2.6 billion, and yet he continues to think inside the square by borrowing more money from overseas owned banks. The faceless few, the overseas shareholders of those banks, will continue to smile and reap the rewards. By looking outside the square, Dr Cullen could reactivate the lending skills of the highly paid personnel at the Reserve Bank by instructing them to establish a revolving credit facility for the Government to use, to fully fund all of our infrastructure requirements. As demonstrated in the past, the cost of doing this is minimal. A mere 1% or less is needed to cover costs. The proposed $1.0 billion bond, at 6.5% interest, could cost New Zealanders $65 million each year or nearly $2.3 billion over 35 years. The $1.0 billion sourced from our Reserve Bank would cost us just $10 million each year or $350 million over the 35 years at 1%. Think again, Mr Cullen.”

Mr Key’s currency-dealer gut instincts for the most part serve him well but they are too thin to run a government. There is still too large a gap between trader John and Prime Minister Key – even Treasurer Key.

NZ Listener 1/4/06

STRUGGLING TO PAY Interest-bearing debt on personal credit cards has topped $3 billion for the first time. Average interest rate has also edged up to 19%. The rise in interest-bearing debt could indicate that people were struggling to pay what they owed.

Rob Stock, Sunday Star-Times 30/4/06

SERVING THE BUREAUCRACY There has been a dramatic expansion in the health bureaucracy to the point where there are now an estimated 12,000 administrators for New Zealand’s 12,000 hospital beds.

Furthermore tens of millions of dollars are now being poured into the administration of DHBs, Maori health units, PHOs and a massively expanded Ministry of Health. As a result, health funding has increased from $6.6 billion a year, when Labour took office in 1999, to $10 billion today. The public health system has become increasingly costly, focused on serving the bureaucracy rather than the patients.

Dr Muriel Newman, Otago Daily Times 21/4/06

CASCADE OF LUCRE UK politics is locked in a downward spiral.

Public disillusionment is shrivelling the number Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 26

FRAUD WASTE AND INCOMPETENCE

DÉJÀ VU? Did Don Brash have another ‘chilling premonition’ shortly after deposing Bill English as National Party leader in 2003? He reflected: “They backed me not because they thought I could win in 2005, but because they thought I would lose less badly, then take the fall for a loss in 2005, leaving it open for someone else to lead the party to victory in 2008.”

Guardian Political Review, Issue 47.

SKULL AND CROSSBONES O.K. The West Coast locals ran a $2,500 campaign, against $13,000 spent by the West Coast DHB, and an as yet undisclosed amount by the Canterbury DHB. The Fluoride Action Network (NZ) lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Committee about lies and misrepresentations in DHB advertisements.

The ASCB refused to challenge any statement by the DHB, but the Advertising Standards Complaints Appeal Board overturned a decision by the ASCB about the use of the skull and crossbones in anti-fluoridation advertising. It is now acceptable.

Fluoride Action Network (NZ) newsletter, Dec.2005.

Footnote: FAN(NZ) acknowledges the support given to the local groups by the Democrats for social credit, particularly Health spokesperson David Tranter.

"Fraud, waste and incompetence have been going on ever since I got to Brussels as a Member of the European Parliament in 1999, and for many years before. The EU’s own financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, has refused to sign off the accounts for 2004. They had no real idea of how much money had gone missing from the accounts! Money is gathered in from the various states of the Union and is then allocated out by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels and administered by another set of bureaucrats in the local areas where it is spent.

The accounting system is so ramshackle that it is difficult to tell if money has been stolen, gone missing or been spent properly. And there are some very powerful vested interests that want to keep things as they are."

Chris Harris, M.E.P., 'This England' magazine, 2006

VOGEL’S BOOM - AND BUST

PERILOUS

Julius Vogel's reputation as an economic strategist is perhaps higher than it ought to be. It is true that he initiated the overseas borrowing programme in the 1870s which enabled the construction of roads, railways, harbours, opened up land and financed immigration. But did this programme deserve to succeed? Many at the time thought it did not. The 1891 election swept the Liberals into power on a manifesto which included a promise not to borrow overseas.

Although the joint public and private borrowing programme generated a boom in the 1870s, it was followed by the hardships of the depression in the 1880s. The borrowing had stopped, and the country faced paying the interest and the amortisation of past debt out of inadequate production. Some people were ruined, unemployment was widespread, industrial relations deteriorated into the Great Maritime Strike of 1890, and the conservative coalition that had ruled was swept out of office in 1891 for a period of 20 years.

New Zealand’s balance of payments remains at a “perilous” level, and is expected to climb to 9% of gross domestic product. For the year to March, the balance stood at a deficit of $7.07 billion.

Brian Easton, Economics for NZ Social Democrats

“The year 1929 reached almost the end of its third quarter under the promise and appearance of increasing prosperity, particularly in the United States.

Extraordinary optimism sustained an orgy of speculation. Books were written to prove that economic crisis was a phase, which expanding business organisation and science had at last mastered. "We are apparently finished and done with economic cycles as we have known them", said the President of the New York Stock Exchange in September. But in October a sudden and violent tempest swept over Wall Street... The whole wealth so swiftly gathered in the paper values of previous years

(Material supplied by David and Marilyn Lattimer)

WIND RUSH Amongst the green hills and pine trees of Scotland one day there could be a series of giant wind turbines, each higher than London landmark Big Ben. The region is in the grip of a “wind rush”. Opponents say that, apart from the impact on scenery, wind power will not make a serious dent in carbon emissions, as it is intermittent and needs to be backed up with thermal power. They see the drive for wind power as little more than a state-sponsored scam to make money for power firms.

Otago Daily Times, 1/5/06

Democrats for social credit policy promotes solar power, with emphasis on solar home heating which makes each house its own ‘power station’, thus reducing the charge from electricity suppliers.

Otago Daily Times, 28/4/06

A GOOD YEAR FOR SOME ANZ Banking Group has handed down a $A1.81 billion ($NZ2.17 billion) first-half profit.

In 2003, the bank acquired the National Bank of New Zealand. Chief executive, John McFarland, said “2006 is expected to be a good year for ANZ”.

POTENTIAL BONANZA Forget about Avian (bird) flu. The threat of it becoming a pandemic is more a political scare tactic and potential bonanza for drug company profits and its major shareholders’ net worth (including Gilead Sciences, the developer of the Tamiflu drug and its former Chairman and major shareholder Donald Rumsfeld) than a likely public health crisis. electronz.cjb.net, March 2006

THE GATHERING STORM?

Anthony Hubbard, Sunday Star-Times 26/3/06

Photo: Sunday Star-Times

HERE, TOO?

MORALLY DISHEVELLED

Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 27

Winston Churchill, ‘The Gathering Storm’

AAP 23/4/06

“Mr Cashpoint” – used a loophole in the election law to raise $40 million to finance the Labour election campaign. Blair, moreover, had recommended four of the wealthy donors for the peerage. Now, as a Times newspaper editorial put it, he is “morally dishevelled”.

Tony Blair promised that his government would be whiter than white, purer than pure.

But by the 2005 election he was nicknamed “Bliar”. The most recent crisis is perhaps the worst. Blair and his money-man Lord Levy –

vanished. The prosperity of millions of American homes had grown up a gigantic structure of inflated credit now suddenly proved phantom. Apart from the nation-wide speculation in shares which even the most famous banks had encouraged by easy loans, a vast system of purchase by instalment of houses, furniture, cars and numberless kinds of household conveniences and indulgences had grown up. All now fell together.”

"Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ has been dogged by a seemingly never-ending succession of scandals. Is the same thing happening here?

When I first joined the Labour Party in 1978, its Dunedin branches were made up of straighttalking trade unionists, shrewd Irish Catholics, and a smattering of secondary schoolteachers and university lecturers - a fair percentage of who still took socialism seriously. Can it really be true that this once proud party now goes looking for its candidates among the sharp lawyers, corner-cutting property developers and bio-tech entrepreneurs who have set up shop on the ruins of Rogernomics? Can the party of Harry Holland, Jack Lee, Mickey Savage and Norman Kirk really find nothing better to offer its 21st century supporters?"

Chris Trotter, Otago Daily Times 24/3/06

MANUFACTURING CONSENT Is George Orwell’s vision of the future in his book 1984 slowly becoming a reality in New Zealand with a small number of news outlets i.e. ‘the ministry of truth’ churning our propaganda for the masses. NZ media is controlled by four giant corporations. Only 9% of newspaper readers read news from New Zealand owned companies. (The main NZ owned company is the Otago Daily Times).

97% of radio stations in New Zealand are owned by one of two companies. The Radio Network is owned by Australian Radio Network which is 50% owned by US based Clear Channel.Communications. The other 50% is owned by Australian group ANM which also owns the NZ Herald newspaper, controlled from Ireland. This is very bad for freedom of information. News is no longer impartial and objective. Journalistic integrity is curtailed. But in 2002, Radio Chomsky FM was established in Auckland. It is named after Noam Chomsky, a prominent political dissident and author of Manufacturing Consent and Necessary Illusions. (Auckland 107.1 FM, Hamilton ‘The Station’ 88.6 FM and Wellington ‘The Matrix’ 107/5 FM). On line worldwide at www.radiochomsky.org Aaron Skudder, www.radioheritage.net

THE CASE OF MAUNDY GREGORY Maundy Gregory is the only British politician to be convicted of selling honours. He was a spy and blackmailer who worked as (World War I premier) Lloyd George’s bagman. He raised $150 million at today’s prices for his master and made a small fortune for himself.

The 1925 Act, making the sale of honours a crime, was meant to stop him but it had no effect whatsoever. Gregory had too much dirt on how Lloyd George’s Liberals and their Tory allies had sold peerages to profiteers from World War I to be caught by new laws. Victor Grayson, a brave and flamboyant Labour politician, threatened to expose Gregory in 1920 when he announced: “This sale of honours is a national scandal. It can be traced right down to 10 Downing Street and to a monocled dandy with offices in Whitehall. I know this man and one day I will name him.”

Grayson disappeared soon after that. He was last seen being taken into a house owned by Gregory. His body was never found.

Nick Cohen, The Observer.

COMPULSORY MEDICATION As of 31 October 2005, under the European Union Court of Justice ruling, all ingestible substances are either foods or medicines.

When fluoride – in ANY form – is added to water with the intent to medicate, then that water becomes a medicine and must comply with the regulations relating to the registration, sale and administration of medicines. Its indiscriminate distribution in the public water supply is "unlawful".

RUN BY HIRED HANDS Dunedin is embarked on a financially disastrous and entirely unsustainable course.

In a few weeks we shall hit the rocks, a prospect that should be troubling but that seems to bother none of those entrusted with the welfare of our city. The council is in a coma and the ship is being run by hired hands for whom Dunedin is not necessarily anything more than a useful step in an itinerant career.

The Dunedin council might as well not exist.

Why not get rid of the lot at a saving of many millions, and allow the staff to run the show – which they patently do already?

Fluoride Action Network newsletter, 2/12/05

these years, but because of the way she has inhabited the role.

Jane Clifton, NZ Listener 22/4/06

THE PARTY IS OVER Goldman Sachs has predicted that in 20 years’ time there will be more cars in China than in the US, about 200 million of them. Ten years after that, India’s car population will also overtake America’s. Within 20 years, Russia and Brazil will each have more cars than Japan. We are headed for a billion car world (unless all the wheels fall off first), and that means permanently high oil prices. If the oil price leaps to $US100 or more in one swift jump, we will have the mother of all recessions.

The party is definitely over.

Gwynne Dyer, Otago Daily Times 25/4/06

“DESENSITISED” TO DEBT

Dave Witherow, Otago Daily Times 3/2/06

Footnote: How many other councils in New Zealand are ‘run’ by non-elected executives?

DEPLETED URANIUM THE REAL CULPRITS

Since the U.S. military first used depleted uranium weapons in the 1991 Gulf War, it has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki nuclear bombs into the global atmosphere, causing permanent contamination with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Furthermore, that DU radiation is 10 times the amount released by all atmospheric testing which in total equalled 40,000 Hiroshima bombs.

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard gave us another good telling off… railing against overspending and under-saving, but isn’t it time the finger of blame pointed at the real culprits behind the consumer boom, not the victim, the consumer? The first culprits are the banks and their shadowy allies, the credit card companies.

They have ensnared the population. It’s when the unholy ménage a trois of marketers, bankers and finance companies get into bed with retailers that society is really in trouble.

These are the real culprits behind the debt and consumer boom.

electronz.cjb.net, March 2006

‘HUMUNGOUS" ACCIDENT WAITING? Overseas investors are keeping the NZ dollar high by buying billions of them in the form of so-called Eurobonds. These are basic interestbearing investments sold – by the ‘supranational’ banks like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – in parcels to mainly European and Japanese households. In 2005 alone, Kiwi Eurobonds worth about $30 billion were sold – twice the size of the government bond-market. There are humungous amounts of money floating around looking for an investment opportunity.

It could dwarf a tiny country like New Zealand.

The currency is an accident waiting to happen.

Rob Stock, Sunday Star-Times 11/12/05

A TOUCHSTONE Perhaps as irrationally shocking as the visit from the stringy, pensionable Rolling Stones is the realisation that the Queen is about to turn 80. We all grow older but some things just seem immutable. For so many of her subjects, the Queen has been exactly the same all their lives: perennially middle-aged, undemonstrative but strangely accessible and, above all, unchanging. A touchstone. Putting the politics aside, forgetting issues of republicanism, it’s undeniable that Queen Elizabeth II has had a practical, down-home impact on our lives. Not just because she has been the monarch for all

Nick Smith, NZ Listener 17/12/05

The proportion of 18 to 25-year-olds among the clients of one of the U.K’s leading debt charities has doubled over the past three years.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service said the increase was due to young people embracing freely available credit as a “way of life”, and that they have become “desensitised” to debt.

BBC News, 13/9/05

STRAIGHT FROM SHOULDER "It is a fundamental principle of Catholic social teaching that economic institutions and systems must be seen in relationship to man and his eternal end. The writings of Major Douglas, the founding prophet of Social Credit, make it clear that the economic system is not the be-all and end-all of his system. He saw the Socred monetary system as a means by which man would be enabled to develop to the full his intellectual, moral and religious aspects; he saw economic security as essential for the establishment of this individual freedom. He also believed that the real object of production was consumption not profit. Social Credit has every reason to be confident of the future."

From 'Straight from the Shoulder' by the late John Kennedy, former editor of The Tablet

John Kennedy

Democrats for social credit I/We wish to renew my/our membership of the Democrats for social credit, which is an independent political party committed to the economic transformation of New Zealand.

Please return this coupon with payment to: N.Z. DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR SOCIAL CREDIT INC., P.O. BOX 18-907, NEW BRIGHTON, CHRISTCHURCH I/We enclose $10.00 (per person) to cover membership for one year Cheques payable to NZ Democratic Party for social credit

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Guardian Political Review, Issue 49, 2006 - Page 28