National Sovereignty -– “R.I.P”

There are a number of ways to take over the national
sovereignty of a country. The most obvious is by introducing bills (along the
lines of MAI or 'Multilateral Agreement On Investing') which give overseas
investors opportunities (often preferential opportunities at that) to come in
and buy up what could be classed as the family silver.

Another way is to encourage countries to borrow beyond their
means, and tie them up with conditions which make it all but impossible to pay
back the loans to groups like the International Monetary Fund -– leaving no
alternative but to take National sovereignty as collateral.

In Zimbabwe, the situation is more 'black and white'
dispossession - as veteran (22 years in power) President Robert Mugabbe has
stunned the nation, and the world by sticking to his radical domestic policies,
including the eviction of 2900 white farmers from their properties, and the
redistribution of land to black families. Tension is at an all time high as
white farmers have simply been told to 'leave'. Many of those who have
resisted the order have been persecuted, beaten, murdered or taken to court. The
Press, 20 August 2002, "Farmers in court -–

Scores of white farmers arrested for defying government
eviction orders began appearing in court late last night as part of a national
crackdown on Zimbabwe landowners refusing to get off their land. At least 147
farmers have been arrested since Thursday for failing to heed an August 9
deadline to leave their farms so they could be given to blacks. Between 30 and
40 were given bail over the weekend, said Justice for Agriculture, a farmers
group."

Inflation is expected to reach 150% by December -– and the
black market accounts for 80% of trade on basic commodities such as food. Around
two million Zimbabweans are economic refugees.

New Zealand is no new comer to reforms -– and they
keep coming. CER (Closer Economic Relations) is still making promises toward the
introduction of 'the anzac', a single Trans-Tasman currency which would
obviously favour the dominant nation (two guesses as to who that might be), with
NZ quickly losing its identity. NZ of course would gain 'State-hood' within
the Australian Federation of States... Meanwhile, sales of NZ$1.8 billion of
properties and businesses were given the green light in the month of July
according to figures released by the Overseas Investment Commission.
Domestically, the Government has introduced a bill (the land transport
management bill) and will in due course put toll charges on new roading and
expensive upgrading . Now we await the sale of our roading authorities into
overseas hands, and every time we pay our tolls we will know that our
contributions are being whisked overseas.

The Australian National Airline Qantas, have asked the
Australian Government to change legislation regarding foreign ownership. The
Australian Financial Review reported Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson as
saying the 49% limit on foreign ownership increased the carriers cost of raising
money and hindered share price growth as much as 20%. It's quite trendy to
manage, but not own, large national corporate organisations.

Interesting days -– with a familiar pattern continuing...