I collected sunglasses, baseball caps, guns and stereo systems at a much earlier stage in my life when I had a lot more money than sense. These days, I would like to think – and I am sure you would agree with me on this – that I am a very wise old fella with no money whatsoever. You do? Which bit exactly do you agree with? That I am just an old bugger with no money or that I am a very wise old fella? Thank you! You are too kind!
It was when I had to do a valuation of all my stuff for insurance purposes that I found out that only the stereo systems were worth anything. The sunglasses and baseball caps came under Items of Clothing but I am no Sir Elton John and they were worthless. The impressive gun collection consisted of firearms traded for a pair of Holden air shock absorbers, a Holden racing differential I had acquired during my travels, booze or simply bought for a fraction of their cost from some hard up alcoholic shearer or hunting mate in hotel car park deals that did not involve any paperwork. The stereo systems though, which the salesman said had lost half their value in six months, as they ripped you off out of habit every time you traded in last years sensation for the latest must have model, could be included in the list of Household Items as long as they were not more than four years old. It was still almost twelve months later before I dumped the sunglasses and baseball cap collections as bad investments. I disposed of the guns a little later but for a different reason. It was the beginning of my road to becoming wiser but with less money. I did learn a valuable lesson from all that though. I just couldn’t remember what it was right now but I am quite sure that it will come to me before we get to the end of this.
According to an Entertainment News story in last week’s newspapers Rihanna reckons her best asset is her butt. I wouldn’t even pretend to know who the heck Rihanna is or was but after the Home and Contents Insurance experience back in the days, I now call myself an asset evaluation and management consultant. Impressed? And I would need to have a closer examination of Ms Rihanna’s best asset for any cracks or blemishes before I could offer an opinion on whether I thought she should sell or keep it! Unfortunately, butts depreciate in value at a much faster rate than even stereo systems.
I couldn’t say the same about the rumored privatization of one of our major assets though. SamoaTel is said to be only a crossing of the T’s and dotting of the I’s away from being sold to the highest bidder. And there is absolutely no truth in the rumor that it will be another MBO like the in limbo SBC MBO by SQB. I almost sound like a public servant don’t I?
As for the rumor that someone has made an offer for the Electric Power Corporation, which is not even in the bag of assets to be sent to market, it is just further proof that those in the private sector who know how to make a buck can see how profitable it would be to own a telecommunications or electricity production company. And when it comes to privatization and asset sales, the government will not have to work as hard as they have with the Road Transport Reform Bill to convince people that service will be better under private ownership. Those opposed to privatization know that we have to pay for the massive development projects somehow. The International Finance Corporation, the private banking arm of the World Bank, according to the World Banks East Asia and Pacific Region Vice President, hopefully could be used by Samoa to support our economy.
The strategy is quite simple really. Get our government to borrow huge amounts for development and then sell public assets to pay these debts. Privatization and competition will drive national economies and everybody wins. Public Servants who failed to see the inevitable consequences of their unproductive and inefficient public service culture and work ethics will launch ineffective protest. It will be another fait accompli.
After getting rid of unproductive government ownership of public assets, the next step is to free up land ownership from unproductive traditional land titles and ownership for so-called development. The idea that “a few people should be allowed to be rich first so that a lot will be rich later” has provided people everywhere with a list of the worlds richest people recently. A lot would have been impressed with people worth billions of dollars, while some would have been envious or even jealous. There would have been those thoroughly disgusted as well. Here in Samoa, it is not difficult to see who the people are who have been allowed to get rich first so that “more” will get rich later. The idea is for you to jump on to the gravy train now and become one of the “more” who will get rich later if you are not rich enough already thank you!
There is not much one can do to stop the sale of public assets really. Especially if you are like me and have battled for ages for public servants to understand profitability and productivity and have decided that it couldn’t be done. I think there may still be copies somewhere of suggestions I made about the privatization of the EPC. Shift the diesel power station from Tanugamanono then sell it while still brand new for a good price. Build a Control Center with a Switchyard at Tanugamanono. Do not sell the Hydro Power stations. The village of Sili and district have said no to a Hydro Power Station on their river which means a trip back to the drawing board for the Project Manager’s engineers to come up with another option which they should have had in the first place. But I think the thinking may have been very limited back when they were quite sure that the people of Sili would jump at the chance to have a hydro power station slap bang in the middle of their river. “What Plan ‘B’? Just tell them we are going to build one!”
Would access to modern communications and media be credited for the huge leap in rural knowledge and understanding of environmental concerns the clever people used to drip feed selectively according to what they thought we should know? Maybe, but the leadership in the villages are now very well educated and know that the Land Reform Bill should be rejected and never allowed to usurp the sanctity of our fa’aSamoa which is entrenched in our traditional lands. The few who are allowed to be rich now can buy up all the public assets (will someone make sure that the promise of competition is not negated by the same people owning everything?) but not be allowed to get their grubby fingers on our land! Have a nice one folks!
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