MattersVille
Last weekend the Globe published a column by the obvious one, Mr. Gary Mason, about how we should be up in arms about how we generously shovelled a severance pile Mr. Michael Graydon's way after he stepped down as the boss of the public's lottery watchdog and almost immediately turned up working for the fine folks from Vegas who are all set to begin building their Casino-Industrial Complex next to BC Place in downtown Lotusland.
So....
How come the public is neither sour nor up in arms about all this?
I'll tell you why.
It's because of codswallop like the following, taken directly from Mr. Mason's column (careful you will use up one of your free monthly visits):
...Where does the average Joe get the kind of deal Mr. Graydon did: an $86,000 payout despite quitting BC Lottery Corp. He now heads off to work at PV Hospitality ULC, which has direct ties to Paragon Gaming Inc., the outfit behind a hugely controversial casino venture in downtown Vancouver...
Why is a passage like the above problematic codswallopanarianism?
Because the descriptor 'hugely controversial' as practiced by selective proMedia amnesiacs like Mr. Mason smooths things over and makes it look like the egregious severance deal for Mr. Graydon is nothing more than an isolated matter when it comes to this 'venture'.
Which, of course, it is not.
Which further begs the following question...
If Mr. Mason wants us to be truly upset about all the conflicty goings on between the provincial government, the BC Lottery Corporation, PAVCo, and Paragon, why doesn't he tell us that another former BC Liberal appointed chair of the BCLC was actually an investor in Paragon while he was STILL the actual chair of the BCLC?
And why doesn't Mr. Mason tell us that that particular former chair of the BCLC suddenly turned up as a Paragon partner soon after he quit working for us, in another capacity, as well?
And why doesn't Mr. Mason tell us that that particular former chair of the BCLC actually called up the then Liberal minister responsible for BC Place and told him that if we, the public, didn't spend half a billion dollars for the new roof that it might, apparently, be a 'deal breaker' for Paragon?
And while were on about all this, why doesn't Mr. Mason tell us about the super-secret, super-fast way the deal was handed, pre-packaged and pre-cooked, to Paragon in the first place?
And don't even get me started on how Mr. Mason was all upset about a one time pay-out of $86,000 but didn't even bother to mention the latest super-duper sweet-heart deal with Paragon that will cost us millions of dollars every single year in subsidies.
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'Hugely controversial' indeed.
Sheesh.
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Just to be even more clear about why my outrage is directed to this particular column, it was titled 'Why we should be sour about the sweet deal for ex-lottery boss Michael Graydon'...
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3 comments:
All that money spent and Mason has his opinions. when is Mr. Mason going to be outraged by the cuts to the Vancouver School Board funding and the continued impoverishment of B.C. children.
SH...
RossK ...thinking about eye-bites...
The NDP have an entirely sorry and sad record of corruption, you could hold the sum of their misdeeds in the hand of one weakling.... I mean really...someone said that it is a poor politician who doesn't know how to make money in office... So, big fail to the NDP in the money-grubbing subterfuge department.
And then, we have the Naughty Gordites, who have left such a richly convoluted tracery of trickery and profiteering, that one is hard pressed to gather the strands into a cohesive narrative.
So I got me old self thinking, what we need is a who's who of corruption: a map of shame: a spreadsheet chart diagram thingy, complete with beauty shots...a "Snooklandian" primer: something someone new to our Liberal den of iniquity could swallow in a few easy bites...rather than jumping in at the deep end of the morass...
So here is my shout out to those with a memory and graphic skills... I'm thinking a pie-chartish/ familia tree/ hubbish thing with spokes radiating out revealing the money players...
Possible templates?
Low end:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/140221/ukraine-kyiv-kiev-key-people-figures-groups-political-crisis
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/news/2014/02/21/13904/fbi-raids-who-s-who-in-the-investigation-of-calif/
Middling:
http://www.channel4.com/news/whos-who-in-sepp-blatters-circle-of-power
The apotheosis of gamers mapping:
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.uvic.ca%2Findex.php%2Fracar%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F5999%2F2829&ei=7ZdNU-ClI-jcyQGt1oCoAg&usg=AFQjCNF4_GP6bdajyD4f0Xd4eCwh-SApXQ&bvm=bv.64764171,d.aWc
e.a.f.--
When?
Honestly.
I do not know.
(but it is a very good question)
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SH--
Heckuva an idea, but that last example is seriously hurting my brain.
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