Rosemary,

It was never my intention to personalize the discourse nor was it a critique
of your National, successful, approach.

But we cannot and do not deny that, generally, in Africa corruption has been
rampant. Although "government" immediately comes to mind whenever corruption
is mentioned, that reaction conceals, excuses and perpetuates private sector
corruption - which is a far worse problem that governmental corruption
because all the wonderful democratic and good governance ideals are never
allowed inside private corporations shareholders' interests boardrooms-
their arguments being that since they are private entities their business is
private. They never say what they mean, never mean what they say and never
do what they say or mean - each of their corporate press releases has to to
be "decoded" to try and figure out each of the three component - words,
meaning and actions.

I hope this explains our corporate problem in Africa and unmasks their
anti-consumer behaviour on the continent? Which is compounded by my peoples
generally low ICT knowledge and their rights hence their need for even
greater protection against overbearing, mostly multinational corporations.

Considering that I am elected to Represent Africa, I believe that I
rightfully owe this view to my constituent's consumers.

Sincerely,

Alex

On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 10:23 AM, Rosemary Sinclair <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> So "commercial" consumer organisations being organisations who have
> commercial members even when their focus is consumer interests - for example
> ATUG has industry members but clear policy position that focuses on end user
> outcomes (and yes this IS possible in Australia!)
>
> Sorry I've been so dense about this!
>
> Cheers
>
> Rosemary
>