How power corrupts and when even the infallible fall for the power

Fredrik Skavlan

Saw this Norwegian-Swedish talk show, Skavlan in Swedish television November 7, 2014. Fredrik Skavlan is a Norwegian  journalist copy-catting the old but successful North-American talk show concept of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno and others more contemporary ones like Conan O'Brian etc.. The first one to come in was the enigmatic Uma Thurman, talking about her breaks for nursing children in between shooting for the big screen, positive, smiling, very beautiful as usual and very sympathetic. At some point in the interview she implied that she considered becoming a Scandinavian citizen as those northern societies appealed to her. The next one to come in to be interviewed, with Uma Thurman still sitting in, as per Skavlans concept was the newly elected Swedish Foreign minister (FM) Margot Wallström. As soon as she opened her mouth, she addressed Uma with, "do you have the telephone number to George Clooney"?

Wonderful Uma

Uma looked down and replied with a smiling face signalling, "what sort of question was that": do you know that he is married. The female Swedish FM did not reply but put up a stance like: "I don't care, see, in this world women compete for the men". She wasn't really given the chance to reply verbally as Skavlan understood how infected the situation could become, braking in starting the interview with the Swedish FM.

Margot Wallström

Margot Wallström started talking about her life and career and soon touched the subject of how power corrupts people in official positions, not necessarily being the head of state but any position implying some sort of power over others. She even went as far as saying that what she had experienced was that she had seen people at the UN, the European commission and at other governmental bodies ending up with dictatorial behaviors. Somewhere down this interview Skavlan addressed the Swedish FM saying, perhaps you can help Uma becoming a Swedish citizen as she seem interested to live in your country. The Swedish FM replies with a pretty lengthy litany that Uma would have to apply as any other common foreigner and subject herself to lengthy and difficult process to become a citizen of Sweden even adding the she could not guarantee the Uma would be accepted. Why did she do this to Uma?

The Swedish FM did this because of 3 different reasons: Uma is a successful globally renowned and loved actress, a woman and women compete with another woman more fiercely than she would with a man, secondly Uma had embarrassed her when she replied: "you know, George Clooney is married" and for the third and most shameful reason: she was doing this telling Uma, I am a politician and the second minister in command in my country and I am in power to decide over you. Here the Swedish FM is showing that she herself had fallen for how power corrupts.

I felt ashamed for a being a Swedish citizen watching this. A social democrat and people elected official stepping on this wonderful human being as she was trash.

Slash

The whole show was saved for me when Slash of former "Gun's and Roses" came in, Slash one my hard rock guitar heroes. He came in with all his brand attributes: The high hat, that long black curly hair, those dark glasses, the leather pants and his cool, down to earth and laid back attitude. And he sang a nice song for me together with his buddy: Myles Kennedy. They performed an acoustic version of "Bent to fly".

Getting to terms with the business of drugs and its consequences

American banker psycho

What does "bankers on Cocaine" and an "American psycho" (banker) in Hong Kong  have to do with the murder of 46 innocent students September 26, 2014 in and around the city of Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico? I guess many of us in the prominent countries of the west wouldn't make the connection or even give it a thought. I hope I will be able to explain, so while the stories about the bankers written about in my previous blog post are sort of over, the story in Iguala is still unfolding as the charred remains of 43 students are scraped up by forensics at a garbage dump, some other pieces searched for on a river bank and by divers.

It all started when 46 students were arriving at the town of Iguala to make a protest over the situation at their school. The mayor known to be affiliated with one of the drug cartels is alerted that there is ruckus outside of the town hall where the mayors wife was going to hold a speech so he alerts the local police to "remove" the students from the streets. The police arrives resulting in 3 students shot dead, 3 others unrelated, musicians from a band gets shot too by mistake and the remaining 43 students are aprehended. The 43 is later in the night transported to the local police force in a nearby municipality, Cocula, a city known to harbor the criminal gang -  "Guerreros Unidos" involved in the bigger cartels drug business but also in cahoots with the mayor from Iguala. With the 43 students aprehended the Cocula police contacts the leader of the criminal gang, telling him that they were holding a group of people belonging to a competing criminal band. In the middle of the night the students are picked up by the criminals, driven to a secluded garbage dump and executed. The corpses of the 43 young men are piled up over car tires and firewood and the whole thing is set on fire burning from about midnight to 4 o'clock pm the next day. The remains from the fire are scooped up and put into eight large plastic garbage bags and later disposed of into a river from a bridge.

It took about 6 weeks to get this far in the investigation about a mass murder but anyhow, this is what we know as of yesterday November 7, told by the federal attorney of Mexico, after about 100 arrests and 3 narratives from criminals directly involved in the killings. So what is the relation to the Hong Kong Cocaine bankers? Telling any story regarding atrocities made in relation to narcotics in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru (there are other countries in the list outside of Latin America) would make most of us from the US, Central Europe or European Scandinavia just shoot from the reptile brain saying, those are failed states. We live in market economies and the rule for business (making money) in a market economy is - demand and supply, meaning no demand, no supply. It is that simple. I have a life-time behind myself working with development in a large global corporation and the constant question from the sales people deciding about and holding the money for investments was to us market and development people - were is the demand? If we could not answer that question, that is not being able to prove that there was demand, a customer, we would not get any money and hence no supply and there would be no development.

Do you start to read me now? I am saying that we all are responsible for this horrible and inhumane situation, for atrocities, mass murders in what we call failed states. We are the consumers, we are the demand and without us, no narcotics business.

We have to take responsibility for what is happening globally and stop consuming narcotics. As long as we continue  to consume narcotics and pointing fingers at those "failed states" even intervening in those countries, our own police force will also fail, continue to fail. The police will never eradicate drug abuse by their own, we have to kill the demand.

One way of doing this is continuous drug screening in schools, in businesses, government, in sport clubs where no one is excluded from screening, not even the president, this together with teaching so to increase knowledge about where drug abuse leads, that is to suffering and hell. Thoughtful consequences have to be implemented when one individual fails a test (so to not create a outcast or another criminal problem).

This is what I see as a solution to problem that is growing upon us. You have to consider that demand and consumers of drugs like Cocaine are the most prominent ones of our society as they are the ones having life styles and money to sustain demand. We are not demanding a responsible management of our resources, funds and money, our planet when we let this go on and guess what I think about now? The bankers of Hong Kong, New York, London, Berlin, Stockholm and other financial centers.

We can stop this madness, we can remedy failed states, we can save lives, save our own children from perishing but only if we stop demand, stop using those drugs ourselves and in our own countries.

Implement screening of drugs all-over. I would be satisfied if we would implement it here in Sweden serving as an example for the entire world. As I have one foot here in Sweden and another one in Mexico I suffer daily from hearing my loved ones over there being in constant fear of kidnappings and deaths. They suffer a lot being afraid that the next one to die will be one of their children.

Is the horrendous drug abuse among Hong Kong bankers really an isolated issue?

Rouge banking

The aversion for bankers is nothing new but for me starting yesterday with continuation today my aversion turned into raging anger learning of a real life horror story, a British banker in Hong Kong turning into the "American psycho" by killing as it appears 2 escort women or possibly prostitutes in his luxuary apartment situated in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong island. Reading about it, it felt bizarre, but those things happen all the time and all over the world so I could leave it with just an uneasy and sad feeling for the victims and their families. It was not until today Nov, 4 when I saw another article written by an anonymous alleged former Hong Kong banker, that "came out" writing about his own HK (Hong Kong) experience after hearing about the Bank of America Merrill Lynch former employee killing the girls that I totally lost hope for banks and bankers, finance and investor "pups" and their likes, with a strong feeling of complete disgust. This man told the story of widespread Cocaine abuse, drinking and use of prostitutes or any combination thereof. He said that 30 out of the 100 westerner friends he had, mostly bankers used Cocaine on a regular basis. He mentioned that he had worked as a banker in other parts of the world like Sidney Australia and London England but that those didn't measure up at all to the situation in HK. His last words in the article were "leaving HK saved my life".

I do not believe that the situation regarding drug abuse in the other big financial cities of the world is very much different as this banker was implying, the culture of New York, London, Sidney, Singapore, Stockholm is just different in a way were there is much more to loose which mean the abuse has gone covert (hidden). This is not an isolated HK problem, it is a global one and suspecting that drug use (especially Cocaine) is widespread among personnel within the banking and financial sector is probably just as the salary levels and benefits are extremely high enabling a living and a mindset towards vice,

Now, what makes me angry is that bankers on drugs are managing the world economy, my economy, despite so many scandals, so much fraud, insider trading, manipulation and overt greed. And like pouring gasoline over an already raging fire my anger grows when I realize that the chief executive officers, the chairmen's and the owners of those banks/institutions are reluctant to the whole situation regarding drug use within their corporations.

I do not want, the people of this World do not want banker drug junkies putting life's, our economies and savings at risk. I therefore petition you the chief executive officers, chairman's and owners of banks, insurance companies, credit institutes and other financial institutions to drug test your employees, from the bottom all the way up to yourself.

Your corporations are in the forefront driving drug- production, -smuggling, -wholesale, -retail, fueling gangwars, keeping drug cartels in the business and murdering innocent people.

If you haven't already implemented the suggested drug screening of your employees, please start the process already tomorrow, this for better world and as an example for others.