Interviewed on BBC Radio Foyle (Mark Patterson Lunchtime Show, 5.4.2013) a property owner and businessman decries large retailers for scavenging on the edges of towns, destroying them.
Tesco,
a British and multi-national retailer, seeks to open a grand store on
the edge of Derry Londonderry (54
degrees North, 7 degrees West).
It already has a down-town outlet and one more edge-of-town grand
store in another edge-of-town location.
There are, as the
BBC presenters rush to explain, offer retailers selling food and
other products. Ditto in Derry Londonderry.
Ironies
abound, as always. The particular area where Tesco seeks to build its
new store already has two large retailers in place.: Dunnes and
Supervalue, both, as it happens, Irish-owned companies. Sinn Féin
(SF), an Irish nationalist political party, appears to back Tesco's
plans to open in the area. There is positive demand from many
residents nearby. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), also
an Irish nationalist party, appears to oppose the development.
The
words 'appears to' are necessary in this highly charged and highly
sensitive matter. Anything that blocks jobs coming to the economically
challenged city of Derry Londonderry is a political no-no.
The
man on the BBC Radio Foyle argues that no new jobs will be created.
Jobs will be displaced from existing retail outfits, which, he
argues, will close. Jobs in construction will be short-term, non -specialist and few. Many sub-contracting functions will, of
necessity, be delivered by non-indigenous
companies.
The
man on the radio speaks of anti-scavenger laws in Canada in response
to these developments. A major political row rumbles on in India
between indigenous, often very wealthy, retailers and global
arrivistes
such
as Walmart and Carrefour.
The
notion that the larger retailers are somehow better took a hammering
recently with the discovery of horse-meat in products labelled as
'beef'. The push for profit at all levels of the food industry leaves
shoppers shocked and awed.
As an aside, the
best joke of the many that emerged during the horse-meat scandal
concerns fish, not meat: Did you hear that Donegal Catch (big fish
processors) have pulled their products off the supermarket shelves?
Why? They found seahorse in the cod.
Appeals
to the concepts of consumer choice, retail freedom, fair trading, the
sovereignty of the market are all made publicly, usually by
spokespersons for Tescos. The ironies heap on.
An
intriguing aspect of all of this is the role played by the car and
the oil industries. Many people walk to the large edge-of-town retail
outfits. But the vast majority of us drive to car-parks built on
acres of tarmac.
We
drive, park, shop, load up and drive home. If we shopped differently,
would the economy collapse?
This
is the season for eating lamb in Ireland, as daffodils press forth.
Images on BBC television of sheep and lamb carcasses laid out in mass
graves, on hillsides blanched grimy white by thawing snow, present
the actualities of the front end of our food industry.
Our
hands chill as we reach for the pre-packed cutlets in the Tesco
edge-of-town store. The oil barons grin as we count our pennies and
return to our cars to drive home to feed our young.
As
the free market economy has no social or moral requisites, war,
disaster, and instability are suitable avenues for profit.
Accordingly, market interests will attempt to privatise sectors like
defence and military, and use war and instability to their profit.
More
and more people, Klein feels, are becoming aware of the pitfalls of
free market thinking, its underlying motives, and the gap between its
realisation and freedom, equality, or democracy. “The
shock doctrine is losing its efficacy due to overuse, just as torture
techniques wear off over time.” Some people and countries are
seeking ways of helping themselves, and helping each other, rather
than becoming dependent on international manipulation with a free
market agenda.
www.facebook.com/DaveDugganWriter
