Dishonesty in Power

What causes people in power to create their own version of what truth is ? Indeed what are the justifications that we draw on to be dishonest with one another. I am not talking about the little white lies here - I am talking about people prepared to be dishonest in Court, in the lesser levels of justice such as tribunals and in situations such as the Government halls of power. The lies that lead to injustice which are believed by those with less power for the various reasons outlined in the video below.

An example shows this at work in the transitional housing area. Some time ago after requesting information about the nature of the relationship between “salvation Army” and myself as an occupant, this is the response that I received from Ministry of Social Development

“ Salvation Army have a tenancy agreement for Transitional Housing homes with the owner of the properties therefore are deemed the head tenant” .

The owner of the motel contacted me with the following text “noticed you have not been here last couple of days. Can I get an update of where you are …when you will be due back” “Also if you do not get back to me by Monday morning I will treat this as an abandonment and the contents of your unit will be disposed of at your own expense.”

From the information provided by MSD, my understanding is that “Salvation Army” , not the motellier are the head tenant and therefore the agreements that I signed outlined the legal contract between me and the Salvation Army. Neither of those agreements refer to any need to advise Salvation Army nor the motellier if I go away for 2 days nor that failure to respond to the owners text will mean that they can effectively steal my property. Indeed it would seem to be a breach of human rights to include such requirements, as with some of the other requirements of the contracts. It certainly seems to be completely contrary to the spirit of Housing and Urban development’s own guidelines for providers.

The motel owner lied in saying that requirement was outlined in both contracts - it is not. In response to my question about if rent is being paid, why would he feel able to dispose of someone’s property after 3 days… he indicated that he didn’t know whether people had paid their rent - that that was the Salvation Army’s area and not his problem.

He did however indicate that he was paid by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and that it was under his agreement with them that he was able to act in that way although to date he has not provided me with that evidence. But if the Ministry of Social Development’s assertion to me was true that the Salvation Army rented the property from him, what in fact was he and his wife being paid for by Housing and Urban Development ? It doesn’t make sense. The situation feels deliberately vague so that the buck can easily be passed and it is also unclear what is the role of Salvation Army as all the email correspondence from them has a little message at the bottom saying this

“WARNING: This email is not from a Salvation Army NZ, Fiji, Tonga, or Samoa account. Be careful of all links and attachments even if you recognise the name. If you don’t know them, consider deleting. If you have any doubts, contact sender by phone (don’t reply) to verify authenticity of message and attachments.”

Consider also that the complaints of intimidation, theft from my unit and false allegations by staff have still not been dealt with by the Salvation Army in the process they have outlined on their website following the recent Royal Commission in Care (they were named as perpetrators) . It all looks decidedly dodgy. There is an assumption that we all must work with a “social worker” , despite not having consented to this formally with a contract. A social worker who in reality does nothing and actually gives false information. A “social worker” who physically provoked my neighbour by pushing him (with no perceivable sanctions) and “social workers” who seem intent on drumming up division between residents by telling lies about complaints from others.

Already people in transitional housing as occupants do not have protection of rights as tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act especially regarding notice and protection of property. But now there is a slow but increasing encroachment of rights by the motel owner and the “Salvation Army Transitional Housing Team”, who feel justified to treat people as if they believe these people have committed wrongdoing … seemingly the crime of not being able to find accommodation. Increasingly requirements akin to being on probation without any legal backing … probably won’t be long before we have to get permission to leave the property and start wearing electronic monitoring bracelets. Just their own prejudices and desire to punish people seem to be sufficient justification to issue orders and new rules.

This process of falsifying reality is how facism grew in Nazi Germany against the Jews. It’s how the killer at the Christchurch mosque shooting justified his behaviour to kill people engaged in spiritual worship. It’s how Israel is justifying beheading Palestinian children or torturing political prisoners. It’s how paedophiles convince children that they asked for it. It’s how domestic violence perpetrators control the reality of owning their partners and children as possessions.

It is only when we, as victim survivors, start waking up to the lies we have been told as children about being perpetually wrong, that we start to have the ability to challenge these distortions - we start to see the confusion of roles as deliberate ways to victimise people in order to channel public funding into “social worker” pockets and to reinforce some very sadistic mindsets that get pleasure from controlling and hurting others. Only then when the distortions are exposed for what they are do we have a shitshow of stopping repeated traumatisation. Not just in transitional housing but anywhere where there is an imbalance of power and a lack of objective oversight by the public : in state and faithbased childcare, prisons, boot camps, old people’s homes, psychiatric institutions, schools, workplaces. It is only when changes happen in these institutions that the abuse of children in their own homes by caregivers can really be expected to stop through the strength of changing societal attitudes to power over others.

Photo by Taras Chernus on Unsplash