Parable: The Pied Piper of Google

[Re: Google Steals Taonga, Rips Off Law Commissioners]

One day mercenaries came to our village, and to all the villages on our island, and stole our children. The big children labouring in the fields, the little children learning to walk, the sick children staring into space, the happy children playing in the dirt, the sad children stroking their pets. All of them gone.

“Help!” we cried to the village headman. “The mercenaries have stolen our children. The children we gave birth to and love are all gone.”

In those days we trusted our headman. When our children worked his fields, the headman gave us shiny glass beads for their labour. He told us that our children were the most important thing in the world. He said our children must always be protected and cherished.

“We want our children back!” we cried. “And the mercenaries must be severely punished. If they get away with this, our children will never be safe, ever again.”

And so our headman, and the headmen of all the villages on our island, went off to have a word with the mercenaries.

“Here’s the deal,” they said, when they returned. “You can’t have your children back. Your children are going to work for the mercenaries from now on. But hey! Sign this piece of paper saying you’re happy with the deal, and the mercenaries will give you a shiny glass bead! But wait! There’s more! If your children work really hard, maybe sometime in the future the mercenaries will give you another shiny glass bead! Isn’t that wonderful! Aren’t you just the lucky ones?”

“You bastards,” we said. “You don’t give a toss about our protecting and cherishing our children. All you’re interested in is exploiting them.”

“Ingrates,” said the headmen and marched off to count their shiny glass beads.