Peace, Not Pieces

Less than a month after the FBI and the Serious Office of Organised Crime (Soca) shut down Darkmarket - a website used by criminals to buy and sell credit card details and bank log-in information – came news this past week of more criminal websites selling ‘pieces’ of personal information (names, addresses, passport and credit card numbers) starting at just £5 a pop and rising to £80 for an ‘entire package’.

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘life is cheap’, but this latest twist in the ongoing online identity theft saga borders on the out-and-out evil – particularly as identity fraud cost  the British economy £1.5 billion in 2005. Add to this the estimated US$53 billion that ID theft costs American consumers and businesses each year (US Federal Trade Commission, 2005); the CAN$5 billion annual cost to the Canadian economy (Brown and Kourakos, 2003); and the AU$1.1 billion afflicting our antipodean cousins (Australian Bureau of Statistics), and the enormity of this international scourge becomes abundantly clear.

If you’ve fallen victim to any form of e-crime, then you have my commiserations.  CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service, estimates that a total identity ‘hijack’ will take a typical victim over 200 hours to resolve; involve contacting between 20 and 30 different organisations; and cost up to £8,000 - a situation no doubt adding insult to injury for the 14,567 people who fell prey to identity theft here in the UK during the first quarter of this year alone.

Speaking of the ‘V’-word… The definition of ‘victim’ apropos ID theft is indeed curious in this country. Here only financial institutions/lending organisations are considered to be the ‘victims’ under current law. For individuals seeking compensation for the considerable distress, out-of-pocket expenses, damage to credit status and long hours spent clearing their names, the only legal recourse is to fight their way through the civil courts.

Kinda sucks the big one, does it not?

Gonna Find Out Who's Naughty or Nice

Hope Springs Eternal

 There are times in one’s life that you know, instantly, you’ll remember ‘til your dying day.  For me, the election of Barack Hussein Obama to the post of leader of the Free World this past week was one such moment.

It is not just the colour of his skin that makes Obama’s election exceptional, although it is critical to remember (and continue doing so) that only 40 years ago, complete segregation ruled in America’s southern states. Neither is it that the President-Elect is arguably the best orator that the world has seen in decades.  Obama’s ability to communicate his heartfelt sincerity and desire to ‘do the right thing’ is second to none.  He is imbued with many attributes that have been the hallmarks of some great men before him, possessing, as Barack does, the sincerity of JFK; the passion of Martin Luther-King; and the intelligence of Bill Clinton.

Much more important, to my mind, however, is Obama’s innate ability to identify what is damaging the troubled world we live in today.  He embodies the desires of not only his own nation but, I believe, the entire globe.  We certainly live in troubled times, and our collective desire for hope and change has been answered with Obama’s victory.

The US$780 million campaign ‘war chest’ the Obama campaign assembled is, on one hand, absurdly high (if not a trifle obscene), but that the bulk of these funds comprised innumerable small donations from ever-hopeful Americans serves as a reminder that, unlike George W. Bush, Obama’s ‘base’ is as genuinely popular as it is inclusive.  And his victory address - which I for one found profoundly moving - clearly laid out his desire for his nation and the wider world in the most inspired and most hopeful terms possible.  Hope begins with belief, and thus it follows that a positive attitude when dealing with even the most challenging of situations will in most cases allow us all to prevail.

The burden of expectation now lies on the shoulders of just one man.  Only time will tell whether Barack Obama can deliver on even half of his election promises, but I, together with millions like me, remain positive, upbeat and ever hopeful. 

So thank you, Barack Obama. Your positive, ‘YES WE CAN’ message is just the tonic the world needed to hear. Hope does indeed spring eternal.

McPolitics

‘Gimme a double-beef Obama burger with a large McCain fries and a supersized Joe Biden shake to go, please. Oh – but hold the Sarah Palin, will ya?’

Across the pond, the long race to the Whitehouse concludes tomorrow (Tuesday). That’s assuming there isn’t massive voter fraud in Florida again, of course. This is without doubt the most closely watched and contested Presidential contest in many years. For good reason, as – to paraphrase our very own Winston Churchill – during such troubled financial times, never have so many in the UK and beyond had a vested interest in the outcome of the deliberations of the (comparatively) American few.

Forget six degrees of separation. We’ve all got a stake in which road America decides to head down for the next four years. Financially, culturally and (perhaps most problematically of all) militarily, the implications for the planet are enormous.

So can I just vent for a moment at the tawdry X-Factor-ness of the whole Democrats v Republicans shebang? My PR guy often reminds me that we live in a ‘post-content’ media environment, but the Yanks seem to have upped the ante by entering what is surely some sort of ‘post-policy’ political environment. Detailed policy-making and robust debate have seemingly gone totally AWOL in favour of Oprah-styled personality sound-bites designed to promote brands ‘Obama’ and ‘McCain’ to the widest possible consumer-base. Whilst it’s heartening to see that the projected voter turn-out for election day tomorrow is likely to be the highest in years, I have to ask: When the choice between the candidates is, fundamentally, only one of centrist degree, wherein truly lies the choice?

After voters have bought the t-shirt, lipsticked a pig and/or slapped a bumper sticker on their SUV, what flavour of McPolitics will they order at the U.S. of A’s great democratic drive-through?

For good or ill, we’ll soon see.