Keep on Taking the Beads and Mirrors
by Dr Peter Thorne
Dr Peter Thorne was formerly the Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne. He has been a member of Tender Boards for major Government IT projects including the re-equipment of the Australian Tax Office and Australian Customs. He was a member of the National Procurement Board established by the Hawke/Keating Government.
In the “beads and mirrors game” industrially advanced nations acquire primary products won from the land, or even the land itself, from less industrially advanced nations in return for manufactured goods.
Australia was still an economic colony of Great Britain until the middle of the 20th century. Our principal role in this relationship was as a primary production nation. For the past 50 years transnational corporations have taken over from the UK as our masters in the beads and mirrors game, particularly in the advanced technology business.