Monday, February 04, 2008
DICK “FEELING SORRY”
Via reader Yarran (among several others), Dick Smith spokesmuppet Andrew Craig responds to concerns over Smith’s raging gullibility:
Dear Yarran
We will forward your correspondence onto Dick.
However, you might like to think about a few things:
So might Dick.
Dick does not have anything to gain by suggesting that David Hicks should have had a fair trial.
Who said anything about his trial? At issue is whether Hicks was a supporter of terrorism.
He is only reporting the results of a meeting that he had with David Hicks (one of the first people to have had a discussion with him) and how it affected him.
No, he’s claiming Hicks is a “decent Australian” who was only “trying to help independence movements”.
Not buying Dick Smith Foods products (he sold Dick Smith Electronics to Woolworths 26 years ago and has nothing whatsoever to do with them) will not hurt Dick at all.
Forgive us; we’d make more of an effort to hurt Dick, but there are limits to our militancy. We aren’t the Taliban, you know.
It was set up to help provide jobs for your fellow Australians, by using Australian owned companies to produce foods using Australian sourced and grown ingredients. This kept the taxes that these companies paid here, as well as the profits, rather than allowing the multinational companies to repatriate their profits and to import their products and utilise transfer pricing mechanisms to avoid paying taxes.
How does Dick feel about someone leaving Australia to join a multinational terrorist organisation?
Any profits from Dick Smith Foods have been used to further Dick Smith’s philanthropic pursuits, such as providing wheel chairs for the disabled, donations to the Salvation Army etc.
I donate to charities directly, thus avoiding any Dick-related shenanigans. Readers of this site, a generous and charity-inclined group, likely do the same.
Ultimately the hundreds of people who are involved with the production and sales of Dick Smith Foods products will thank you for choosing not to buy them as they contemplate their futures. Those charities and disabled people will also be forever grateful to you as well, as their supply of funds diminishes.
Oh, nice! Here’s another way of looking at things: Dick Smith himself has caused problems for his employees and chosen charities by expressing views repugnant to many Australians. If he’s going to use his high profile to promote food sales, he should take care that his profile not be repellent.
But, Dick Smith, the real target of your proposed action will be totally unaffected, apart for feeling sorry that he can no longer help as many Australians as he has in the past.
If Mr Smith wishes to suggest a more direct means by which we can affect him, he’s welcome to get in touch.
Kind regards
Andrew Craig
Dick Smith Foods - As Australian as you can get!
UPDATE. Steve T. emails:
For years, people in the professional aviation community have been trying to tell everyone else that perhaps Dick is not the little Aussie battler, all-round good guy, and president-in-waiting that the public seems to think he is. Rather, he is an attenion-seeking menace with too much wealth and influence for his own good, and a pathological inability to accept any viewpoint other than his own.
I’m sure he genuinely means well, but can only wish he’d just find some way to quietly spend his money instead of trying to remold Australia’s airspace to suit himself, and supporting halfwit helpers of ‘independence movements’ (FFS!!).