Sunday, 02 May 2004 CDT
Promotional sneakers for the New Iraq Trade Show, or just some entrepeneur trying to cash in on the latest media moment? These sneakers were put up for sale on eBay. It doesn't seem as if they were part of any official CPA-driven media event, but who knows? I've seen shoes given away at trade shows to promote companies.
Look like a puppet wearing these shoes based on the new Iraq flag
It seems as if the CPA in Iraq is being run like a dotcom, with a corporate approach that entails projecting an image of success. The idea is that if a company acts successful it becomes successful. Many of the dotcom companies followed this approach, which turns out to be quite hollow. Company resources are spent on erecting a facade of activity instead of actually executing their purported business. Trade shows, positive press and image management become the obsession of the executives. Visiting the CPA website is a stomach-churning experience; the site just exudes corporate doublespeak and empty content. Oh, but doesn't it look professional.
While spending time with Russians in the early 1990s I'd heard tales of the effectiveness of collective farming. Collective farmers, under the Soviet system, who would spend all of their energy making the farms seem productive for the bosses, instead of actually working to improve the crop yields. The bosses apparently used simplistic, irrelevent criteria for productivity. Wallstreet-driven Corporate America strikes me as being the same way, although in this case the capitalist bosses are the ones shuffling the deck chairs to impress the investors instead of under the Soviet Union, where the workers tried to please their communist bosses.
