By MATROM JOHN
ACCOUNTANT and prominent businessman Rex Paki was yesterday charged by police for alleged misappropriation of more than K87,000 belonging to the National Provident Fund, now known as NASFUND.
Mr Paki was questioned, taken to Boroko Police Station and charged under the Criminal Code for one count of misappropriating K87,397.30 in 1999.
He was accompanied by his lawyer when charged, and was released on K500 bail. He will appear in court this morning for mention.
Deputy Police Commissioner Gari Baki said Mr Paki’s arrest is part of the ongoing police investigations into allegations of misappropriation against certain people which stemmed from the NFP Commission of Inquiry in 2000.
Several people implicated in the inquiry were arrested and charged last year, and Mr Baki said Mr Paki was the first person they’ve had to deal with this year.
Mr Baki said the allegation against Mr Paki is that he had K87,397.30 in a trust account under the name Kerowa Tiki controlled by law firm Carter Newell paid into Rams Business Consultants, a business he owns on Aug 4, 1999.
This is not a Paki ambassador. Rather, it is Ambassador Paki of Papua New Guinea with Paul Martin."One of the most potent forms of persuasion has to do with people’s innate need to be consistent. Studies show that people will ignore logic and information to be consistent. (In other words, we are moist robots.) According to the research, humans are hardwired for consistency over reason. You already knew that: People don’t switch political parties or religions easily. What you didn’t know is how quickly and easily a manipulator can lock someone into a position.
For example, researchers asked people to write essays in support of a random point of view they did not hold. Months later, when surveyed, the majority held the opinion they wrote about, regardless of the topic. Once a person commits an opinion to writing – even an opinion he does not hold – it soon becomes his actual opinion. Not every time, but MOST of the time. The people in these experiments weren’t exposed to new information before writing their contrived opinions. All they did was sit down and write an opinion they didn’t actually have, and months later it became their actual opinion. The experiment worked whether the volunteers were writing the pro or the con position on the random topic.
Most of the truly stupid things done in this world have to do with this consistency principle. For example, once you define yourself as a loyal citizen of Elbonia, you do whatever the King of Elbonia tells you to do, no matter how stupid that is. And your mind invents reasons as to why dying is a perfectly good life strategy."
"Right on. I’ve always thought that consistency is a peurile obsession. Oscar Wilde described it as “the last refuge of the unimaginative”. When Maynard Keynes was once accused (I think by a journalist) of changing his mind, he replied, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
We just re-started Seth's 10 gallon aquarium...a freshwater, community tank -- I think that goes without saying, don't you?
Ahh, the Bahamas. Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, to be exact.
