The tall poppy syndrome strikes again. The New Zealand Herald has just done a number of newly listed tech company Rakon. Their 4 page investigative special in the weekend paper attacks them for supplying their GPS technology to manufacturer Rockwell who in turn supply guidance systems for the US military’s smart bombs. I think this an amazing achievement for an amazing achievement for a company based in Mt Wellington.

The inflammatory article suggests that this is somehow wrong, because the Labour led government chose not to support the war in Iraq. The last time I checked, this is a democracy, and just because the government says something isn’t right, doesn’t mean all the citizens, private or public, have to agree.

Nobody wants war, but the fact remains that many major technologies were originally developed for military purposes and why shouldn’t New Zealand companies be involved in this? The article suggests that the government should intervene. Yeah, that’s a great idea, let’s force another fantastic New Zealand company to move offshore.

I can only hope that the damage from this is not too great for Rakon.