In the previous Watchdog (150, April 2019) I reported that the actual trophy of the former Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand had found a new permanent home in Canterbury Museum. The Museum is not keeping that fact quiet. Here is what it said in a press release (24/5/19):

"Canterbury Museum recently acquired the Roger Award trophy from the Christchurch-based Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA). The Roger Award was named after former Minister of Finance Roger Douglas, who oversaw radical economic reforms in the 1980s. Each year between 1997 and 2016, CAFCA gave the award to the 'worst transnational corporation operating in Aotearoa New Zealand'. The Award garnered national press coverage and became an embarrassment for the businesses that it was awarded to, which included ANZ, BNZ, TranzRail, and Rio Tinto. Unsurprisingly, none of them were interested in actually receiving the trophy!"

"The trophy itself is a satirical reflection of the characteristics for which it was awarded. It includes a bullet representing dangerous business practices; a hypodermic needle representing irresponsible use of chemicals; a dollar note representing unscrupulous profiteering; and of course a globe representing the multinational role of the businesses to whom it was awarded".

"The Roger Award was New Zealand's very own version of a tongue-in-cheek, subversive phenomenon seen the world over: the anti-award. More famous examples include the Golden Raspberry Awards for the year's worst movies; the Darwin Awards for death or injury caused by stupidity; and the Ig Nobel Awards for unusual or improbable scientific research projects".

"Dan Stirland, Curator Human History, says the Award represented an opportunity for the Museum to collect something unusual, anti-Establishment and counter-cultural, but with local and national significance. 'It is perhaps not the kind of treasure you'd usually expect to see in a museum, but we believe it reflects an important aspect of modern society', he says".

A Collective Project Throughout

Bear in mind that those are the Museum's words, not CAFCA's. Likewise, it is the Museum's interpretation of the various bits and pieces on the trophy. I did not have any conversation or correspondence with them about that. And also bear in mind that the Roger Award was not CAFCA's project alone. It was a collective one. Right throughout its 20 years other groups were actively involved, namely: the former GATT Watchdog (GATT = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; now the World Trade Organisation [WTO]); the former Christchurch Corso; and Christian World Service. It would not have happened, nor lasted as long as it did, without them.