Interesting thread guys and gals. At the risk of blowing my identity.....
Had a brush with this theme in PNG years ago, but with a twist .....I was working a contract as a CAA surveyor and amongst my duties, was the responsibility for inspecting/approving all maintenance organisations.
In one of many meetings with the Secretary and other upper management types it was directed that, in order to promote and foster onshore organisations which would recruit and train national engineers, we were to restrict the number of offshore companies approved to carry out maintenance on PNG registered aircaft. Fine. No problem - after all it was their country.
Well, you have never seen so much heat and light generated by a certian FNQ based organisation, when I declined their application for a Cert of Approval. They even went to the extreme of buying a well known local identity (read recruited as PNG representative of company) in Moresby to lobby the Secretary personally.
To cut a long story short, I was accused of being a racist - for alledged comments I had made to an unrelated third party (read friend of FNQ company owner) in Australia. I was summoned by BS Castle where I had to front the Secretary and explain my actions (which happened to be her government's policy) to her.
This episode really p1ssed me off as it was a "whitey" slandering me and attempting to have me thrown out of the country so he could get his snout in the trough.
It would have been amusing, had it not been so serious an accusation to make to a PNG government representative against an expat employee of that governent.
The whole thing was dropped when several ex-apprentice (now LAME's) Nationals who had known me for the best part of ten years, submitted character reference letters to the Secretary in support of me. This they did not have to do, but they were incensed enough to come out in defence of a former mentor and I thank them for that.
The other ironic point I should make is that the Secretary had met my wife before these racist accusations were made. I only mention this because my wife happens to be Japanese. Sorry, she can't help it, but it sort of made a nonsense of the FNQ company's arguement.
So, yes I too have been tainted by these comments, but by a fellow whitey who saw me as an obstacle to his making a quick buck in The Land of the Unexpected
