The video narrator encouraged viewers to:
Imagine a single place which connects diverse minds from around the world for a Common Purpose: Global change. Where contribution, collaboration and sharing are valued most. A place that provides free, easy access to leading edge research, knowledge and expertise. Where collective wisdom is used to create innovative ideas and solutions to the challenges facing our world today. Imagine. All for the sole purpose of creating a better world for future generations.
We have the resources, technology and commitment to effect Global change". NOW is the TIME.
IGLOO = International Governance Leaders & Organisations Online.
Who are IGLOO?
One clue to the identity of this organisation might be the graphic images of windturbines and reference to the global effects of climate change contained within the video presentation. One reader pointed me in the direction of Igloo.uk.net.
The IGLOO Regeneration Fund
Examination of their website reveals that 'The IGLOO Regeneration fund is a partnership of pension, life and charity funds managed by Aviva Investors, which invests in sustainable urban regeneration accross the UK'. Scrolling to the bottom of their home page I noted that their partners are Blueprint and ISIS. Peter Conboy is the Development Director at Blueprint and he graduated as a Common Purpose Matrix Graduate in 2003 when with Leicester Regeneration Company.
According to the ISIS website it is an 'award winning Waterside Regeneration Company...owned by British Waterways, Igloo (the regeneration fund of Aviva) and MUSE Developments. ISIS claim that they are one of the few companies to submit to an independant audit which is carried out by URBED under the guidance of a Socially Responsible Investment Committee.
I can only wonder just how independant these auditors are when the committee guiding them is chaired by Sir Jonathon Porrit and includes Professor Anne Power of the London School of Economics and Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council. Many readers will recall that eugenicist Porritt was chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, is connected with Friends of the Earth, Forum for the Future and has past connections with the Optimum Population Trust
In the Sustainability West Midlands Top 50 Green Leaders competition the supporting partners were Advantage West Midlands, West Midlands Leaders Board, Government Office, Forum for the Future, Common Purpose, the Birmingham Post and Defra.
Although the The IGLOO Regeneration Fund and associated organisations appear to be behind the IGLOO promotional video there are two clues that effectively rule them out.
Firstly, the video narrator tells viewers that IGLOO equals International Governance Leaders & Organisations Online. Secondly, towards the end of the video a Professor Pat Goff present her views. A number of UK Column website viewers drew attention to her strange, wide staring eyes and compared them to the look of Ed Balls and Julia Middleton. Pat Goff is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science at Wilfred Laurier University. Wilfred Laurier University is a partner of The Centre for International Governance Innovation Online.
What is the 'Centre for International Governance Innovation Online'?
'The Centre for International Governance Innovation describes itself as 'a non-partisan think-tank on International Governance. CIGI 's interdisciplinary work includes collaboration with policy, business and academic communities around the world'. It was founded in 2001 by Jim Balsillie. It was announced in August 2010 that Jim Balsillie, Chair of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, had been appointed to the United Nations Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability. Balsillie is also co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM) which is the company behind the Blackberry family of products. Balsillie is a member of the Trilateral Commission.
The Executive Director of CIGI is Thomas Bernes. Bernes was formerly the Director of the IMF's Independant Evaluation Office, Executive Secretary of the joint IMF-World Bank Development Committee and the Deputy Corporate Secretary of the World Bank, and the IMF Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and Caribean Countries and Canadian G7 Finance Deputy.
In 2005 Louise Frechette, UN Deputy Secretary General and former Deputy Minister of National Defence of Canada, joined CIGI as a distinguished fellow. Frechette also chairs the advisory board of the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships UNFIP) which handles relations with the foundation set up by Ted Turner in Support of the United Nations.
In October 2010 David Runnals, 'chairperson of the International Centre for Trade & Sustainable Development (ICTSD) governing board in Geneva joined the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI as a distinguished fellow. His role would be to support Jim Balsillie in his role as a member of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Global sustainability and provide strategic advice on CIGI's environment and energy work program'.
The Balsillie School of International Affairs was founded in 2007 and is a collaborative partnership among CIGI, Wilfred Laurier University and the University of Waterloo.
CIGI Partners have included organisations such as Chatham House, Oxford University, Princeton and the University of Toronto's Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies. Its research and educational partners include: Wilfred Laurier University, World Health Organisation (WHO), Stanford University, Council on Foreign Relations, United Nations Foundation, Better World Fund, OECD, the World Bank, One World Trust.
CIGI also partners with the New Institute for Economic Thinking (INET). INET was launched in 2009 with a $50 million pledge from George Soros and claims that it 'promotes changes in economic theory and practices through conferences, grants and education initiatives'. INET's Executive Director is Dr. Robert Johnson. Johnson was formerly the Chief Economist of the U.S. Senate banking Committee, former member of the United Nations Commission of Experts on International Monetary Reform and former Managing Director at George Soros Fund Management.
INET's newest partnership is with the London School of Economics and Political Science and further research revealed that George Soros himself graduated at the LSE in 1952. Julia Middleton, CEO of UK Leadership Traning Organisation Common Purpose, was also educated at the London School of Economics.
International Governance Leaders & Organisations Online
'The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) established IGLOO (International Governance Leaders and Organisations Online) in November 2004 as an online network to facilitate knowledge exchange among individuals and institutions working, studying or advising on global issues. The project was jointly funded by CIGI and the Government of Ontario'.
This analysis of a short promotional video has led us directly to a MESH of interconnected individuals and institutions, each striving towards the Common Purpose of Global Change. The establishment of World Governance is clearly their strategic goal. Aviva customers and Blackberry device owners now know exactly how the profits generated by their purchases are being applied.
