[pf] Common core values, by Jeanette Fitzsimons - Greens; in NZ Herald

· You want hope for the future? read on.      D.

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=183548&reportID=57031
  is:
Feature - Common core values 
 
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pics/ACFYAAoLaqIa.JPG
 Jeanette Fitzsimons photo

Dialogue: Core values under threat from the global economy 

19.04.2001
  Our traditional values can still form the heart of a modern nation
founded on sustainability, justice and participation, says Green Party
co-leader JEANETTE FITZSIMONS. 

Bare feet on the beach. Surfing. Bush and mountains. Fishing, picking
mushrooms or blackberries. 

The hospital takes you without checking your insurance papers. Civil
servants don't take bribes and you don't spend long in prison without a
trial. No fancy formalities and you don't have to dress for dinner. 

Innovation - we can still do anything with No.8 wire - and, as the world's
social laboratory, we led with votes for women and social security. Perhaps
that's because we believe in a fair go for the underdog. 

We push our limits, going beyond the ordinary in sport, the arts, exploring
and research. 

These are unmistakably New Zealand common core values. To those who have
rejected them for a world dominated by purely commercial considerations,
they now sound quaint and unsophisticated. But they are still widely
accepted and can form the core of a modern nation founded on
sustainability, justice and participation. 

They will serve us well in the future because other peoples value them, too. 

Bare feet on the beach are not only at the heart and soul of New Zealand
life, but the starting point for how we earn our living in the world. 

Food is still our biggest export and the food the world is crying out for -
and willing to pay for - is natural, uncontaminated, preferably organic and
certainly free of genetic engineering. New Zealand could provide it. 

Increasingly, the world will pay for timber products not sourced from
old-growth forests but from sustainably managed plantations - provided they
are certified grown in an environmentally sound way. 

Tourists don't want to see the same things here as they see elsewhere. They
want a holiday with a difference. They want to see New Zealand culture, to
meet interesting and creative people, to be part of the "clean, green"
environment, and to taste its products - fresh food and wine. 

But the core values that are vital to New Zealanders' sense of themselves
and their attraction for outsiders are under threat from the values,
technologies and lifestyles of the global economy. 

Our own indigenous New Zealand experience is in danger of being swamped by
a pre-packaged multinational culture. Our food is threatened by genetic
engineering, pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormones. 

Ozone depletion from the aerosols and refrigerants we used 20 years ago is
forcing today's children to cover up from neck to knees at the beach. Our
vaunted "egalitarian society" is being destroyed by global economic
competition driving the increasing gap between rich and poor and sending
New Zealand jobs overseas. 

The rules of the global economy even threaten our national sovereignty. Our
food standards are set by a transtasman authority with little if any
accountability to New Zealand. Food labelling, environmental standards,
even governments wanting to buy local can be seen as against the rules of
the World Trade Organisation - as barriers in the way of free trade, even
if that trade is potentially hazardous or undesirable for its people. 

The great contradiction is that our industrial way of life - the
"lifestyles" we choose - is threatening the core values most of us still
hold dear. Something has to change. 

The environment cannot be put in a separate box from the economy. Because
it is the basis for all life it is also the basis for the economy. If we
are to survive with a reasonable quality of life, sustainability must be at
the heart of everything we do. 

It isn't rocket science. We know how to use energy and all other resources
much more efficiently to get more value and less waste. 

Cleaner production and zero waste are becoming familiar terms in business.
We still have a long way to go to put that knowledge into practice. But the
companies that have gone furthest have found it very profitable. There are
simply better things to spend scarce dollars on than wasted resources and
pollution. 

The Dow Jones has a special sustainability index, a group of companies
which represent the best environmental practice in their fields. They
consistently outperform the rest. 

We can blend a green economy and a knowledge economy - and there are jobs
to be developed in both areas. Sustainability, energy efficiency, renewable
energy, zero waste technologies, organic farming - all must be underpinned
by sound science and research and much of that knowledge is in demand
around the world. 

New Zealand has experience in small-scale applications that are
particularly suited to these technologies. That's part of what we Greens
mean by an eco-nation. 

It also recognises that endless efforts to meet our needs with more and
more material consumption will doom both ourselves and our planet. 

There can be no excuse for poverty and deprivation in a country with our
resources, but once we've got a decent roof over our heads and food on the
table, more and more material goods don't meet our most fundamental needs.
Human relationships must be nurtured as well. 

Societies are often described in terms of rights and responsibilities. We
would see it rather in terms of relationships. There is a big difference. 

Rights are about taking the maximum and responsibilities are about doing
the minimum. Relationships are mutual and evolving. They are full of
surprise, delight and frustration. You have to work at them, and you get
back in proportion to what you put in. 

To make progress as a nation we need to work at our relationships with each
other, with other nations, with future generations and with nature and
other species. 

Successful relationships are based on respect rather than dominance or
subservience. Respect would go a long way in race relations, and
sustainability may be impossible without respect for nature. 

( Tomorrow: National Party leader Jenny Shipley. )

Herald Online feature: Common core values: 
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57031

We invite to you to contribute to the debate on core values. E-mail:
dialogue@herald.co.nz.
 

©Copyright 2001, NZ Herald       

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