Build back better

…for everyone.

This is an unusual post. I am a business advisor, I'm white, middle class, have a very happy home life and a Masters degree. I'm currently doing a Bachelor of Applied Science (Psychology) degree on-line because there is more I want to learn. Why am I telling you all this? Because I find myself changing gradually, day by day.

I watch The Hui and I see how appallingly Maori and Pacific people are marginalised here. I see the Mayor of Porirua talking about the poverty and despair in her catchment and how disproportionately it affects brown people.

I think to myself that we are so privileged to live in this little country. We are rich in so many ways. We have an economy that may be struggling at the moment and many business owners are feeling real fear and dread about what comes next.

I am ready and confidently able to help struggling businesses with what ails them. But I observe that what these business owners are feeling is what so many brown people feel every day of their lives.

As a nation, we must do better. We already know that we need to rebuild our economy and that it needs to be a greener economy. It should also be a more socially equitable one.

The thought that there are so many people with no love, no warmth, not enough food, no work and no hope is appalling to me. I was about to say that this is not the New Zealand I am proud to be a citizen of, but it is. This is what we have allowed to happen.

If you think I am just some lefty liberal, I'll remind you of my capitalist credentials. I help businesses for a living. I've got tertiary business qualifications. I love business, but I don't love it unconditionally.

We have a rare opportunity right now. This pandemic has got our attention and in many ways has made us all feel vulnerable in a way many have never felt before. The opportunity is to look around and to use a phrase that is both cliched and powerful - build back better.

But we need to think about what building back better means. To me it means building our community. That community is made up of people. Babies, children, adults, old people, sick people, disadvantaged people. Communities are also made up of networks of people doing things. This includes governments and businesses.

The primary goal of a community should be the health and welfare of its people and environment. This is the responsibility of governments and businesses alike. There should be no daylight between the interests of business and the interests of the community.

In my current studies I read about psychology from the perspective of Maori and it is eye-opening to see that marginalisation is so baked into our society. The things that Maori culture treasures are seemingly alien to us, but they are the things that can add so much to who we are and what we can achieve.

This is one Pakeha who so wants us to rebuild our society so the tears of the Porirua mayor aren't wasted. Food, housing, clothing, education, jobs. They are good things and they are things that should be available to everyone.

Rascism, sexism, discrimination against old people and people who haven't had the right start in life. These are the things that gnaw away at a society and make it weak and bitter, disengaged and hostile. They pit people against each other and why?

It doesn't need to be like this. There is enough for everyone. I know this doesn't sound like a very good pitch from a business consultant, but I am a human being first. I'm a father and a husband and a brother and a son. I just don't want to go to bed at night and know that somewhere out there, not far from me, there is a little baby, probably brown, cold and hungry with no prospect of tomorrow being any better.

Now, let's get on with building back better and this time, let's get everyone on board.