Prof Jonathan Boston recently delivered a superb, wide-ranging lecture at the University of Otago, focusing on the chronic problem of "Short Termism'', the failure of our democratic system to come to terms with a whole raft of long-term sustainability issues.
In the course of it he mentioned the lively protests of some 100 or more young people against the ANZ Bank and expressed his puzzlement that so few in the middle-aged bracket were among them.
I attended the training session for these protests, held in Knox Church halls, and it was indeed a revelation. There were people there from Southland and Christchurch and a scattering of veteran Dunedin activists, but the overwhelming majority were local young people, brimful of enthusiasm and energy. They streamed in and listened attentively to a series of briefings on the nature of non-violence and on the kaupapa for this particular event. Knowledge about global warming and related issues was taken for granted. Commitment, too. There was an attractive mix of informality and seriousness.
On the following day, three ANZ banks were targeted. The protesters sat down, blocking the entrances, and engaged passers-by, explaining why the particularly heavy investment of ANZ in the oil industry was why it was being singled out. Customers were disconcerted at the inconvenience, and a few were quite hostile, but with the help of the police they were able to negotiate their way though the singing, chatting, cheerful protesters, who made it clear that their action was directed not at the bank staff or the police, and certainly not at the customers but at the policies of the bank.
The protests were part of a worldwide movement, and in New Zealand followed similar actions in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. We will be seeing many more imaginative direct actions like this, because the short-term perspectives of our political and business leaders so signally fail to tackle the gravity of the environmental crisis. New ways have to be found to alert the wider community. In an almost Churchillian sense, we will need blood, sweat and tears to face this crisis. For the sake of our children and children's children we have to take the comfortable blinkers off. Business as usual is no longer an option. New Zealand, in particular, is failing dismally in almost every area of facing up to the challenge of sustainability.
The myopia of our politicians is scarcely a surprise. The deeper problem is the morally burnt-out landscape of many middle-aged Kiwis. "Where there is no vision, the people perish.'' Suburban New Zealand appears not only barren of all vision, but resistant to it, contracted out to short-term solutions and satisfactions. The social media negativity to the protest as reported in the ODT is by no means typical, but it illustrates what we are up against. It is in part an inter-generational problem.
In his lecture, Prof Boston mentioned the visionary calls of Pope Francis for a new ecological ethos. Quite appropriately. But where are the contemporary Rutherford Waddells, who once bridged the gap in Dunedin between the complacent and the exploited, between poverty and affluence? Where are the centres of alternative, forward-looking thinking which are reaching out to suburbia?
I happen to think we are very fortunate in our city council, which has more than its fair share of far-sighted individuals, but how ready is Dunedin as a whole to take seriously the threat to South Dunedin, for example? We seem to live in silos and the growing gap between rich and the poor makes any commitment to the common good which goes beyond mere rhetoric cruelly difficult. We don't want to be disturbed. But alas, we haven't seen anything yet. Top marks to these young protesters and their leaders who are trying to make that clear to us.
Peter Matheson is a Presbyterian minister.
