FLOW FUTURE
What the World Can Learn from New Zealand’s Economy and COVID
A reflection on COVID, leadership, economy and society.
We see two waves flooding the world. One is the authoritarian, dominant wave of leaders who think that only money for a select group of rich people matters. America, Brazil, Russia, and China have such leaders.
They are safely tucked away in their ivory towers and try to keep COVID and the people under control in a pyramid-structured economy and health system. They do not want to see the even bigger threat of ecological collapse. Instead, they try to put bandaids on enormous wounds of poverty, inequality, and massive pollution.
They want us to go on as if nothing changed. Buy new shoes and the economy will be saved. If only it were that simple.
Then there are other leaders. They try damage control and transition the economy at the same time. Make their economies more resilient. Make their societies more inclusive. They are compassionate, servant leaders who have a long term vision and are strong in taking steps to get there.
One of these countries I would like to take as an example today is New Zealand. Their leader is Jacinda Ardern. Yesterday, her labor party won the New Zealand elections with a landslide victory.
I’m not saying New Zealand is adopting every part of the vision I present here. I’m not an insider on the New Zealand government. I’m living in Europe and working as an independent expert collaborating with thought leaders and wise doers.
I’m just saying that New Zealand leaders might be having this vision. And I’ll tell you about the actions that might come next in the transition.
It will not be easy. And it’ll hurt. But when you have an enormous wound, it hurts before you can heal. And the time for bandaids is long gone. We need more radical change to survive the world’s crisis.
In the next months, I will dedicate myself to writing about this big vision for our human future. I will put the spotlight on it from many different sides. So many people will start to understand and help us make it happen.
And don’t think we are alone. There are think-tanks, influential groups and leaders who are trying to be this wave of change. And there’s Mother Nature herself, showing us the wise ways. But only all of us together can make it happen.
I will tell you where the vision has been applied already, and what roles we all can play to make it happen. I invite you to become part of this wave of change. And support each other in surviving first as a human species and flourishing in the future as all species on this earth together.
And please, don’t believe blindly what I tell you. I ask you to listen to your own heart and make up your own mind. It’s up to all of us now to empower ourselves and build the world we want for our children and grandchildren.
And of course, I’m always open to comments.
The Vision
What’s the name of the vision? I have called it Aligning the Economy, Ecology, and the Human Spirit.
Our world’s wounds are visible in all three. We are living in a broken world.
We have big economic problems with our current capitalist system using toxic triggers and downstream solutions. The ecology on our planet is collapsing, resulting in viruses and diseases. And our human spirit is blinded by the idea of scarcity and opposed views. We fight over details instead of rolling up our sleeves and start building a better world.
How can we heal these problems? Well, we need an upside-down view. We need systemic as opposed to reductionist thinking. We need to embrace diversity. Biodiversity as well as human diversity. We need to take up our wise human place as part of ecosystems.
We need to develop technologies that support life. Our entrepreneurs need to adopt synergy instead of scale to create value. Not just money. Value. We need to collaborate instead of competing. We need to make local economies so synergetic and vibrant that they will create enough value for all.
We need to restore ecosystems big time so the abundance of nature will give us enough organic materials to make our products with.
And we need to be modest. Make our lives simple. Value the love that’s really important, heal our fears of not having enough and not being enough so there’s space for sharing.
The Transition
A vision is a horizon. Or to quote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “the vast and endless sea”.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (writer of The Little Prince)
But in order to get there, we have to make a path from reality (the broken world) to the horizon (the vast and endless sea).
And that’s not simple. We have to make radical choices and explain them very clearly with the vision as a compass. We have to take short term actions in order to fulfill the long term goal.
There will be resistance. People will not always understand because their own perspective is limiting their view. And I’m not saying a leader does not have this handicap. She has. But if she’s a true servant leader, she will be modest and recognize her own limitations.
We need to zoom out often and see all connections. We have to see the waves flooding the world and recognize their benefits and threats for all people and all species. And then we have to zoom in again, roll up our sleeves and make the new world happen in practice.
Every month. Every day. Every hour. And every minute.
We have to be very aware. And creative. We have to be resilient. And perseverant. We have to connect deeply to nature, ourselves, and other humans to keep a clear view of the path.
COVID in New Zealand
So, what is New Zealand doing to make me look in their direction?
First of all, the country has tackled COVID in an admirable way. The first wave in March, they tackled with one of the earliest and toughest lockdowns.
“We’re going hard and we’re going early,” Ms Ardern told the public. “We only have 102 cases, but so did Italy once.” — BBC News
What also strikes me is that the New Zealand government has not declared “war on COVID-19” but has communicated with empathy. Ardern has managed to unite the nation, instead of favoring one group over another.
She’s a very good communicator who involves everybody. She even held special coronavirus press conferences for children.
The result is that now, in the second wave, there’s sometimes an isolated case of COVID. The New York Times says: “New Zealand Stamps Out the Virus. For a Second Time.” And the economy is allowed to loosen up, resulting in a rugby match for 31,000 mask-free spectators this month.
A Country in Transition
But this is not the full story. There’s bad news as well. New-Zealand’s economy has collapsed.
“The country’s GDP shrank by 12.2% between April and June as the lockdown and border closures hit. It is New Zealand’s first recession since the global financial crisis and its worst since 1987, when the current system of measurement began.” — BBC News
And there are definitely people left behind in the ‘be strong, be kind’ slogans of Ardern’s government.
It hurts, this transition. And it hurts badly. And vulnerable people are most badly hit, as well as poor communities. For now, that’s not different from our current economic system. But I really hope that if they keep their eyes on the vast and endless sea and transition our broken economic triggers, this will change.
One good signal is that New Zealand has adopted a new economic measurement system. Forbes described it in 2019 as: “New Zealand Ditches GDP For Happiness And Wellbeing”.
It means that the government is not only looking at money as an economic driver, but is measuring happiness and wellbeing as an indicator of a healthy economy. So, they are focusing on creating value. Not just money.
Next Steps for New Zealand
So, what can be next steps in the economic strategy of New Zealand? If they are following the vision of aligning the economy, ecology and the human spirit, they will focus on becoming self-sustaining in basic needs first.
They will help all regenerative farmers with subsidies to transition towards healthy, living soil. No more chemicals for spraying and fertilizing. And they will make sure that natural ecosystems will be restored.
They will produce an abundance of food for their own people. And after some years, the soil will regenerate itself after a harvest.
They will stimulate community gardens based on permaculture principles. Earth Care. People Care. Fair Share. This way, people will learn how to produce their food, care for each other and the earth.
I really hope New Zealand will stimulate designers and entrepreneurs to make products with fully biodegradable materials and collaborate to unleash the power of synergy in local economies. I hope they will adopt the technologies that support life, based on (quantum) physics, biology and green chemistry.
They will transform education to understand systemic design as explained by Daniel Ospina here. They will unleash the creativity of their young people. And they will continue to connect people instead of divide and rule.
They will be immensely curious and ask continuous questions to design a regenerative culture, as often described by Daniel Christian Wahl.
New Zealand has the advantage of being an island so they might lead the way to this kind of thinking and doing. They can design their unique ecosystem and only later connect with other unique ecosystems to trade things that will further enrich quality and diversity for basic needs.
And with regard to tourists, they will have the luxury of inviting the tourists that they really want into their country. Instead of having to make do with the loud, polluting mass-tourists that would normally flood beautiful islands. I’m glad Anna Pollock is working with New Zealand on conscious travel.
This vision is not only for islands, however. It is applicable to all economies, big and small. Cities and rural areas. All we have to do is view our economies as ecosystems. Regional cells, firmly grounded in healthy local soils and seas. I’ll tell you more next time…
Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words.
If you want to reach out, just do so in the comments or via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, ManyStories, Quora, Patreon, my website.
And if you want to support my independent work, you can join my wave of change on Patreon: Flow Future — Desiree Driesenaar. And ask questions on how to apply the vision to your personal situation.
