Real Relationships

The Maxim Institute reports:
The British based Relationships Foundation has released a new pamphlet, estimating "the financial cost of failure" in families and relationships. Taking into account measures such as "lone parent benefits," costs in "health and social care" and "housing," as well as related social services, When Relationships Go Wrong: Counting the cost of family failure puts the cost of "relationship breakdown" at a massive £37 billion. Warning against a "focus solely on economic concerns at the expense of relationships," the Foundation calls for a policy, and a culture, which prioritises relationships, and "greater wellbeing."

The massive figure, based on more detailed calculations in the pamphlet, is food for thought enough. But it is the companion pamphlet, When Relationships Go Right: Enabling thriving lives, which contains a fruitful metaphor when it comes to the debate on family. It draws a parallel between "the wellbeing agenda" and the green movement, hoping that, just as politicians and wider culture have come to prioritise the environment, so also will government and society come to prioritise relationships and "wellbeing." The pamphlet offers a number of examples of what this might look like, from the greater use of "health visitors" and "district nurses," to proposals that encourage healthy work-life balance through things such as cutting travel time.

Read the rest of Maxim's comments here; When Relationships Go Right is the second half of the pdf file link above.

International Volunteer Day

Today, the 5th of December, is International Volunteer Day (as well as National Jandal Day).

The Maxim Institute notes:
New Zealand has been described as a "nation of givers." Yearly New Zealanders give more than $270 million hours of volunteer service to non-profit institutions. At market value this equates to nearly $7 billion (the equivalent of 4.9 percent of New Zealand's GDP).
And tell this story:
Cyndy Hendry is a volunteer at the Auckland Mercy Hospice, which provides in-patient and community care for the terminally ill. Cyndy drives patients to appointments, pushes around the drinks trolley and makes cups of tea. But what is most important is the love and light with which these acts are done; Cyndy says it is about "just being friendly." Volunteering has allowed Cyndy to reach out to her wider community. Talking to her about her experience, Cyndy commented that she was recently humbled by her encounter with a Sikh family of a beautiful and terminally ill Indian woman. Encountering a culture with which she was not familiar, Cyndy described how she "learnt an enormous amount from them." Driving the couple to appointments and being a person who was there for them in a time of vulnerability saw the development of a strong relationship. Although unable to speak English, Cyndy says the dying woman "spoke love with her eyes." Cyndy has been amazed by the dignity of dying patients; she describes it as very moving: "In all honesty, I've received so much more than I've given."

One Person, One Vote

A couple of extracts from Maxim Institute's latest newsletter, which discusses Philip Joseph's call for Maori seats to be abolished:

A new paper has stirred up controversy by calling for the seven Maori seats in Parliament to be abolished. The paper, written by Professor of Law and constitutional expert Professor Philip Joseph, makes the case that the Maori seats have created an "insidious" form of discriminatory privilege. He claims that while they were once necessary for ensuring adequate Maori representation in Parliament the seats now work against fair representation for Maori and other ethnicities. Professor Joseph's concerns about the Maori seats are warranted, as they divide society by ethnicity and make it difficult to foster the common good.

Some argue that the purpose of the seats is now redundant as under MMP Maori members "have a 5 percent higher representation than the relative national population of Maori," however, it is not a question of how many of which ethnicity or sex or age sit in Parliament relative to the proportion in the population. The bigger question is why do we assume that someone must share our ethnicity or sex to be able to represent us well?