Your chance to take a stand against growing consumerism
WHAT: International Buy Nothing Day
WHEN: 27 November 1998
Could you go a day without purchasing anything?
International Buy Nothing Day, held on the 27th November 1998, challenges
the shopaholics amongst us to abstain from consumer spending for 24 hours.
But much more than that, it asks us to think about what we buy, and whether
consuming more actually increases our quality of life.
Buy Nothing Day aims to draw attention to the implications of our purchasing
habits in terms of the environment, employment, advertising and working
conditions of people, both locally and globally.
A recent UN report showed that the wealthiest 20% of the world's
population consumes 86% of the world's goods and services, while the
poorest 20% get 1.3% .
Buy Nothing Day wants us to address these disparities through individual,
national and international initiatives.
The day is neither anti-retailer nor anti-trade, as some have asserted, but
encourages people to think before they purchase, to reduce what they find
useless in their lives and to re-use and recycle where possible.
I'm certainly not against retailing, but if our economic and social
improvement is so
dependent on buying more things like Teletubbies, then perhaps it is time
to rethink the values of our society.
The general message is one that many organisations have taken up. Friends
of the Earth, who endorse Buy Nothing Day, have long been involved with
sustainable development issues. Even the Auckland Regional Council
promotion of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" model reflects the growth in
awareness of overconsumption.
Buy Nothing Day focuses on the more affluent countries and the affluent in
the poorer countries. As the UN report points out, one child in a
developed country will consume, waste and pollute the equivalent of more
than 50 children in a developing country.
Buy Nothing Day is a day to be aware of advertising messages, promotions
and marketing tactics; to recognise consciously the difference between
wanting and needing. Buy nothing and appreciate what you already have. We
expect activity on the day to include several centres in New Zealand as
well as in countries around the world.
BND is promoted in 14 countries currently, by groups ranging from
environmental- based organisations, to ad-hoc groups set up solely for BND
promotion. A loose group in Auckland organises there and Wellington events
will be organised by members of Food Not Bombs and the Human Rights Action
Group.
Here in Auckland we're planning small scale things for the day. Taking over
a piece of high street pavement and turning it into a shop free zone, with
leafletters
and a faceless non-shopper who will wander the streets with a paper bag
over his head.
A lot of our work has gone into pre-day stuff. We've sent out Schools kits
with a Shopaholics Quiz and project ideas for teachers and students, we're
about to poster next weekend and we leafletted many of the vehicles of the
crowd that came to hear Noam Chomsky speak this week.
Think about how this affects you. Make November 27 a non-shop day
wherever you may be.
For further information:
Web: http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~stu/buynothing/
Jon Karapiet ph (09) 815 3370 Day/ Evening
Murray Sheard ph: 09) 424 3368
Email: m.sheard@auckland.ac.nz
Stuart Sontier ph (09) 620 6018
Email: stu@ihug.co.nz
