Posted on 6/11/2001

BND - Affirmative Non-action

BND, Buy Nothing Day*, aims to raise consciousness of the pernicious
attitude to money, debt and buying that threatens to bring civilised life
to its knees.

BND doesn't have any answers, it's at ground zero, asking the questions.
What does shopping mean to the shopper and does that conform with our needs
as human beings? Does consumerism make us happier? How does tunnel vision
on buying things affect the environment? What super-exploitation of people
and environment is caused by rampant shopping with a sharp focus on the
cheapest products? What does it mean for our personal economy and life and
the national economy when there isn't enough money created by government so
all major purchases and even grocery shopping causes an increase in the
private debt burden. How does it affect NZ workers who, more and more, see
their jobs exported? And what are the implications for the workers who end
up producing the products we seem to need? How is it that $10 per hour jobs
in NZ have become $2 per day jobs in China/ Vietnam/ Indonesia/ Pakistan
etc? What is the result on NZ culture of retailers who, in order to
increase business, have to promote borrowed festivals (hallowe'en) and
constantly overcommercialise our own festivals (Christmas; Mothers &
Fathers days). What is the role of frugality in a world of limits?

From the ADBUSTERS WEBSITE www.adbusters.org

President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, Prime Minister Chretien and other
world leaders are a one-note choir these days. "Shop!" they cry. "Shop like
you've never shopped, shop like you're not already sinking in personal
debt. Shop because at this time of crisis your country needs you to. Shop
because the economy - and hence the whole world's economic well-being is at
stake".

In this climate, Adbusters' call for a 24-hour consumer fast seems to some
folks to be coming out of deep left-field. Our annual campaign has, from
what we're hearing, utterly polarized readers. Some are sympathetic -
indeed, they think the idea of breaking the trance of consumer culture for
a day has never been more relevant. But some reckon this year we should
just shut up about Buy Nothing Day. And some folks seem genuinely baffled
why we would even suggest such a thing in the first place. This may be
because in the official "Shop while the bombs drop" rhetoric is coming out
of Washington and London and Ottawa without any context or caveats at all.
No mention that it's a short-term emergency measure that comes at the
long-term expense of the planet. No suggestion that our economic policy
makers, as they tote up this year's GDP, may actually have no idea about
how to measure real economic progress. And not much tolerance for the
notion that frugality rather than spending may, in the long run, be the
only rational response to S-11.

* November 28