Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

1
Preface
This book is written in New Zealand at the start of a new millennium. It is written by a
grandmother whose grandchildren are not all yet born. It is written in Aotearoa, the
land of the long white cloud, the land where social experiments can take place and
where people can really make things happen because the population is small, well
educated and resourceful.
I have always been fascinated with figures. As a five­year old I decided I would be a
maths teacher, and throughout my time at school I dreamt of figures and puzzles. I like
maths because it makes us think about what is assumed; from the assumptions we
derive further information. I graduated in maths and loved teaching it: it’s so elegant
and powerful.
Then I married and found myself with four children under the age of six. When
my husband and I bought our first house, we had only a 10 per cent deposit, so we had
to change banks and beg on bended knee for a loan. As a young mother, I soon learnt
how vital the early childhood years are in developing the brain and creating fulfilled
human beings, yet I became aware that the work I performed in raising my children
was not being counted in the national census. I was invisible in the economy of the
country, and so were my talented women friends – defined in the statistics as ‘not
gainfully employed’. I was angry and puzzled. There must be something basically
wrong, I thought, with the conventions used to measure the economy.