Rainbow smoke poured out of Parliament last night as marriage equality passed its second reading! NZ got one step closer to entering the 21st century.

Louisa Wall made me feel proud to be a New Zealander, and so did every MP who voted for this and who articulated their position so gracefully. Special props to the Greens who saw this not as a conscience vote, but as a human rights vote. Respects to the many Labour MPs who had been around long enough as a Party to have remembered the fight for equality and also the National MPs who put aside any moral conservatism and helped progress our country forward.

Now we’ve shown how reason and dignity can go hand in hand, how about the decriminalization of medicial cannabis?

Last year, Stephen McIntyre was intimidated and bullied into suicide by Police who threatened him with further charges after he was arrested at Green Cross Auckland, a medicinal cannabis clinic. That case is now with IPCA and is under investigation, but his life and the countless other NZers arrested for possession of a joint or bong will not have been in vain if we can now progress this debate and force a reasoned position on our ridiculous and draconian cannabis laws.

People who are ill and seeking medicinal cannabis are not criminals and they should not be treated as such. If we can come together to see the farce of a cultural sacred cow like gay marriage, then can’t we also take another step already walked by America and decriminalize medicinal cannabis?

There is a petition at the health select committee supporting medicinal cannabis, and it must be the focus after marriage equality to continue with a movement of progress. It disgusts me that patients and people with personal use are being arrested and put into prison.

If we can be open to wisdom on gay marriage, let’s push on with social reform elsewhere in our political and legal framework.

If nothing else, it would make that biblical reference in Leviticus about stoning men who lay with other men a little bit more humorous.

Last week saw one of the most interesting opinion pieces the NZ Herald has run this year. It was businessman Allan Freeth and his column on child poverty…

There are some who say that the business of business is business, with no role beyond commerce and the activity of making money for shareholders. Those who promote this are not the business leaders New Zealand wants or needs – and it is questionable whether they doing the “right thing” for community and society.

…Freeth is no slouch, he is the former head of TelstraClear. What is fascinating about his column, is that it’s not the usual ‘being a good corporate citizen is good for business’ half-arsed shtick, he is arguing for a different kind of Capitalism…

If you’re a business leader, let me ask you some more questions. What do you stand for? As leaders of business and enterprise, as creators of wealth, as influencers of local and national policies, as beacons of success to current and future generations – how do you wish your leadership to be remembered?

I believe that business leadership should be expansive; it should stretch beyond the office and into the community and national dialogue. The challenge for business is not “should we?”, but how far we can actually legitimately go to support programmes and activities using our shareholders’ money?’

…Freeth goes onto point out the horror of our child poverty stats…

Let’s look at the facts. Today, a quarter of children live in poverty in New Zealand. That means going without a doctor, good food, shoes, raincoats and decent housing. If you look at Pasifika children, that statistic rises to 51 per cent; and more than half of Maori families are dependent on benefit incomes.

Nearly 50,000 kids live in homes blighted by violence, 21,000 abuse or neglect cases are confirmed each year, and on average nine children under 14 are killed annually by a family member. In terms of Unicef indicators on child abuse, we are bottom of the heap with Israel and the United Kingdom.

And don’t forget the 7000 kids who leave school each year with no qualifications, or the 30,000 (the population of Gisborne township) who bunk school each day.

Our youngest confirmed suicide victim was 6 years old. It’s a sobering truth.

You’ve heard these statistics before, but if they make your eyes glaze over, consider this: If you are a child in New Zealand, you are more likely to be abused than left-handed. How does that make us feel as New Zealanders?

…where this takes a real twist however is in Freeth’s interesting conclusion on why business must tackle poverty…

I truly believe none of us want to see New Zealand become a land of gated communities and ghettos. We don’t want a society of educated elite and the rugby-amused rabble. Nor an economy where money is lost to wealth creation just to pick up the pieces.

If simply being human is not enough for us in business to act for wider community interests, then maybe this will. We are on the eve of a vast technological revolution that places the power to speak out and act against governments and business squarely in the hands of youth – social media.

To survive and prosper in this new world, Kiwi business leaders will be forced to get involved in the affairs of their communities, nation and its people. We will not be able to ignore coming generations who will seek to influence through their internet power.

…“We will not be able to ignore coming generations who will seek to influence through their internet power”.

Indeed.

The promise of Democracy is that you can look into the face of your child and know that they will get a better deal than you did.

Baby boomers got a great deal, Gen X and Gen Y however got user pays.

We have 30.9% youth unemployment. Two generations locked into user pays debt and locked out of ever owning their own home. When they look in the mirror, they aren’t seeing the promise of Democracy, they are seeing a system that has structurally blocked them from advancing.

In the 1930s, Capitalism was forced to create the welfare state as the depression drove other political systems to compete for the hearts and minds of citizens. Fascism and Communism argued against Democracy when Capitalism failed democracies. The 2007 global financial collapse caused by unregulated corporate greed and corruption will sow a terrible harvest and that harvest will find voice online.

Look at these twitter feeds; Anti Hollywood, Activist Nihilist, Radical Comedian, Anti-Celebrity, Future News, Revolution’s Laws, Radical or slave?, Reasons To Revolt, Radical Psychologist, Dear Wealthy People, Agitation Tips, Facts about the Wealthy, Anti Think Tanks, Injustice Facts, Revolt Today, Texts to my boss, and The Dissenter.

They are all the daily drip, drip, drip of acidic cynism that burns and reinforces every negative self-experience and perception of society. These are the disciples of resentment that will breed a resistance that doesn’t seek to replace the system with a better system, it will seek to simply burn it to the ground.

It won’t be a competition of ideologies, it will be the frenzied attack of the slave on the slave master.

The world saw the Arab Spring, where social media was utilized to fight for the promise of democracy, in the West this became the Occupation movement. What Freeth is recognizing is that technology could be used by the hollowed out burnt generation of poverty to turn on society with a righteousness that democracy will find difficult to counter.

We ignore the consequences of NZs poverty at our long term peril in ways that go well beyond profit margins.