Blog of Peter Torr Smith

The original article

When I first moved to Wellington I became part of the New Zealand Future’s Trust (now Futures Thinking Aotearoa).  The Futures Trust voluntary group was set-up originally by the late James Duncan in 1982 when the Government disbanded the Commission For The Future which he was heading.  I got involved in 1993 in the “2020″ sub-group with my friend Louisa Palmer, and was where I met Brett Longley and Malcolm Menzies, all of which I still see today.  We used to meet on Saturday’s to discuss, present, and share workings and findings on issues we were working each working on for the group.  I even ended up representing New Zealand at World Futures Federation moot in Thailand later in 1993, but that’s another story for later if I can track down the Future Times article on it

Anyway, one of the things we all did as part of the 2020 group was to write up our own personal vision for 2020 for New Zealand.  Well that was 16 years ago now and I’d forgotten all about that until recently Malcolm handed me a piece of A4 paper he’d found entitled “My Vision for New Zealand 2020, Peter Torr Smith, March 1993″ – what a blast to see that again!!

So I thought I’d share it with you all and get it written down before I misplace the original.  Some of it still rings true, and some of it is just a tad naive and idealistic and makes me squirm in my seat reading it!   But I’ll let you decide.  Enjoy

My Vision for New Zealand 2020
Peter Torr Smith, March 1993

As part of my vision for New Zealand for the year 2020, I will list things which I would like New Zealand to be by then and also things which I would like New Zealand to have been involved in or achieved. The main reason for this is because I feel that a lot of the issues facing NZ and the planet now should be dealt with by 2020 and we will be looking at a very different scenario than we are in now.  This is also to acknowledge that any vision I have for NZ for 2020 is still developed under a belief system or set of paradigms based on pre-1993.

This vision is written in present tense as if I was speaking in the year 2020.

NZ is a major trader on the global economy in green technology products and services.  These products and services have developed out of NZ taking advantage of its clean green image to empower its own people.  NZ developed as a role model to the rest of the world of a country that can meet the needs of its growing population and still keep in balance with its environment.

NZ has developed its education system to be totally based on meeting the needs of its students and not those of the business community.  This back to front approach aided the new generation of New Zealanders in being more creative, innovative, and satisfied individuals and hence excellent team players.

This synergy that NZers create is what has pushed NZ out to the rest of the world to share what we know.  NZ played a key role in showing the rest of Planet Earth’s people what abundance can be created out of co-operation.  NZ, in conjunction with many other nations, was a key contributer to assisting the developing nations to raise the quality of life of its growing population up to that of the rest of the world and therefor end world hunger, poverty, and war.  This was primarily done through technology transfer via industry development schemes, and investment in their industries.

NZ is a role model of how to utilise the natural renewable resources of the planet to generate the energy required to meet the needs of its people.

NZ has allowed its population to grow substantially to enrich the cultural diversity of people in NZ.  This was done in a controlled manner in such a way that its growing population has minimum impact on its ecosystem.  NZ first got its three and a half million people of the ’90′s in harmony with the environment by setting up systems that made it easy to be green.  These included recycling schemes, green taxes to encourage recycling and reusage of emmissions and waste and therefore minimise pollution, more community focused activities to create the community synergy, being a key participant and test market for alternative technologies such as the electric car, by developing one of the most effective and efficient public transport systems in the world, by closing off central city areas to cars, by developing excellent cycling lanes and facilities in the cities, and a plethora of other synergetic systems that empowered NZers to be responsible global citizens.

In a nutshell, New Zealand got its own act together and shared what worked with the rest of the world.  We now live in a country that encourages indivdual creativity, expression, and team work.