NIMBYism an Australian Ethic that may be our undoing

It was a Saturday, just like today. My father was reading the Age Newspaper as he did every Saturday. Just as I did today. The year was in 1984, and I was 10 years old. On the front page of the newspaper was a picture of a child, the same age as me, starving to death. I remember asking my Dad what this was about and my father awkwardly but calmly explained what was happening in this far off place called Ethiopia. A place where hundreds of thousands if not millions of people died due to famine. I remember being so shocked and outraged by this. I remember taking the picture of that starving child and putting it up on my room which I shared with my two brothers. My father asked me why I had done this? I said 'so I don't forget that there are people in the world just like me, but a lot worse off'. This one event was and still is a fundamental driver of mine. The strong belief that no matter where you are from, what you believe, what sex you are we are all equal. This may sound cliche' but I actually do deeply believe this.

Since that time I engaged myself in all kinds of projects of social conscience. I organised 40hour Famine for my school, protested against nuclear testing, marched for indigenous rights. These engagements and movements lead me around the globe. I remember returning home from time to time and my fathers friends used to laugh at my efforts, some used to empathise but stated that it was all too hopeless and others downright despised me. That I would break laws and get arrested, that I would suggest that people from far off countries had the same rights as us, that I would continue despite the lack of social good in the world.

Now I am the first to admit that not all the projects I was involved with had positive outcomes. I may also be disheartened that 27 years on I read in the same Age Newspaper today that 30,000 children have died due to the recent famine in Somalia. But my fundamental belief of all life is precious and equal is as strong as when I was 10. And despite some of the things I have seen it is a belief that sits at the centre of every human heart. At least I like to believe so.

Let me provide one simple example. The year was 2004, I had returned from a recent trip, and was at our local pub. For some strange reason these apathetic and confrontational friends of my father wanted to be my best friend. They told me we were now comrades, that they too were fighting for their rights and their survival. They asked me if I could join their cause. The cause was to stop a State Government planned Toxic Dump in the area. They were prepared to protests, to break laws to do whatever they could to stop this dump going ahead. What culminated was a social movement made up of unlikely allies, left and right from politics, business men and working class, even supporters of rival football teams. In 2007 after three years of solid campaigning the State Government reversed their plans to establish a toxic dump in the area. The No Mallee Toxic Waste Dump Campaign had won.

Imagine, these groups of people, once so apathetic, once so aggressive to the idea of fundamental rights, now fighting for their own. Unfortunately the comradely with my fathers friends soon waned once the Campaign was won. Now we are back at the same old stand off between apathy and aggression. I am sad to say that many of them happy to have refugee children sent to Malaysia and to stand by and watch kids starve in East Africa. Whilst I am angry with the return to the status quo, I am mostly bewildered. I wonder why something that was so clear to a 10 year old, is so difficult to understand by well educated adults.

The only answer I can find is the fond Australian ethic of NIMBY; Not In My Back Yard. NIMBYism is the value of protecting your own backyard and not anyone elses (unless it suits you). It is Darwinist in its essence and is found amongst communities who have greater resources to defend their own turf and the convenience to ignore others as it suits them. It is also found in places where individual gain is recognised over collective benefit. What is forgotten by NIMBYites is that whilst in the short term it may meet their ends, in the future it may and most probably will be our collective undoing. We may blame our NIMBY culture on our isolation as a nation, that we are a small population, or that many of us had to battle to get where we are.However, the more humans retreat into their own selfish desires, the less trust, solidarity, diversity and common values will exist. Such a situation is not good for anyone. The remedies to NIMBYism are complex. It is both an intellectual and emotional pursuit. It involves an engagement of people from all walks of life, just as the No Mallee Toxic Waste Dump Campaign did, not just on a local but on a global stage. Perhaps however the most essential ingredient is the courage and outrage of a 10 year old.