DIVERSITY

Here’s good news. Tolerance is good economics. Reactionaries who fear diversity beware. These attitudes are damaging for growth, jobs as well as the international reputation of a Nation. Political and religious bigots are costly whether they reside in Australia, India, New Zealand, the Middle East or Africa.

The studies of Richard Florida, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, have confirmed what many cities and regions have long known. In the new economy, the competitive advantage of nations and places is the creativity of its people. This, underpinned by open communication systems, property rights and the predictable rule of law, is now what matters. Creative talent is not drawn to any kind of city or region. These skilled entrepreneurs are highly sought after and highly mobile. Where they choose to work has much to do with the social makeup of the community around them, as does the work itself. Respect for diversity, cultural dialogue, the arts, openness, tolerance, free information, food, entertainment - all these things make up the great and successful cities and regions of the world.

Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, made this case recently at a conference on progressive governance in London, saying "We are experiencing an economic paradigm shift. It used to be that communities were called good places to live if they were good places to work. Now they are considered good places to work if they are vibrant places to live." This should be a policy cities and regions focus on at our local and general elections.

Professor Florida’s studies showed that regions that combine a high quality of life with a respect for and accommodation of diversity, are most likely to enjoy the greatest success in attracting the sort of talent required to fuel growth in the new economy.
Successful cities, New York, Rio, Capetown, Sydney, London and Hong Kong, boast every race, colour and culture. Diversity, tolerance, respect and acceptance of others is not just an expression of social solidarity, but a profound economic good.
Professor Florida also discovered that the most gay-friendly cities in the U.S. were also the wealthiest and creative places to live, work and do business. One manifestation of the present phase of globalisation is the capacity of those with skills and money to choose where to live. And they are making that choice.

As a boy, the church sent me door to door to collect old clothes to be sent to the poor in Singapore. I always wondered why they needed woolly jerseys. Now they have a higher income per person, live longer, and enjoy a lower infant mortality rate than New Zealand. This has not happened by accident. The present Singapore leadership knows Singapore must reinvent itself as China sucks investment away. They have found that the very policies that built their present success - hard work, a puritanical no-nonsense nanny state - were good for the ‘60’s, even the ‘80’s, but now to create a new, more sophisticated economy based on services, information, healthcare and education, it must take a new direction to revise its old economy and transfer to the opportunities of the future. A state committee called "Remaking Singapore" has discovered Professor Florida. So they are now talking of ending strict laws on censorship and abolishing petty laws such as not dancing on bar tops, and will allow pubs to open all night. The government is now quietly hiring gays and lesbians in the civil service. This is a complete reversal of what in the 1960’s was called "yellow culture" or degenerate behaviour. In the 1960’s, I was stopped in Singapore by the police and told to get a haircut within 24 hours or leave. How things are changing. Alas, time has solved the "hair" problem.

Globalisation is forcing up change. Societies must adapt or stagnate and perish. I’ve always thought tolerance was a good thing in itself, now the economists have quantified it. Politicians who play to the future not to the gallery must implement it if they want the best outcome. I hope Professor Florida does a study on humour. I suspect the results would be the same. People who are free to laugh, poke fun at the absurdities of life and the powerful will, I think, be living in societies that have the best living standards and living styles. The future is looking bright. I hope so; I intend to spend the rest of my life in the future.