I love reading Next magazine. It is my treat each month. I have a bit of a magazine fetish you see. Anyway usually I love it but this month one of the articles really ticked me off. There is an article about Trelise Cooper and the point of it is to publicise the campaign against domestic violence which she is supporting through pyjamas which she has designed and which will be sold through Ezibuy. In the article the writer tries to show what a huge problem domstic violence is in New Zealand byt quoting the satistic that domestic violence costs the country over $1 billion each year. I find this really disgusting. You cannot put a price or cost on people's personal safety in their own home. If even one person was unsafe on their own home because of violence that would still be one too many, despite the fact that it woudln't 'cost' much. Statistics like this allow people to forget about the real people involved.

It also reminds me that the only way to make people take notice of an injustice or problem is to prove that has an economic impact. The same is true for enviromental sustainability and the like. If businesses see it as a way to increase profit and the reputation of their brand they want to be environmentally friendly. But maybe caring for people and the environment is of priceless value adn cannot be measured and maybe there are things which are bigger, more important and outside the economy and maybe the economy should serve people rather than determine the values of our society. So there!