Janet – Avondale
“The last message that I sent was a verbal one – an exchange over a phone call this morning with my partner.
He called me while he was riding his bike to work, and he was really concerned because he bumped into a young couple having a fight; a girl in a college uniform and, I guess, an older guy that he assumed to be her boyfriend. She was very distressed, so he didn’t feel very comfortable about that situation. I said, ‘why don’t you go back and check it out?’ He hung up and I went about getting our kids ready for school.
He called back and he said ‘I went back and I talked to the young woman and the guy to make sure everything was okay with them’, and I felt really proud of him. I thought that was the right thing to do. He was late to work, but I guess he wouldn’t have had that opportunity again to see if that situation was okay.
It’s not often that people stop to see if someone else is okay, for many reasons. Maybe it’s invading someone else’s privacy; it’s embarrassing; you don’t know what to do; it might be an intimidating situation.
That was my last message. I said, ‘I was proud of you for doing that, because small acts can make a difference’. Something could have escalated and been tragic – not that that’s tragic, but you never know.
I think it’s really important to help people in need, but I can see how people turn a blind eye to other people’s problems. I think as a human in society, surrounded by other humans, it’s our social responsibility to make sure that everyone is okay around us regardless of if we know them, or the situation. I think Auckland could do a lot to increase the connections to humanity and to promote humanity through various activities or a few changes.
Auckland is a very diverse place. I think it’s even more important than ever and right now it’s time to increase that connectivity between humans. We’re living in a digital age where a lot of people spend their time looking at screens and probably not so much interacting face to face in reality. So a lot of people probably think they’re connecting but may not be connecting at all, actually.
What could Auckland do as a city? There are a few things that don’t necessarily need to change, but to be aware of. Just be really aware of diversity – being really inclusive. Also, people in charge of how structures are formed in society, councils and Local Government, could be a bit more open to diversity. We don’t need to just have certain structures like cultural calendars. Like, ‘okay, in a month we’re going to celebrate this, or in February we’ll celebrate that’. I think that’s tick box stuff and it’s not very meaningful. If you really want connectivity then you should make things a bit more open and we can celebrate things outside of a different month or a different day. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
