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Buy Nothing Day 1998:
Human Development Report 1998 Stimulus for Buy Nothing activists
PRESS RELEASE SINT-MICHIELSGESTEL (Netherlands), Wednesday September 9, 1998UNDP's Human Development Report 1998, which appeared today, gives a numerical foundation to the message that hundreds of activists from all over the world have been expressing year after year during the International Buy Nothing Day campaign. This year the international protest day against Western overconsumption will be celebrated on Friday, November 27th (in Europe on Saturday, November 28th).
Activists in the Netherlands, Great-Britain, Canada, Poland, Slovenia, Germany, North Ireland, Norway, Australia, France, Belgium, New-Zealand and the US feel supported by the findings of the report, which shows that unrestrained consumption broadens the gap between the poor and the rich.
Eighty-six percent of the expenses for personal consumption are made by twenty percent of the world's population, according to this report.
During the No Shop Day activities, which are taking place this year for the seventh time, the figure used is eighty percent. The relation is therefore actually more lopsided.
UNDP director, James Gustav Speth, reaches the following conclusion from the report: "We should not concentrate so much on more or less consumption, but on another pattern of consumption that offers room for human development."
With the same objective in mind, the International Buy Nothing Day campaign began in 1992. The International No Shop Day (Niet- Winkeldag, Buy Nothing Day, Kauf Nix Tag) started in 1992 as a personal intiative by Ted Dave (a Canadian). Since then the idea has been picked up in more and more countries.
Buy Nothing Day has a prevailing theme of 'Enough is enough'. The consumption patterns in rich countries take much too large a portion of the Earth's riches and cause a disproportionate amount of environmental damage.Advertising wants us to believe that people will be happy with many things, but happiness is free and has nothing to do with a car or a pair of designer blue jeans. The holy belief in economic growth as a medicine for all problems, stimulates the pressure to consume in rich countries. Based on the recently (Tuesday 8 Sept.) released Dutch National Environmental Outlook, published by the RIVM (National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection), it appears once again that economic growth continues to make it impossible to fulfill environmental objectives.
Buy Nothing Day is especially a day of protest by all of those who find that they have enough, and want to voice their opposition to the incessant trend towards 'always more.'
Omslag, Workplace for Sustainable Development in Sint-Michielsgestel, introduced the International "Niet-Winkeldag" (No Shop Day) in 1995 in the Netherlands. During the Niet- Winkeldag, throughout the Netherlands, there are street actions, such as shopping-free zones, visits from Martians who come to study the behavior of Earthlings, a living room tableau in a shopping street ('we stay in our nice homes'), or shopping sheep and marionettes.
This year Omslag will also introduce a newspaper about "Reducing Consumption." While the advertising world mostly promises "happiness" when one purchases a product, the "Reducing Consumption" newspaper includes tips on how to get a hold of happiness for free.
Editorial Notes: The Human Development Report 1998 is the annual report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1 UN Plaza, New York, New York, 10017, USA http://www.undp.org/undp/hdro The Report is published by Oxford University Press, Inc. ISBN 0-19-512458-8 (cloth) or 0-19-512459-6 (paper)
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