DECONSTRUCTING BABYLON #131 - WHY THE SYSTEM DRAINS THE NORTH AND HOW TO STOP IT

Tēnā koutou e te whānau. I am circling back to some of my earlier content to recreate it from the ground up. In the short time since I first started this project, I have learned a lot, and looking back, some of that early stuff sounds, honestly, a bit cringe. It was too sciency, too full of jargon, and felt a bit detached from the real world we live in. This new series is a fresh look at Deconstructing Babylon, focusing on practical, simple changes we can make in our own lives, businesses, and communities.

What is Babylon?

In Research Report #224, we look at "Babylon" not as a person or a specific government, but as a system of extraction. It is a way of organising the world that is based on taking. It takes our talent, our resources, our money, and our data, and it sends them away to benefit someone else, usually leaving behind a bit of a mess for us to clean up.

In the North, we feel this every day. Babylon is the system that treats Taitokerau like a quarry to be mined rather than a home to be cared for. It puts making money for big corporations ahead of looking after our families and our land. It’s the difference between "money-first thinking" and "caring for the household." One focuses on the bank balance, the other focuses on the wellbeing of everyone in the home.