SOME POSITIVE TRENDS

I love spotting positive trends that lie below the horizon of most commentators and indeed the public at large. It is easy to join the rush to complain about perceived shortcomings of various segments of our society and there is no doubt that some folk are fair game for the moaners and bigots amongst us.

One group who have quietly been turning around their own lives and enriching both themselves and the rest of us are that often maligned group of single mothers, particularly the large inflows into that group around ten to fifteen years ago when the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) first hit the newspapers at a time when attitudes had hardened and the benefits of contraception had not been supported by the worries of nasty sexually transmitted diseases.

Much was made of the high percentages of young Maori girls in this group and at the time it did not look good for their future participation in society.

Well now if you look quietly around you will find that there is a large and growing number of local organizations relying on these people, often now in their thirties, who have quietly become core links in the delivery of all sorts of professional and administrative services to the very society that criticised them back when they first became pregnant.

I totally support and congratulate these young mothers who have managed to handle the pressures of that early and often unexpected family and who have then tentatively entered the workplace, obtained skills, embarked on periods of study very often achieving skills in Information Technology not picked up by our older generation.\

Next time you are in the office of your lawyer, accountant, surveyor, or even at the regional or district offices of major suppliers or councils just note how important was the contribution of that nice young, often Maori, lady to a happy completion of whatever you set out to achieve.

Quite a few senior professionals have confided to me that it is very likely that their business will be handed on to one of these former single mothers whose efforts are making our ability to deal with a workforce that is rapidly ageing that much easier.