Better lucky than good

By Ken Russell in All Sorts

chance, economics, grace and choice

"Better lucky than good" was the chipper remark of Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill when a ridiculous time limit rule gave him a reprieve in the America's Cup race that should have handed the Auld Mug to
Team New Zealand. As it happened, Spithill can now claim to be the greatest Come Back King ( sorry if this offends you) since Lazarus. We hate that breed, and what makes it seem worse is the knowledge the Aussie gun was hired to the fifth richest of rich Americans, business software mogul, Larry Ellison of the Oracle Corporation, and a man for whom the winning and retention of the Cup is linked to an even bigger phenomenon, the Larry Ellison Legend. He's said to be worth $43 billion and rising.
If there's one thing Ellison doesn't need it's luck. He's built the America's Cup campaign on the same principles as his Oracle business - the only thing that matters is a successful result, by whatever means it takes. And so Jimmy Spithill's words were doubtless heartfelt. Lady luck smiled on him that day - big time. The mind can only boggle at the thought of what his skipper's bonus will be. With no sympathy for the "luckless" Kiwis, Spithill was philosophical about his rank good fortune. "You can laugh or cry. We're laughing, and we live to sail another day." Better lucky than good!
Setting the America's Cup entirely to one side, I've been thinking about the role of luck in our lives. It's huge, actually. We're lucky to be New Zealanders. Think being Syrian or Somalian. Think Taliban woman. Think Bangladeshi sweated labour seamstress. Think Central American exploited child coffee pickers. Just think! I thought of the number of times as a preacher I used those familiar but often-trite phrases "there but for the grace of God go I," or in a less religious mode, have opined on the "accident of birth" whereby I/we, whether deserving or not, have been deposited on planet Earth in Aotearoa/New Zealand of all favoured places.
That is a given for us, and you and I should acknowledge "lucky me" every time we eat a regular meal, plant a tomato, exercise a vote, earn a wage, collect a pension, contribute to "charity" and freely step inside our local church to say our prayers. Not one of these is an activity shared equally with every fellow human being, and none can be taken for granted in a world where some know only grinding poverty, others live in perpetual danger, while others live in the thrall of naked malicious power from which there is no escape. Jimmy Spithill's native land, with good cause, is known as the Lucky Country while we on this side of the Ditch gladly own the title, Godzone. We should daily embrace the luck of being who and where we are !
But let me take this further. What worries me is what might be called "the politics of luck" and the extent to which I see it has invaded the philosophy of those who rule this nation. How to present evidence within an article of this length is a challenge, and just a few examples will have to suffice -
* The Government's deal with Sky City to build a $402 million convention centre in central Auckland in exchange for 230 additional pokie machines - condemned by every social agency bringing evidence to the Commerce Select Committee, but approved by Government and Auckland Council as "necessary."
* The Government's dogged determination to sell off 49% of its power company assets to those lucky/willing enough to risk their money in
shares - condemned by wiser counsels, including Treasury, but the Government bent on surrendering long term dividends and fiscal prudence for the illusion of pre-election financial strength.
* The Government's refusal, despite the most urgent pleas from struggling first-home buyers, to avert the housing crisis in Auck/Chch. A blind faith in market forces and an instinctive leaning toward the interests of property developers and those in a position to profit from the over- heated housing market, guarantees the continuing advantage of those who have as against those who do not.
* Again, the Government's repeated failure to intervene when so- called "restructuring" or "economising" decisions are taken for a short- term or sectional gain but leave already struggling regions further disadvantaged. Think repeated rationalisations that have heaped job loss upon loss on the Otago/Dunedin community. Again, market and profit forces have been allowed to run rampant. Just one example - the gutting of Invermay, deemed "inevitable."
I am no economist, but I know the signs of a luck economy when I see them - gambling long term security and stability for short-term gain. It is all the more easy when those who govern are themselves totally secure, well endowed, and profiting from the very market forces that make it harder at the lower end, strangling the poor in the process. Have we heard the voice of Laura Black in successive contributions to this column - speaking out for those in this and similar communities remote from the centres of power and influence, whose interests are consistently compromised by selfish policies that bet the future on profit not welfare, "commercially benchmarked" services, and visionless cost accounting?
Luck has some great stories to tell. The ploy, of course, is to get Campbell Live or Fair Go on your case. Every week, it seems, someone's rank bad luck changes big-time as the baddie of the moment, a heartless bureaucracy, a crooked salesman, a dishonest contractor, yields in the face of intense public exposure. We love it when that happens! And Lotto winners are feted and celebritised - though goodness knows why! And I'll say it - how drab a life without the element of luck for the lucky - sadly the converse, ill luck if you're strong enough to cope.
But government has no business in the luck business. Government must, of all things, ensure fairness. eschew sectional interests, and safeguard the assets of the country for the benefit of all. Luck favours the few who have the advantages to be in the place where luck can shine - like the Spithill/Ellison combo. Bad luck leaves others far in the wake - like Dean Barker on the slower boat. There are many more Barkers than Spithills.
There's no one from Auckland to Dunedin ( privately, even Uesifili Unasa himself ) who believes my friend and former colleague has even the slimmest chance of winning the Auckland mayoralty. But with the stakes as high as they are, winning is not everything, and Uesifili wisely is not betting his chances on a lucky break. The interview in the August Touchstone makes that clear. He's thrown his hat into the ring for "marginalised communities" that run the risk of being further marginalised in the billion-dollar bargaining over the major infrastructure for Auckland City. He's not against efficient transport - rail, tunnels, bridges, - much of it long neglected - but not if the price is so high as to sideline the people side of what he calls "the whole package" - job growth, liveable wages, warm homes - and more money available for community initiatives. He's nailed his colours to the mast and many say his voice will be drowned
We who keep on advocating for the Christian dimension in all of this should not lose sight of one of theology's great points of difference - that between pre-destination and grace, between chance and choice. The stern colossas John Calvin stands astride the Reformation affirming the primacy of God's authority in all things - and whether for good or for ill, it is ordained so. And by that creed the perenially rich stayed rich and the poor remained in their ghettos - and who could question it if God so willed! The Arminian tradition, of whom John Wesley was a persuasive advocate, offered a softer, more compassionate take on God and a bigger say for us women and men in human affairs. And compassion too. The austere immutable God who kept everything in its place gave way to a God who loves justice and weeps over everything that degrades human dignity.
The huge divide of the Reformation remains to test us all. In these hugely significant times, I know on which side I want to be. Ken Russell