Ethical Investing for Beginner's
Ethical Investing is investing in something ethical, which aligns with your values. As Maori it's hard to find somewhere which allows this. The effects of not knowing where your funds are being invested is the potential risk that you are supporting businesses, causes, people who are doing things which do not align with your values. The biggest example commonly used is drugs and alcohol. Some platforms invest in companies which sell or promote drugs and alcohol. If you were an 'ethical investor' you would not invest in this because it means that you are supporting this cause.
Why? Because in so many instances our values are stolen from us without any consideration to what we want anyways - so why would we do this to ourselves? We have the opportunity to decide where our putea goes. I promote ethical investing. I promote it because it allows us to decide where we are putting our putea and to which causes we are supporting. The whakaaro which springs to mind is whether or not you are willing to put your values above and beyond the idea of financial returns. For many Maori I believe that we are NOT willing to place our values below the idea of making money.
So, Where can we invest which allows us to align our own views of tikanga?
It's unfortunate that we do not have any Maori Banks to enable us to fully decide where we are investing and somewhere which is able to oversee the implications each cause or business has for Maori. (This would be such a great business idea if anyone is able to create a bank for the rest of us Maori). Heoi ano, I have found something which you may like.
It's called Tahito. Their website says that TAHITO is collective self intelligence. Collective self intelligence is connection; Everything is interrelated, nothing exists of itself. TAHITO is about re-building the connection between people and the environment. It is an indigenous contribution towards a new global story of diversity, equity and sustainability. On their website, they say that their method is a timely contribution to the momentum created by the global initiatives from the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. These institutions have created the platform for indigenous values to be a solution to global challenges.
