In all the stress and diabolical degeneration of basic functions of US government, New Zealand is sending you Jacinda Ardern for a visit. Take just a minute of your time to recharge your progressive batteries and draw a deep breath. There are other ways of doing politics and other worlds are possible. Because now, after nearly 75 years, the UN General Assembly has a diaper changing room!
Prime Minister Ardern has come to attend the UN general assembly (yes the same one that Trump will be sullying with a speech tomorrow) and she’s brought the family — including 3-month-old baby Neve. As followed on DailyKos, Ardern became the first Prime Minister to give birth in office since Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and she continues to make some very strong statements about how to normalise things that should really just be… normal! Like being unmarried to your long term partner, having a baby while doing a demanding job, taking your parental leave period, and talking about it in ways that just make it all seem so normal. This is Jacinda’s magic political power: she makes herself a symbol of ‘everyday equality’. And New Zealand is collectively besotted with baby Neve (and quietly impressed with her stay-at-home dad Clark Gayford).
So, apart from turning up with her new family in tow, what has Ardern been up to in New York?
First, she refused to sign up to the White House’s much ballyhooed attempt to recruit more countries into the ‘war on drugs’. Ardern’s response is that drug abuse is a health matter not a crime matter and her government is going to pursue policies that recognise that important distinction.
Then she took the family along to the UN General Assembly... Neve created a bit of a sensation by appearing with Clark (and having her diaper changed in a rapidly retitled nearby committee room!) while Ardern was speaking at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit yesterday (Jacinda spoke of the need to lift more children out of poverty). Neve even had her own UN ID tag. Too cute.
Ardern has also appeared yesterday on The Today Show… and will appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday.
I’ll sign off with the following observation. The fact that Baby Neve made the pages of news services all over the world: UK, France, Germany, Singapore and Australia, tells us just how much the world wants some positive political news at the moment. Jacinda, Neve and Clark are making news by doing normal things: taking their baby to work. The only remarkable thing about it was that it was the first time it had happened at the UN General Assembly.
Perhaps the world media also recognised that three-month-old Neve seems to be showing more emotional maturity in public political spaces than at least one other world leader at the moment. Given that Trump is speaking at the UN tomorrow, the tone only goes downhill from here. At least they now have a diaper change room ready just in case...