Earth Summit
Aug. 25th, 2002 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purpletigronOn the BBC Radio 4 programme, Broadcasting House this morning, there was an intriguing little discussion about what the Johannesburg `Earth Summit' (`The United Nationals World Summit on Sustainable Development') might achieve, held between the presenter (Eddie Mair), an author, a professor and a Summit delegate from Wales.
The debate was polite, touched on interested points, and ended with no changes of opinion.
The Earth Summit was predicted to achieve: consensus; confusion; a new realisation that free trade is the solution to poverty; a new insight that unregulated trade is a major cause of poverty; a renewed global community; a renewed focus on local democracy; nothing but a waste of money.
Well. Yeah. All of the above. None of the above. Whatever...
Can what I do, either special stuff, or mundane daily stuff, change the world? Probably not. Can I widen my horizons, and my understanding of how individual and collective actions interact, through what I do? Probably yes.
Trade or aid? Debate or action? Local or global? Individual or collective? Selfish or selfless? Good or evil?
An end to trivialisation through dichotomy?
The debate was polite, touched on interested points, and ended with no changes of opinion.
The Earth Summit was predicted to achieve: consensus; confusion; a new realisation that free trade is the solution to poverty; a new insight that unregulated trade is a major cause of poverty; a renewed global community; a renewed focus on local democracy; nothing but a waste of money.
Well. Yeah. All of the above. None of the above. Whatever...
Can what I do, either special stuff, or mundane daily stuff, change the world? Probably not. Can I widen my horizons, and my understanding of how individual and collective actions interact, through what I do? Probably yes.
Trade or aid? Debate or action? Local or global? Individual or collective? Selfish or selfless? Good or evil?
An end to trivialisation through dichotomy?
