How Foreboding Is the Future?
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| 'Scary Statistics' | ||
Under WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the movement is busy mobilizing partners, such as key organizations and Governments, to achieve results in six areas: household water quality and availability; hygiene and sanitation; indoor and outdoor air pollution; disease vectors such as mosquitoes; chemicals; and accidents. According to Dr. Brundtland, the provision of healthy environments for children would be one of the highest social and political priorities of the decade. "Our top priority must be in investing in the future of children, a group that is particularly vulnerable to environmental hazards." She identified "hazards" as being dangers present in the environment in which children live, learn and play. She added that increased industrialization, explosive urban population growth and lack of pollution control were just a few added factors that affect children's lives. Poor children were most at risk because poverty further aggravated the environmental hazards. —Lauren Kansley, Global Youth Reporter from South Africa |
| 'Applauding More Than Politely' | ||
The children, aged six to fourteen, were Justin Friesen from Canada, Mingyu Liao from China, Analiz Vergara from Ecuador and Tiyiselani Manganyi and Julius Ndloven, both from South Africa. They represented 400 children from 80 countries who attended a recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) conference in Victoria, Canada. They were granted a generous ten minutes of uninterrupted delivery to the 100 or so assembled heads of Government. The leaders of the world listened attentively, and they applauded more than just politely. "The problem with leaders is that you do not want to listen to us", Justin Friesen told the high-level meeting. But that day, the leaders did listen. And the children took the opportunity to tell them bluntly that they must speed up action to tackle environmental problems. "The children of the world are disappointed because too many adults are too interested in money and wealth to take notice of the serious problems that affect our future", they said, speaking in turn. They asked the leaders if they could look in the mirror and say that children would have a better future because of actions they had taken. "We are not asking too much. You said this Summit is about taking action. We need more than your applause and comments of 'well done' or 'good speech'. We need action!" Then in chorus they declaimed: "Don't walk off and forget about these challenges. We finally challenge you, the leaders of the world, to accomplish them." The children's keynote plenary role seemed to represent a positive change of attitude towards young people on the part of both the conference organizers and leaders. By contrast, the young president of the last General Conference Youth Forum of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was given just five minutes to sum up the results of three days of discussion by over 100 young delegates. We young people hope this old dismissive approach will henceforth be history! What we witnessed here at the plenary session should be multiplied in the future. We wish to commend the organizers for treating the children as partners. It was an occasion to remember. But anyway, if children are not allowed to speak, who are the grown-ups planning for? —Charles M. Sendegeya, Global Youth Reporter from Uganda |
| 'Mountain of Hope' | ||
On 2 September, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan climbed Somoho through a buzzing crowd to receive a declaration from the "Children's Earth Summit". He told them: "The place where we are gathered is a world summit in its own right. It's always my encounters with young people like you that give me reason to hope for the future ... we all share the same ancestry. What unites us is greater than what divides us." During the final years of apartheid, Mandla Mentoor worked with children in his backyard to create painted sculptures from paper, bottles and scrap metal. From this humble starting point, he created the Mountain of Hope and has now set about restoring the wetland system that runs through Soweto township. Somoho was the perfect place for the 100 children of the Children's Earth Summit to deliver their declaration to the UN Secretary-General. These children from around the world, including India, Lesotho, South Africa and the United Kingdom, had been debating how young people could lead the way. And they arrived at a consensus. "Our summit will spark increased awareness of children's vision of the world, their problems, their solutions and their common vision", explains Vikram Aditya, one of the Earth Summit children from India. Their declaration focuses on the five issues of basic rights, education, health, pollution and poverty. It includes the wish to see certain things in schools, including inspirational and knowledgeable teachers worldwide, a firm foundation of environmental awareness from an early age, and safe and work-friendly environments. Somoho is the ultimate work-friendly environment—and more. At the top of the hill, Mr. Annan and his wife, with primatologist Jane Goodall, were led to a long table adorned with trinkets and toys. Mr. Mentoor rallied the crowds with chants of "ta ta ta". He described how the Mountain of Hope was there to "create meaningful connections between local people, outside visitors and the surrounding environment", and how columns of tyres standing at the bottom of the mountain, which during the apartheid years had been used to turn people into human torches, "now symbolize the process from disaster to freedom ... from horror to hope". A group of children performed a gum-boot dance, stomping and clapping in oversized wellie-boots. "This is an amazingly wonderful and exciting day", said Ms. Goodall, who had recently been named a UN Ambassador for Peace. "It's the most exciting thing that has happened during the Summit in Johannesburg. It's a real, real symbol of hope." After the speeches, Mr. Annan planted a tree on top of the hill while the crowd sang. Then he was whisked down the mountain and driven away in a white Mercedes to his helicopter. But the excitement lingered. "It means so much that he has come here, he's a very special man", said Humbulani Mulaudzi, 21. Her friend, sixteen-year-old Innocentia, said: "He cares so much about young people. We always see him on the television, but I never thought I would see him face to face." A security guard explained: "This is our Mountain of Hope. We want to sustain ourselves. We have no jobs, but maybe our dreams will come true." Somoho is next to the enormous Avalon cemetery, and all funeral processions pass by this hill. There couldn't be a better symbol of hope for change. —Annabel Short, Global Youth Reporter from the United Kingdom |
| 'Don't Leave Us Alone to Pay the Price' The General Assembly Debates Sustainable Development |
| The opening of the fifty-seventh General Assembly came on the heels of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Thus, the Summit was fresh on the minds of the 171 delegates who spoke during the Assembly's general debate, held from 12 to 20 September in New York. Many countries voiced optimism in the progress made at the Johannesburg Summit. According to South African President Thabo Mbeki, "a number of far-reaching decisions were taken at this important Summit to ensure that we will bequeath to the next generations a better, humane and equitable world". He said the WSSD had succeeded in setting important goals concerning three pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection. Noting that poverty eradication was consistently recognized as the "critical challenge and indispensable requirement for sustainable development, particularly in the developing countries", Tanzanian Foreign Minister Jakaya M. Kikwete praised the way the WSSD balanced developmental and environmental concerns, thereby creating an impetus for States to "translate words into action so that social and economic development can be realized whilst the environment is kept healthy and protected". Iceland's Foreign Minister Halldor Asgrimsson, saying it was up to every country to fulfil the promises made at the Summit, reiterated his country's pledges to provide bilateral assistance to developing nations concerning fishing regulations and renewable energy sources—two fields Iceland had considerable experience in. Many small island developing States criticized the Summit, stating that little progress had been made on initiatives to curb global warming. Ambassador Alfred Capelle of the Marshall Islands pointed out that these countries "face the very real threat of complete obliteration if our oceans rise by even marginal levels". The Vice-President of Palau, Sandra Sumang Pierantozzi, was deeply disappointed at the "failure of key nations to recommit to the goals of the Rio Earth Summit" and their "dismal lack of commitment" toward the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The Governor General of Tuvalu, Sir Tomasi Paupau, appealed to the industrialized countries to "urgently ratify and fully implement" the Kyoto Protocol and provide concrete support to his country's efforts to cope with the effects of climate change and the rising sea level. Tuvalu, he said, "having little or nothing to do with the causes, cannot be left on its own to pay the price". The President of Sao Tome and Principe, Fradique de Menezes, urged industrialized nations to participate in protecting the environment, saying: "You are the ones who endanger the planet with your pollution. You are the ones who cut down the forests, who poison the oceans, who destroy the atmosphere and warm the planet. You are the ones who can lead the world to develop cleaner technologies, more efficient uses of natural resources and, ultimately, effective ways to restore our land, air and sea." Many States expressed satisfaction that the Johannesburg Summit recognized the importance of conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, islands, coastal areas and marine resources. The Prime Minister of Fiji, Laisenia Qarase, said that the health of the sea was of particular concern to small island States because they depended on the sea for their survival, and their cultures were formed around it. He pointed out that they bore the burden of the "indiscriminate commercial exploitation" of the sea, and that while distance fishing fleets caught 95 per cent of the fish harvested in the South Pacific, only 3 per cent of the commercial worth of the catch returned to the region. President Leo A. Falcam of Micronesia observed that international security had undergone beneficial change, but not poverty or environmental issues. Ten years after the Rio Summit, the ability of the environment to sustain life diminished daily. Criticizing the "cocoon of self-interest" of developed nations, he asked: "how just is the notion that the privileged minority can continue driving air-conditioned SUVs, when billions of our fellow human beings struggle each day to survive and support families on less than $1? How long can industrial nations hope to sustain their overextended lifestyles while the natural resources of the planet are being steadily degraded and diminished? The answer, and the message from Johannesburg is 'no longer'." —Jonas Hagen for the Chronicle |
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