It was Friday evening, and as I walked up 1st Ave alongside the United Nations in NYC, the final hours of a two-year negotiation process were coming to a close. I could have gone inside and witnessed the final statements, or go across the street to my friend’s apartment and take off my shoes. I chose the latter. Not because I have a lack of appreciation for the hard work that goes into drafting the statements, or because I don’t believe in the statements, but rather because the “grand scheme of things” was singing so loud in my head that I knew I’d be unable to really listen to the mono-diplo-talk that often occurs inside the UN walls. After three years of participating in the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), here are a few thoughts according to me . . .
If we keep refining our strategies we can win; but we still win their game. Or as some say, we can win the battle, but not the fight. When the parameters of our discourse are defined for us, our true potential is stifled. Furthermore, have we defined yet what it means to “win” or “succeed” within the frameworks of CSD? Does success come when the text outlines time-bound GHG reduction targets commensurate to the reduction goals identified by the scientific community? Does success mean we make all countries admit that fossil fuels, in any form, are unsustainable? Does success mean we mobilize 10,000 people to swarm 1st-2nd Avenue to demand that any “sustainable” development plan includes human rights? The quick turnover within the youth caucus makes it difficult to come to these conclusions, but without them, we must ask ourselves how meaningful is our participation?
I’m becoming worn thin with this tug between urgency and pragmatism. The bees are dying on one hand, and there are plans to colonize Mars on the other. Without question, the stakes are high. We are in the midst of unprecedented challenge and opportunity. Although millions remain sedated on news-tainment-nonsense, still millions sacrifice, everyday, to resist a system that renders their life disposable. Never before have we been called to achieve such solidarity to overcome a global challenge, and not until today have we had the tools to achieve that solidarity. Let coexistence be our goal. Let ecology be our guide.
I’m worried some important words are being left out of our dialog. Words and phrases like “empire”, “colonization”, “love”, “full-cycle accounting”, “neoliberalism”, and “compassion”. Many people make the valid argument that there is a time and a place for such radical jibber jabber. I understand the importance of considering one’s audience and framing the issues accordingly. I also understand, however, that stretching someone’s imagination is a matter of creativity, not predictability. It is time we incite fundamental questioning. It is time we raise the issues that are all too often considered frivolous. Because if we don’t, who will?
“We seek a renewed stirring of life for the earth
We plead that what we are capable of doing is
not always what we ought to do.
We urge that all people now determine
that a wide untrammeled freedom shall remain
to testify that this generation has love for the next
If we want to succeed in that, we might show, meanwhile,
a little more love for this one, and for each other.”
- Nancy Newhall -
Yes, ‘what we are capable of doing, is not always what we ought to do’. Just because we can create a nuclear plant or capture carbon, doesn’t mean we ought to. Our wisdom has not yet caught up with our technological advancements, and consequently, people have suffered. Our solutions now must be human-based, culturally-appropriate, decentralized, and always with the seventh generation in mind. Is this even possible in what John Perkins and David Korten are calling a “corportocracy” where corporations usurp the rights of people and access to the Commons? We must learn to put more trust in people’s hands than the imaginary market. Sure, both can be corrupt, but only one can we look in the eye and hold accountable.
The United Nations is an amazing place, but let’s not become disillusioned by its influence. Unquestionably, it is magical to see representatives from all across the world in the same room having a dialog about sustainable development. It is important that we continue to participate in such meetings and refine our strategies to become more and more effective as a Youth Caucus and as Youth Delegates. But I urge us all to place equal emphasis, if not more, on building a critical mass beyond the UN and its narrow definition of sustainable development. We must reclaim what it means to be sustainable so that it can truly encompass nonviolence, human rights, gender equality, tolerance, reconciliation, and economic, environmental, and social justice. People make sacrifices for what is meaningful to them, and sustainability offers an opportunity to be meaningful across the board. The dialog happening inside the UN, however, does not always come across as meaningful to people at the margins, and more important, does not usually include the wisdom from people at the margins. The greatest creativity is often found in the margins, and it is crucial we hold hands with our human family, and envision a sustainable world together.
I’m aware these seem like lofty ideas, but these are the ideas we must BELIEVE in. We must believe that another world is possible. We must empower and trust one another to envision and manifest that world together. I extend my greatest thanks to everyone I met and those I was able to reconnect with over this past week at CSD. When I find myself running on empty back here at home, I remember your faces and am renewed. Thank you for that gift. Until next time . . . .
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Great you brought all that up! I truly believe that if we are to bend all the graphs that are showing our decline, it has to come from a new vision for society and a new culture. It has to be a movement that encompasses everybody, of all kinds of backgrounds. We can’t just convince policymakers to pass laws if people won’t change the way they think and live. SD must involve a holistic change, where people are empowered like many of us are, and where people make good choices because they have the right incentives and beliefs. Tweaking things here and there won’t do it. “Change” is the key. Let’s keep working towards that goal; I believe we’ll get there! Thanks!
In the final hours of this 15th session of the UN CSD, Zimbabwe was named, along with Israel, Iran, and Guatemala, as chair of next year’s meeting, and of the process moving forward. The 16th CSD will focus on Africa, Land Use, Drought, and Agriculture. The election came down to a vote because the European Union did not feel comfortable with appointing Zimbabwe with a chair at the CSD. Check this out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6645715.stm
In the hallways of the UN, I heard someone say the BBC had captured the Zimbabwean Minister saying ‘what does sustainability have to do with human rights?’ It did seem a bit over the top, but points directly to the question at hand, and also raises the question of how any government in the world can legitimately chair the CSD. Here in Canada, indigenous people’s are planning a national day of action on June 29th against the refusal of the government to deal with their land claims and the historic injustices that are the foundation of this society… the same one that is largely responsible for the death of the earth.
I believe in the UN. I have struggled with it, as have we all, we who have attended and given so much to pursue the ideals that were the very noble foundations of this noble institution. But I had the privilege to sit in a room with people from around the world that believe in the sacred balance of elements on earth in conference room c on the third last day of the conference, and be told by a UN researcher that the reason youth engagement at the UN matters is because there, if you affect someone, if you get through to someone and help them see, that vision can spread far… that’s why we need to be at the UN.
I call us back to this. It is the hope that came to the world after such a dark time as world war two. we now stand on the brink of another world war, and are watching our world be warred upon. Sooner or later, it has to come to enough. We have to choose our way forward. We are one earth family and one human community, with one common destiny. These are the powerful words of the Earth Charter.
The submission of the youth caucus on the thursday ministerial of the CSD was incredible. It blew open the discussion to the deeper issues at play here - cut through the diplomatic polite-speak to the heart of the matter. One of the assets of youth is the necessity to break it back down to the basics - which the Minister of Energy and Industry for Qatar, H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, did following the reading of the youth submission. Oil, for him, and for his country, has brought wealth. His first statement said it most clearly: In 1952, life expectancy in Qatar was 44-45 years, roughly. Now it is 75-78. There are schools. Hospitals. Roads. Money. I’m sure there are iPods and laptops too. This is the reality, and it was incredibly exciting to have helped provoke it. That discussion, along with the Minister’s commitment to bring youth from Qatar, and around the world, to the next CSD, inspired in me a vision of a global youth dialogue on climate change, through a blog, a perhaps a summit before COP 13, in Bali, Indonesia this December.
I would like to dedicate this post, and my participation at CSD 15, to Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman who always believed we were evolving towards equality, and did her best to bring us there. And to the youth caucus of the CSD, and especially to Josh, whose dedication to the asking deeper questions helps to keep me truly grounded. Thank you!
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt
http://www.earthcharter.org/
Thanks Cam and Carlos. I need to let everyone know that on Friday evening, around 7:00pm, I went to the BBC News website and the front page article was very similar to the one Cameron linked. There was one major difference though. The article I viewed on Friday night quoted the Zimbabwe’s UN Ambassador, Boniface Chidyausiku, saying, “What does sustainability have to do with human rights?” I went to quote the article the other night when writing this blog, and this comment had been removed. Like Cameron, I thought the comment was over the top, but I don’t think the reporter would have made it up, and I’m very disappointed it has been removed. Just wanted to let everyone know this incase they missed the 12-24 hour window that the comment was still up.
Heya
I’m interested to talk to my freind Paul from Australia who is on exchange at Berkely about his experiences with the U.N. at the CSD. Until very recently, the Australian youth environment movement had absolutely no engagement with the UN/ CSD/ Kyoto Protocol at all. These institutions seemed so irrelevant to our activism - partly because of Australia’s stance on international treaties (increasingly ignoring them - eg not ratifying Kyoto, and our govt is violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child due to the policy of keeping children in asylum detention centres indefinately). Partly it’s because all these institutions are on the opposite side of the world - with UN HQ in New York and UNEP HQ in Nairobi, and no UN conference held in Australia in my living memory, it’s not accessible to get Aussies over to these summits. In fact until i went to Montreal in 2005 with the youth delegation thanks to the Environnement Jeuness and the Canadian govt, I had not thought about Kyoto at all really - i was just focused on domestic campaigning on campuses and around coal. Being in Montreal was amazing, but more because I got to meet inspiring climate campaigners. The convergence centre taught me more than the official conefrence centre. I have huge critiques of Kyoto because of the market mechanisms, and I believe it may entrench the tinkering around the edges approach rather than the fundamental change we need that Josh talked about. Im scared about the amount of precious activist energy poured into reformist structures like the UN.
But this year COP 13 is in Bali - really close to Australia - and partly because of my experiences in Montreal, the AYCC has decided to organise a youth delegation. So, we’ll see how that goes… and if anyone from the IGHIH community is going to Bali in December, we invite you to come to Australia before or afterwards and enjoy the beautiful hot Aussie summer. If you’re here in January you can come to the ASEN Summer Training Camp.
Hi Anna! First off, I might have to take you up on the Aussie summer invite!
Second, Cameron has posted a document in the link below for us to start collaborating for the Bali youth engagement. If you have trouble with that link, just write to Cam.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=drh6vft_17dkc9fc
Third, it was such a pleasure to meet and work with Paul at the CSD. I should have known you two were buds! If you speak with him, have him give me a call so we can work on the CSD-15 Lessons Learned document together.
OK, and finally, last night I read a really pertinent and inspiring article in regards to our discussion by Paul Hawken. The article was published in Orion Magazine, but can also be found at the TruthOut.org news link below. Enjoy and let’s continue this dialog, maybe utilizing the TIG forum?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/050107EC.shtml
Hey Josh,
Just read the TruthOut article, its great. I’m passing it on to friends in Australia
Talk soon