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The Forum > Article Comments > As if the world matters > Comments

As if the world matters : Comments

By Noel Preston, published 25/7/2006

How can we address inequalities and enhance opportunities for all?

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Faustino: Yikes! Who'd want to go against the orthodox view and suggest that Africa's woes are in large part due to a predilection for corrupt and tyrannical governments and a wholesale subscription to world views born in the Dark Ages at best?

Nah, it's all colonialism or neo-colonialism, the white man is evil and greedy, etc. Except that (inconveniently) doesn't explain Asia's (re-)emergence and the fact that in real terms, on the whole, most people (ie. Asia) are doing better than ever before. I have admiration for many of the Asian nations, yet I somehow can't feel sorry for a continent of people who won't help themselves and instead, make a complete balls-up of everything they do.

I also wonder how much vested interest there is in peddling the line that humanity has it so bad. If and when North Korea finally comes into the real world and we all see how shockingly backward it is, no doubt Kim Jong-il and his ilk will be off the hook and it will somehow be the fault of some guy in western Sydney or downtown Boise, Idaho, evil white oppressors that they are.
Posted by shorbe, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 5:46:36 PM
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Not long ago wealthy folk used to answer Noel’s question via the ‘trickle down’ theory. Namely, “If I get filthy rich, that’s fine because people down the bottom will get some falling crumbs, so everybody will move up the ladder, thanks to me!”

If that rationalisation had a whisker of credibility, it is now it tatters as the world comes up against the brick wall of finite resources and environmental limits.

The drive for endless wealth has given our children a future defined by bleakness - oil wars, food wars, land wars, destructive droughts and hurricanes, endless health risks and global insecurity (labelled as terrorism). No amount of new gizmos can make us happy in such an age of uncertainty and chaos.

I am truly amazed how so many people – many on the progressive side of politics - are falling for the line that the drivers of wealth, the corporate sector, can now fix it all up.

To be sure, many corporate owners can maximise profits by setting standards that are expected of them. Its not hard for a tourist company or a confectionary manufacturer to establish strict ethical guidelines for running their businesses and even use these as a hard sell. And we should not stop applying pressure to make them do so.

But what of those in other lines of business – those who own the coal and oil and uranium? Or those who have vested interests in genetic food technology? When push comes to shove, appealing to ethical standards will fall on deaf ears when there are megabucks to be made from exploiting the world and its people – or putting them at great risk.

The next generation of humans will know what is valuable and what is not. Rich and poor alike, they will find out the hard way. Having created a non-sustainable society, the onus is on us to limit the carnage by coming to our senses as soon as possible.

Noel Preston is on the right track in asking the questions even if nobody as yet knows the answers to them.
Posted by gecko, Wednesday, 26 July 2006 1:50:31 PM
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Sorry about posting an ad, but it is on topic.

kalkadoon.org presents

Gunya Gossip

An evening of discussion, music, poetry and dance
Saturday August 26
At
INDIGE-N-ARTS
270 Montague Rd. West End (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
opposite Davies Park

Forum begins at 7.30
“What relevance do environment and social justice movements have to Aboriginal Australia?”

Speakers

Baganan Kurityityin Theresa Creed
Director of Gunya 21 and kalkadoon.org and the principle researcher of kalkadoon.org’s “Out of the Box” reports for the Gunya 21 Link Tank.

Senator Andrew Bartlett
Member of Gunya 21 Link Tank. Deputy leader of the Australian Democrats and national spokesperson in indigenous issues.

Drew Hutton
Convenor of Gunya 21 Link Tank. Veteran environment and human rights campaigner and the Qld. Greens state spokesperson in indigenous issues.

Followed by entertainment including
The 2 hard basket ensemble featuring poetry and dance by Baganan Kurityityin Theresa Creed
Plus guest artists and jam session.

Entry by donation
Snacks and non-alcoholic drinks available
Gunya Gossip is the launch of the Gunya 21 Link Tank, a sustainable housing resource network assisting Aboriginal development projects on Palm Island.
Contact homeland@kalkadoon.org

A special thank-you to INDIGE-N-ARTS gallery and workshop for providing the venue for Gunya Gossip
INDIGE-N-ARTS is an indigenous owned and operated art gallery that runs indigenous art and craft workshops, cultural tours and stocks a wide range of art including clothing, jewellery and ceramics.

kalkadoon.org Aborigininity, Sustainability, Art and Education
Posted by King Canute, Wednesday, 26 July 2006 3:07:36 PM
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From my understanding of R. Buckminster Fuller, when the initial commerce empires were started (at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ~200 years ago) they worked under two key ideas:
1. Thomas Malthus - we will never be able to provide enough(food) for the increasing number of growing mouths.
2. Charles Darwin - survival of the fittest, the rich believing that they were naturally superior due to position for survival (at the top).

Reading about altruism among vampire bats, they provide a small portion of their meal of blood to colony mates (most likely to be related) because if 5% of their meal is given to unsuccessful foragers it can protect them from starvation for hours whereas that small loss has a neglible consequence to those that forfeit it.

recent understandings in genetics, particularly epigenetics, provides a concrete scientific explanation of the Indigenous American idea of thinking ahead seven generations - How your grandparents lived has direct consequences on your children.

We are constantly gaining greater insight in how to make do with less materials.
We should bypass this concept of hand-me-down solutions to problems plaging less advanced countries when we have already developed superior methods of dealing with those issues.
EG. selling polluting coal technologies to China when energy efficiency combined with biomas, wind or solar power produced and consumed locally will do a much better job.
Posted by Cpt Nemo, Thursday, 27 July 2006 7:02:46 PM
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The solution to the world's poverty is called contraception,not confiscation of others hard earned savings.Introduce death taxes and soon all will pay have to pay it.China and India will consume the world's energy thus escalating prices and soon we will see our living standards fall dramatically.

Charity begins at home.Do gooders need to find another way of satisifying their attention seeking behaviour rather than sending us all on the usual guilt trip.Poverty will continue to worsen as the world population increases.The more we give ,so will the pop increase.We are only hastening our own demise.
Posted by Arjay, Thursday, 27 July 2006 8:19:51 PM
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