Evergreen Online
The Newsletter of Wirral Green Alliance
Digest Edition
October / November 2002
Evergreen Online The Newsletter of Wirral Green Alliance |
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Digest Edition October / November 2002 |
In this month's online edition: Johannesburg Debacle Oxton Festival 2002: review by organiser Carl Realey |
JOHANNESBURG DEBACLE
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| Johannesburg: After
nine days of bluster the world gets some gains on a few environmental issues, and on
sanitation for the poor. But overall the deal as it appears today is feeble: a triumph for
greed and self-interest, a tragedy for poor people and the environment. Who's to blame? Oxfam International points the finger straight at the world's leaders. "Most of them lacked the guts and will to achieve a brave and far-reaching agreement that might have effectively tackled the problems of poverty and the decaying environment. It was within their grasp," said Andrew Hewett of Oxfam International. Some nations get pats on the back. Some of the gains are significant - protection of the environment and reduction of poverty are inextricably linked. But the majority of the rich countries - most of the EU nations, the US, Japan, Canada, Australia - have been guilty here of a grand deception. They talked the talk about the poor and sustainable development - but in most issues, when the time came for targets, timetables and money, they let the world down. The summit outcome is well out of step with current world opinion. And it is a huge disappointment for those governments that did come here with real proposals; for the tens of thousands from civil society across the world who laboured in the belief they would be heard; for those members of the business community who are genuinely waking up to their responsibilities to the environment and the poor. But most of all the World Summit on Sustainable Development turned its back on the poor. We were told that addressing poverty was at the heart of the summit agenda. What did we get? No new commitment or timetable to end rich countries' agricultural export subsidies and dumping that destroy developing world markets No international plan to address the commodity price crisis No commitment to raise aid levels - in fact the text encouraging rich countries to increase overseas aid is less strong than it was 10 years ago in Rio No commitment to further cancelling of debt in the developing world These failures will reverberate for many
years. Thirteen million people in southern Africa currently facing famine must now know
that the world's leaders have let them down - there's no action to change the bad policies
that have turned the drought into a crisis. The two billion living in absolute poverty
must know that the visionary promise of the Millennium Development Goals was an empty
thing. With no commitment to significantly raise aid levels, does anyone now believe that
halving poverty by 2015 is possible? |
Oxton Festival 2002 |
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The new Oxton Festival which took place over the weekend of Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September was a huge success. Thousands of people attended the colourful event in glorious sunshine. Although not strictly a Green event, there was a sizeable Green contingent. Apart from WGA, there were representatives from Wirral Green Party, Wirral LA21 Forum, Oxton Green Community Shop, Greenpeace and Energy Projects Plus. The musical highlight of the weekend was provided by Martin Ward (above). Aided by his son Gene, he put in a powerful and evocative set to a capacity audience.
The Sun shone on the righteous at
the Oxton Festival held on Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September. The 2 day blip that
nearly never was, turned out to be a blast and on a socio-microscale, defences came down:
A beautiful public open space was used for something more creative than dog faeces
–although we still had to clean it up at the end. |
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