Good News Agency – n° 1
Weekly - Year I - Number 1 - 23 June 2000
Editor: Sergio Tripi
Rome Law-court authorization no. 265 dated 20 June 200.
Good
News Agency carries positive and constructive news from
all over the world relating to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations,
non governmental organizations, and institutions engaged in improving the
quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day. Good News
Agency is distributed through internet to editorial offices of the daily
newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations
with an e-mail address and is available in its web site: http://www.goodnewsagency.org
Good News Agency is a service activity of Associazione Culturale dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale a registered non-profit educational
organization founded in Italy in 1979. The Association operates in support to
the Lucis Trust activities, the U.N. University for Peace, Radio For Peace
International and other organizations engaged in the spreading of a culture of
peace in the ‘global village’ perspective.
Via
Antagora 10, 00124 Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
Contents:
Human rights Science and health
Children’s rights Environment and Economics
Nuclear disarmament Art and human rights
Globalization and development Conferences and seminars
* * * * * * *
Fighting crime
(TOP)
Preparatory
Commission for International Criminal Court: 12-30 June
The aim of the Commission is to meet the mandated deadline of 30 June for finalization of the operational details of the Statute necessary for the eventual functioning of the Court.
The
Court, which is to be a permanent judicial body with jurisdiction over crimes committed
by individuals, will become operational once the treaty establishing it --
commonly referred to as the Rome Statute -- receives 60 ratifications. So far,
97 countries have signed the treaty and 11 have ratified it. Many others,
though, have announced their intention to ratify by the end of the year,
prompting the Chairman of the Commission to predict that the Court will come
into being earlier than initially anticipated.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000609.l2956.doc.html
Human Rights
(TOP)
International Day in
Support of Victims of Torture: 26 June
On 12 December 1997, the UN General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Economic and Social Council (decision 1997/251), proclaimed 26 June United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (resolution 52/149). The Day aims at the eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which entered into force in 1987.
http://www.un.org/events/ref39.htm
Special session of the
General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and
peace for the twenty-first century" – 5-9 June – New York
The General Assembly special session
entitled "Women
2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century" took place from 5 to 9 June 2000 in New York
on the progress of Women’s Rights in 180 nations. The Governments that took part to this Special Session
have reaffirmed their commitment to the goals and objectives contained in the
Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action adopted at the IV World
Conference on Women in 1995.
The
Governments recognised that “the goals and commitments made in the Platform for
Action have not been fully implemented and and have agreed upon further actions
and initiatives at local, national, regional, and international levels to
accelerate its implementation”.
The
Beijing Platform for Action identified 12 critical areas for priority action to
achieve the advancement and empowerment of women. The Commission on the Status
of Women has reviewed progress in each of the 12 critical areas of concern and
since 1996 has adopted agreed conclusions and recommendations for accelerated
implementation, which is the sovereign responsibility of each State.
The
Governments at this Special Session have recognised that “progress has been
made by pursuing a two-pronged approach of promoting employment and
income-generating activities for women and providing access to basic special
services, including education and health care. Micro-credit and other financial
instruments for women have emerged as a successful strategy for economic
empowerment and have widened economic opportunities for some women living in
poverty, in particular in rural areas. Policy development has taken account of
the particular needs of female-headed households. Research has enhanced the
understanding of the differing impacts of poverty on women and men and tools have
been developed to assist with this assessment”.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/beijing+5.htm
Women's anti-discrimination Committee holds twenty-third session
United Nations, New York, 12 to 30 June
The
twenty-third session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women -- the only United Nations human rights treaty body that deals
exclusively with women’s rights – is taking place at United Nations Headquarters
in New York from 12 to 30 June.
The
Committee monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which was adopted by the General
Assembly in 1979 and came into force in 1981. The Convention, which as of 1 May
had been ratified or acceded to by 165 countries, requires States parties to
eliminate discrimination against women in the enjoyment of all civil,
political, economic and cultural rights.
At this
session, it will review the reports of seven States parties to the Convention:
Cameroon, Republic of Moldova, Lithuania, Iraq, Austria, Cuba and Romania.
Countries
that have ratified or acceded to the Convention are legally bound to put its
provisions into practice. They are also committed to submit national reports,
one year after becoming a State party and then at least once every four years,
on measures they have taken to comply with their treaty obligations.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000608.wom1211.doc.html
IPU: spotlight on the
parliamentary representation for women
Statistics
released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in the first half of this month
show that the representation of women in the two branches of the State -
Parliament and the Executive - has changed very little since 1995, and has
declined in some cases.
The
numbers were presented to media at the Beijing + 5 conference at UN
headquarters together with a colour-coded world map depicting the presence, or
absence, of women in national parliaments.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Children’s Rights
(TOP)
1st Anniversary of ILO Convention Against Worst Form of Child Labour: June 17
The
Convention 182 marked the first in International Labour Organisation history
that a convention or treaty was adopted with the unanimous support of all
members. Among the government, employer and worker representatives, there were
415 votes in favour of the Convention and no votes against it. So far eleven
countries have ratified the Convention. These are Seychelles, Malawi, United
States of America, Botswana, Brazil, Finland, Ireland, Indonesia, Kuwait, Slovakia
and San Marino. There are ongoing activities on ratification in the rest of the
countries around the world.
Global March movement is involved in assessing
and lobbying for the ratification and implementation of the Convention. The partners of the Global March movement form an effective network around the world. Acting
as vigilant observers and lobbying with governments in their region, they form
the backbone of the movement. The Global
March International Secretariat is located in New Delhi, India.
Mandela and Machel to lead
global children's initiative
Former South Africa President Nelson
Mandela and child rights champion Graça Machel proposed an ambitious new global
partnership for children and pledged to play a direct and personal role in
urging other leaders to join them. “Together with the Canadian Government and UNICEF we will be bringing
together, for the first time, world leaders in September in Winnipeg, to ensure
that as leaders we take action to protect children from violations of their
rights in conflict" said Ms. Machel.
With
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy by their side, Mr. Mandela and Ms.
Machel announced plans to build a partnership of global leaders who would be at
the vanguard of a "bold new movement to turn the world around for millions
of children."
Nuclear Disarmament
(TOP)
President of Conference on Disarmament proposed (8 June) a programme of
work in three parts, addressing
the issue of a ban of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons,
nuclear disarmament and the prevention of an arms race in outer space.
Jean
Lint, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations Office at
Geneva, President of the Conference for period of four weeks, stated that to
find an acceptable compromise was not an easy task, and called for a spirit of
flexibility and understanding. He hoped he would be able to submit a programme
of work before the next plenary meeting of the Conference.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000608.dcf396.doc.html
Globalisation and Development
(TOP)
FOCSIV seminar on ethics, finance and development – 13 June, Rome
At the seminar organized by Volontari del
Mondo – FOCSIV – (Federazione Organismi Cristiani Servizio Internazionale
Volontariato) amongst the many participants were representatives from CISDE
(Coopération internazionale pur le Developpement et la Solidarité), Caritas
Internationalis, the UN Finance and Development Branch, and the Pontiff
Council for Peace and Justice.
For information: focsiv@www.glauco.it
INES 2000: Challenges for
Science and Engineering in the 21st Century
June 14-18, Stockholm
The
conference, organised by INES, the International Network of Engineers and
Scientists for Global Responsibility, focussed on important issues for
sustainability addressing four theme areas: a) Developing the culture of
science and engineering; b) Science and engineering for a finite world; c)
Humanizing the economy in a global context; d) Steps towards comprehensive
security and lasting peace. INES was founded in 1991 and has become a network
of over 80 member organizations and individual members in 50 countries.
IV Rome
International Forum on national debt – 15-16 June.
The forum, organized by Sdebitarsi Jubilee 2000 and by the Rome Municipality, analyzed the situation and prospects of those poor countries with very heavy national debts. In his opening speech, the Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, underlined how the situation should be faced by combining the rules regarding the assigning of financial aid with the solidarity felt in shared responsibility. Participants studied the future prospects of national debt, the efficiency of the initiatives and the role of the various parties engaged in its solving, as well as the corrective factors necessary for hasty recovery from national debt, and the taking into consideration of the necessity of changing those unjust factors which contribute to the way national debt is created. The Forum then focused on Northern and Southern Africa, the contribution on the part of local networks for sustainable development between the north and south of the world, the Italian initiative to cancel national debt and for cooperation in development, and the laws relating to foreign debt.
http://www.unimondo.org/sdebitarsi
Special Session of the General Assembly on the "World Summit for Social
Development and beyond: achieving social development for all in a globalizing
world " – 26-30 June – Geneva
Its
objectives are to reaffirm the Summit's Declaration and Programme of Action, to
identify progress made and lessons learned in implementing them, and to recommend
actions to further their implementation.
At the
Summit, held in 1995 in Copenhagen, heads of State or government from 117
countries pledged to give highest priority to policies promoting social
progress, social justice, the betterment of the human condition and social
integration.
http://www.un.org/events/ref39.htm
ESCAP's
fifty-sixth commission session ends on optimistic note
On June 7th the Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) ended its fifty-sixth annual Commission
session. The Commission noted that given the irreversible nature of
globalization and interdependence, the overarching
challenge facing the region was to manage the risks and to seize the
opportunities of globalization, so that the benefits could be shared equally.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000607.rec92.doc.html
Environment
(TOP)
World Environment Day: 5
June
Currently celebrated in more than 125countries.
The theme of world environment day 2000 is “2000 – The Environment Millennium : Time to Act”, a theme which urges institutes and society to demonstrate its pledge to protect the environment and to prevent further damage to our one and only Earth.
One of UNEP’s slogans is: “Not simply just another day like all the others”.
http://www.onuitalia.it/news/giornate/ambiente00.html
By a resolution of 1972, the un General
Assembly designated 5 June as World Environment Day, to deepen public awareness
of the need to preserve and enhance the environment. That date recalls the
opening day of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
(Stockholm, 1972), which led to the establishment of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP).
http://www.un.org/events/ref39.htm
New hope for Brazilian forests
Forty-two Brazilian lumber companies constitute an alliance called: Compradores de Madeira Certificada, pledged to buying only lumber recognized as being sustainable. The certificate of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) guarantees that lumber carrying the FSC stamp comes from forests treated with agreed social, economic and environmental standards. About 18 million hectares of forest in 15 countries carry the FSC certificate, including 1 million hectares in Brasil.
http://www.positivenews.org.uk
World Day
to Combat Desertification and Drought:17 June
World Day to Combat Desertification and
Drought, 17 June, was proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1994 (resolution
49/115). On that date, the same year, the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification was adopted. States were invited to devote the World Day to
promoting awareness of the need for international cooperation to combat
desertification and the effects of drought, and on the implementation of the
Convention to Combat Desertification.
http://www.un.org/events/ref39.htm
Recycling
electrical goods
Europeans
would be able to return their outdated electrical goods to the products'
manufacturers under a new law proposed by the European Commission
yesterday. The proposal aims to cut down on heavy metals and other
pollutants in municipal waste by requiring manufacturers to take back
electrical goods and recycle at least 60 to 80 percent of the products,
starting in five years. Goods affected would range from computers to
refrigerators to toys. The proposal needs approval from European Union
member states and the European Parliament. The EU recently passed a
similar take-back law for automobiles.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7087
Science and health
(TOP)
World No-Tobacco Day: 31
May
Theme – Entertainment and Tobacco Promotion-
Countering the Deception
Slogan – Tobacco Kills – Don't Be Duped
Objective – To pave the way for national and
global policy action banning the advertising and promotion of tobacco.
''The tobacco companies spend $6 billion a year
enticing youth to smoke. …They make you believe that if you smoke, you're going
to be sexy, attractive, successful, accepted by your peers, rocking, and macho,
cool and sassy. They project this image in every media – from day—time movies
to night-time movies, magazines and even cartoon characters,'' says former
"Winston'' man turned tobacco control activist Allan Landers.
Thailand was the venue for the global WNTD
event on May 31st, 2000.
http://www.who.int/toh/media/wntd2000/wntd2000.htm
11th World Conference on
Tobacco OR Health: 6-11 August – Chicago
With the object of stimulating the collective awareness of the dangers resulting from smoking, the 11th “World Conference on Tobacco OR Health” will be held in Chicago from 6 to 11 August.
This will be the first time in 25 years the U.S. has hosted the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health. Four thousand delegates are expected from more than 200 countries throughout the world.
Workshops and plenaries will address the full
range of tobacco issues including:
The science of addiction: Current and future
research
Alarming trends in international tobacco
marketing
Cultural approaches to tobacco control
Television's glamorization of smoking
New cessation and prevention techniques
Tobacco and kids across the world.
http://www.wctoh.org/news_pr_0511500.html
Major Japanese donation
for polio eradication
The contribution of $28.6 million will provide crucial support to polio eradication in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nigeria and Sudan -- six of the 30 priority countries where the disease continues to threaten millions of children with paralysis and death.
With this latest increase in available funding, Ms. Carol Bellamy (UNICEF Executive Director) expressed confidence that the 2005 target date for certifying the world polio-free is well within reach.
The Dutch
government has announced a contribution of 20 million guilders (approximately US$10
million).
The Polio Eradication Initiative, launched in 1988, is spearheaded by WHO, Rotary International, CDC and UNICEF. Since the Initiative began, the number of polio cases has fallen by 95% to approximately 7000 reported cases in 1999. More than 190 countries and territories will have interrupted poliovirus transmission by the end of the year 2000.
www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-WHA06.html
www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-33.html
Environment and Economics
(TOP)
Profit and environment
An
Australian company, Earth Sanctuaries Ltd., is aiming to turn a profit by
protecting land and wildlife. The company, one of the first of its kind
in the world, operates three Australian conservation sanctuaries and plans to
buy land to create new sanctuaries. It intends to make money by attracting
tourists, selling food and merchandise, and hosting conferences and other
events at its facilities, as well as by consulting on wildlife and conservation
management issues. The company's stock hasn't fared well since it began
trading on the Australian Stock Exchange on May 8, but John Wamsley, Earth
Sanctuaries’ managing director, is optimistic that the company has developed a
model that will prove successful over the next five years.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36850,00.html
http://www.gristmagazine.com
Our World in the Year 2000
12 July-28 August – New York – U.
N. Headquarters
The United
Nations Millennium Art Exhibition in aid of UNICEF - "Our World in the Year 2000" - is the result of a competition that
drew 22,500 entrants from 51 countries.
(The competition has been recorded by the Guinness Book of Records as the
largest international painting competition in the world.)
The
paintings, which express concerns about the environment, impressions of the
world and how war and technology affect people, are by young and old, amateur
and professional artists.
The aims of
the competition were threefold: to promote the art and craft of painting as a
cross-cultural activity giving people a means to express their ideas, thoughts
and feelings; to reveal the extraordinary diversity of artistic expression
around the world; and to look at the world through the eyes of its artists,
both professional and amateur.
The United
Nations Postal Administration issued 6 stamps (2 in New York, 2 in
Geneva and 2 in Vienna) using 6 of the winning paintings.
http://www.un.org/events/highlights/world2000.htm
Arts and Human Rights
(TOP)
An international exhibition of women artists in honor
of the UN Beijing +5 review
June 5-27, 70 Artists from 50 Countries
2000 – United Nations – New York
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
in partnership with the International Museum of Women (IMOW) of San Francisco
organised an international art exhibition, Progress of the World's Women, with
pieces of more than 70 artists from 50 countries.
http://www.unifem.undp.org/beijing+5/pressroom/pr_exhibit.html
Conferences, Seminars and Meetings
(TOP)
“Change, challenge and the
curriculum”
30
June – 1 July – Oxfam – University of Hertfordshire
A conference on education for world citizenship open to teachers and educators concerned with methodological problems.
For information: pdavis@oxfam.org.uk
Non profit enterprise
7-8 July – Stresa (Verbania) - Italy
ISTUD Istituto Studi Professionali. Third edition of the Program for the development of Managerial Culture in non profit enterprises with seminar on the planning and handling of projects.
For information: 0323/933801
“Citizenship and immigration”
15-22 July – Cecina Mare (Livorno) - Italy
VI International Anti-racialist Meeting organized by ARCI, with the participation of hundreds of young people from all over the world. The meeting offers awareness and study of racialism and intolerance.
For information: 055/2638867 – www.arcitoscana.org
Nuclear Weapons in a Vulnerable
World
August 9 through 18 the Isodarco Summer Course will
convene in the town of Rovereto on the eastern Italian Alps. The seminar
“Nuclear Weapons in a Vulnerable World” will bring together scientists,
historians, military analysts, and public interest leaders of diverse
experiences. Presentations will elaborate answers to such questions as: How
have these weapons of mass destruction affected political systems and relations
among nations? What ere the prospects for their control, management and
elimination?
E-mail: isodarco@roma2infn.it
Interview with Ervin Laszlo
by Sergio Tripi
(TOP)
Ervin Laszlo, scientist,
philosopher, pianist and author of over 50 books, is the founder of the Club of
Budapest, member of the Club of Rome, of the International Academy of Science,
scientific consultant to UNESCO and Rector of the Vienna Academy. He taught as
resident professor in several universities, among them Yale, Princeton and the
New York State University. He lives in Italy, in the Province of Siena.
Sergio Tripi, an author and
journalist, is the Representative in Italy of the U. N. University for Peace.
He is the founder and president of the
Associazione Culturale Triangoli e Buona Volontà Mondiale, a non-profit organization that operates in
synergy with the Lucis Trust and with other international organizations engaged
in the spreading of a culture of peace in the ‘global village’ perspective.
Sergio Tripi: One of the thoughts that attracts most people is the fact that the world today is confronted with a number of basic emergencies requiring urgent attention. In your opinion, what are the most striking and pressing emergencies that the world today is facing?
Ervin Laszlo: I can summarise it in one word :
sustainability – which, in a well recognised and international community, is
not only an ecological issue but also a social and economic issue; of course it
is thereby also a political issue. The single key factor that poses the
greatest challenge is the fact that the kind of world we have created in the
second half of the twentieth century cannot live for long into the early
twenty-first century without causing major breakdowns. Therefore we have to
change. Now this has ecological dimensions in terms of the deterioration of the
basic ecological life support systems, and it has social-economic dimensions in
terms of marginalisation when an increasing number of the human community,
about one and a half billion people, that is one fourth of the human
population, live below the minimum living standards, defined by the World Bank
as one dollar a day. And the problem that consumption patterns, management
styles, and political behaviour are still not adapted to a community of six
billion people. They are more adapted to a nationally based industrial system
of the middle of the twentieth century. But that is now on the way out. We are
moving into a globally interconnected information based society which is not
sustainable in the present mode.
S.T. : The
picture you paint is the picture presented to us by certain attitudes of the
human being: selfishness, aggressiveness, and the consequent exploitation of
the world today. How do you think these attitudes should change and be anchored
to a new set of values, and what should these new values be?
Ervin Laszlo : One could say again – using a single
key word for this – one would have to re-socialise the human community into its new global condition. We are
socialised into small regional communities, at the most into national states.
We are having difficulty moving from the national state in Europe to a European
Union and in finding common values. We are motivated here of course by open
markets and by a common currency, but world wide, despite the presence of the
United Nations, the human community is still very strongly centred on so called
independent and sovereign nation states which cannot solve the problems that
are confronting the overall community, or cannot create an equitable and
peaceful system that includes about 190 independent national governments. We
can only conceive such a world if people; if politics; if societies;
re-socialise into a global community creating a foundation for peace. That
means that the individual has to develop multiple loyalties; solidarities,
beyond the level of his or her own family, enterprise, community or nation.
These stands of loyalties have to move to the level of an entire cultural
region, to the intercultural and international level, and finally to the global
level. As long as people do not feel themselves to be members of a human
community, developing on this planet as an integrated whole, interacting and
sustaining themselves within the ambit of nature, its biosphere; and as long as
people feel themselves separate from each other, from other cultures, from nature,
they are going to behave selfishly, they are going to have consumption patterns
that are intolerable for others, the rich are going to consume far too much –
without respect for the needs and possibilities of the poor, the poor in turn
will overload their immediate environment – over exploiting it in their own
search for survival. And in some cases, with the present patterns of political
and civic behaviour, the present consumption patterns, the present style of
management of major international business organisations, and in the present
style of political leadership in national government, we are creating a stress
in the system which means that instead of integrating on the global level, this
system is coming apart. It is becoming stressed and fractionated into rich and
poor; into powerful and powerless; into those who have access to resources and
those who do not have access to resources.
S.T.: Urgent issues requiring new attitudes; and
attitudes based on new values. Do we have time to adopt these new values and
new attitudes and, assuming that we do, in which areas do we need to intervene
as quickly as possible to see them adopted?
Ervin Laszlo: We are in a race against time,
against change. As H.G.Wells said at the beginning of this century: the future
will be decided in a race between education and disaster. We could repeat this.
We could say that our future in the early twenty-first century will be decided
in a race between the evolution of a new, more global consciousness in the
masses and the increasing fractioning, the increasing divergences that we have
in the contemporary world. So the important elements are: information and
education. Information obviously is a general term but it is not enough just to
have information, it also has to be relevant. It also has to be the kind of
information that people need in order to orient themselves in this world. It is
not enough just to give immediate attention to sensationalistic items of
information, to catastrophes, or to the doings of political leaders, or wars.
All of these of course have their place in the media and in the information
flow, but what we need is the understanding of the basic trends, the basic
processes that shape our world and decide our destiny, our future. So we need
more relevant information – this so as to reach the main stream population:
adults and young people, old people, people of all ages. This is possible
because we have the necessary flows of information; we have the technology.
The other area is obviously education, where we
have to reach young people, those who will come onto the scene as the managers
and the actors of the human community in the next ten or twenty years. Without
their understanding, without the development of their consciousnesses, we have
no future at all. So education has to start at a very early age; it has to
start in the kindergartens and move on, through the secondary schools to the
universities. It is not a hopeless task because humanity has always created the
values that it needs to survive in a society that is becoming ever more
complex. But right now we have a lag. Our system of values, our world views,
the way we look at ourselves, look at nature, and look at other cultures, is
below the needed threshold; is behind the times; it is obsolete. It was alright
fifty years ago, it was alright perhaps thirty years ago, but in the last
twenty years certain developments have overtaken it. So we need the kind of
consciousness, the kind of values that permit all people to survive in this
world, and young people have to understand from the very beginning that in
order to achieve this they have to know what the basic trends are, why they
occur, why our world is unsustainable, and how we can make it sustainable.
S.T.: Information and education then are the two
most urgent areas that need to be stimulated and tuned up to synthesise with
these new trends. This seems to be possible at least where education is
concerned – in several countries there are examples of fresh approaches to
educational issues. The media on the other hand seems to continue to be guided
by its quest for quantity rather than for quality – looking for audiences and
readers as desperately as ever. What possibilities are there of seeing this
change in the future?
Ervin Laszlo: The problem with the media is that
they underestimate the change in the public’s mentality. They believe that it
is still the old context, the old values that dominate. They don’t realise that
a lot of people: young people, intellectuals, sensitive people of all kinds are
frustrated, fed up and are wanting something different, are more interested in
understanding our future, understanding the evolutionary processes under way
than just looking at sensationalistic headlines. Once media understand that
there are more people interested in this kind of information I am sure that
they will supply that information because what they are looking for is
audience. Now they are dominated, as you say, by quantitative measures – what
is the rating of a television or radio programme, how many people tune in to
it, what are the subscription rates of a journal or of a newspaper, or a
magazine. These are the issues that decide the media’s attention. If the
media understand that they can sell (and I use this commercial term advisably,
because they do want to sell) relevant information, I am sure they will provide
relevant information.
S.T.: This picture seems to correspond with a new
situation in the audiences and readership of the media. There is an increasing
number of people who are losing interest in the information they receive. They
are often disoriented and they are looking for something new. So it is a matter
of becoming aware of that part of the public that is desperately looking for
new viewing and reading material. And another factor that might endorse and
support what you are saying is the presence in this country of over five
million people making some sort of voluntary contribution to society in one
field or another. Would you say that this is indicative of hope, of progress
for the future?
Ervin Laszlo: Well, there are two sectors of
society that are extremely important and representative of hope for the future.
One is this voluntary sector, which is often consolidated in the non
governmental organisations, whether national or international, and they try to
do something that is more meaningful than the official inter-governmental and
governmental agencies do. And the number of these NGO’s has grown exponentially
in the past ten to twenty years. This is a very hopeful sector; an important
sector. The other one is an informal sector which is sometimes called the
alternative cultures and which ranges from the people who are close to the
mainstream and who actually just want to live in a different way and to change there
own life style, all the way to the sects, the somewhat crazy lunatic age people
who ardently share a very different ideology, rejecting the establishment,
society. So it’s a very wide spectrum. But very many people, even in this
informal sector, are seriously trying to change their own lifestyle, their own
patterns of consumption, their own political behaviour. Many of them are trying
to leave the big cities, to go out to the country, to live more their own life.
You can see this in Tuscany where many people come from big cities all over
Europe and all of a sudden find themselves trying to do organic farming or to
live a more self-contained, a more sustainable way of life. So both the formal
and the informal sectors of society show a process of change. These processes
of change need to be supported.
S.T.:
Would you say, then, that there are more signs of hope or more signs of
desperation?
Ervin Laszlo: I think the two go together. The
more the situation becomes critical, the more people are re-thinking their
behaviour patterns and their values and are evolving their own consciousnesses.
The hope for an entirely smooth, linear kind of a transition by little steps is
actually fading. We are likely to see some major changes occurring quite
suddenly, like we saw in Eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990 when all of sudden
that whole, so called second world just disappeared, practically from one day
to the next. We are likely to see major changes which are unforeseen even just
the day before. But at the same time I think the preparedness of people is
increasing. More and more people are coming on to wavelengths where they
realise that a strongly non linear, a strongly qualitative kind of a change
process is ahead of us. And especially young people are looking for new ways of
being and of doing things and are ready to take responsibilities. So I think in
this sense the desperateness of the situation is at the same time a cause for
hope because it is coupled with a greater awareness and a greater willingness
to change.
S.T.: Are there definite signs that support
this view – signs of a response on the part of those people who are more aware?
Ervin Laszlo: There are some surveys being done
in Europe – we still have to do more of them. In America some surveys have been
conducted which show that there are over forty million Americans who belong to
so called integral cultures – a term used to describe organisations or groups
of people who are adopting an entirely different lifestyle and consumption
pattern, and trying to live in a more sustainable way, a more modest way.
Voluntary simplicity is another term used in this connection. So it appears
that there are more people than one would think who are already attempting to
change. The greatest need, and at the same time the greatest lack, is
communication between these people. They are a bit lost. These people think
that they are very few in number, think that yes, we are, or I am, willing to
change but that few people in other parts of the world, or even in my country,
are willing to do that. Yet this is not true. So I think joining these people
together, finding a common platform for them, establishing communications
between them, would be a very important activity.
S.T.: In
conclusion, the message then is: work hard and look to the future with
enthusiasm. Is that right?
Ervin Laszlo: That’s right. With hope but with
the acceptance of responsibility. Not only asking for your own rights but
accepting responsibility for yourself, for other people in this world, for
nature, and even for future generations.
Readers
will find further information, perspectives and links at the web site www.globalcensus.org