Posted on 08/25/2002 5:20:23 PM PDT by Pokey78
Really? I thought their aim was "saving the planet." No mention that Christ already accomplished that, but paganism continues in glass covered towers these days.
Osama had hundreds of millions of dollars. I wonder if that made him a have or a have not.
===============
"There is nothing upon which the world is so hard as poverty; nothing which it condemns so readily as the pursuit of weath." Ibid.
U.S. to Britain: "Tell you what: You zip it about the Revolutionary War, and we won't start dunning you for all the billions of dollars of goodies you got through the Lend-Lease Act."
Regards, Ivan
More than time to pull out of the UN.
And don't expect the US to pull them out of WWIII (G-d forbid!).
That would be a start. I'd maintain that you also need respect for private property, limited government, and respect for the rule of law.
--Rev. Ike
Mon Aug 26, 4:46 AM ET
By Alastair Macdonald
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The Earth Summit opened on Monday in Johannesburg, giving world governments driven by a mix of idealism and realpolitik just 10 days to agree on ways to haul millions out of poverty without poisoning the planet.
In a plush convention center ringed by battalions of police and troops and guarded by sharpshooters on rooftops, host president Thabo Mbeki of South Africa said it was time to scrap a world order based on the "savage principle of the survival of the fittest."
Mbeki, who called Sunday for an end to "global apartheid" between rich and poor, was elected president of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) by delegates from nearly 200 nations.
"A global human society based on poverty for many and prosperity for a few, characterized by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable," Mbeki told the U.N. conference's opening plenary session.
Shielded by 10,000 extra police and troops from potential protests and from sprawling, crime-ridden slums, officials made scant progress over the weekend in bridging a wide gulf between hesitant rich states and poor nations demanding more aid and fairer trade.
"Everybody is very pessimistic," one Italian delegate said.
Those on the outside were scarcely more optimistic: "This meeting will contribute to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer," said Trevor Ngwane, who campaigns against privatizing water supplies in Johannesburg's Soweto township.
"This is not our summit," he told South African television.
BUSH ABSENT
More than 100 world leaders -- with the notable exception of President Bush ( news - web sites) -- are due in Johannesburg for a day or two next week.
Protesters accuse the United States and European Union ( news - web sites) of pushing the interests of globalizes big business at the expense of the very poor. Some activists have already confronted police, who clamped down hard and have warned they will not tolerate the kind of mayhem seen at summits in Seattle, Genoa and elsewhere.
At a colorful opening ceremony Sunday, Mbeki recalled the solidarity that helped overcome apartheid in 1994: "This is a world in which a rich minority enjoys unprecedented levels of consumption, comfort and prosperity while a poor majority enjoys daily hardship, suffering, dehumanization," he said.
There was now a common need to end "global apartheid."
From Monday, it is up to ministers to push the negotiations forward. The goal is for leaders to sign off on an inter-linked package of measures ranging from providing clean water supplies and saving fish stocks to fighting AIDS ( news - web sites).
Bush's absence has provoked critics to question the commitment of the global superpower and biggest polluter to the green agenda first agreed at Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago.
Bush is too busy dealing with security problems in the wake of last September 11 and with the economy, U.S. officials say.
Washington is leading resistance to demands from developing countries for concrete commitments to higher aid payments and more access to Western import markets but says it is keen to promote worthy projects in partnership with private enterprise.
WORLDS APART?
Though not a legally binding treaty, the UN organizers hope that pledges entered into so publicly by world leaders can revive a drive for environmentally friendly economic growth that was launched 10 years at the first Earth Summit in Rio.
Most of those promises, designed to bring prosperity to poor regions like Africa without causing the ecological damage created by industrialization in the West, remain unfulfilled.
Richer nations complain that much of their aid has been squandered by corrupt or incompetent governments in the Third World and are demanding better guarantees of good governance.
"The global community has, as yet, not demonstrated the will to implement the decisions it has freely adopted," 60-year-old Mbeki said in his opening speech Monday.
"It is as though we are determined to regress to the most primitive condition of existence in the animal world, of the survival of the fittest."
The summit will concentrate the work of its thousands of official delegates on five key areas -- cleaner water, non-polluting energy, better health, sustainable agriculture and preserving the "biodiversity" of the Earth's many species.
Healthcare is on the agenda for plenary talks Monday, with delegates keen to underscore how poor health causes poverty and poverty means a lack of adequate medical care for billions.
One South African in nine suffers from HIV ( news - web sites)/AIDS, which has ravaged much of the continent, decimating the active workforce and leaving millions of children without parents.
Nothing is EVER achieved at these Socialist "group-hugs". They yap for three or so days about their idyllic society and this feeds their soul till the next meeting. At least this time they are admitting it.
What's this? More of that British Speak?
The Mariah Carey weight loss program...........
Actually I kinda like her since she had the gumption to jump out of the mental hospital (she was in at the time) and perform at the 9-11 tribute program. She discharged previous sins by doing so.
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