Posted on 08/29/2002 4:22:18 AM PDT by kattracks
Johannesburg (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of "anti-summit" protestors took to the streets here Thursday to criticize what they see as the "sustainable poverty" agenda of environmentalists at the Earth summit, formally known as the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development.
"Everything they are discussing here is actually going to retard development, and this is being done in the name of the poor. I think that is appalling, I think that is criminal," marcher Barun Mitra told CNSNews.com . Mitra is a farming advocate for India and a member of the Liberty Institute of New Delhi.
The protestors - including disgruntled street vendors, traders, farmers and free-market advocates - believe the Earth summit's agenda is designed to keep developing nations from achieving economic prosperity by limiting infrastructure development that environmentalists consider to be ecologically destructive.
The marchers also decried the environmentalists' push for organic farming methods in the developing world, where people are starving. That push for organic farming has condemned the residents of poor nations to "backbreaking agricultural techniques," critics say, instead of giving them the technology (genetically modified foods and pesticides) that would lead to higher crop yields.
Greens get 'B.S. Award'
The anti-summit protestors presented a special "B.S. award" to international environmental groups for "sustaining poverty." The award was a plaque heaped with two piles of animal excrement.
Mitra held up the plaque to the cheering crowd. "This is the B.S. Award that we want to present on behalf of the poor and poverty-stricken people of the Third World to the multinational NGO's (nongovernmental organizations), who led this conference into sustaining poverty instead of sustaining development," he announced.
As they marched through the streets surrounding the Sandton Convention Center, the protestors carried signs reading, "Profit Beats Poverty"; "People First"; "Trade Not Aid"; "Freedom to Farm"; "People Not Pandas"; and "Save the Earth from Sustainable Development."
Struggling street vendors who took part in the march were particularly incensed that a summit focused on poverty would permit city officials to bar them from selling their wares to the influx of visitors.
The protest march was organized by the Sustainable Development Network, which advocates free-market capitalism as the best way to lift up the world's poorest nations.
Mitra believes environmental activists at the summit "romanticize poverty when they come in their airplanes and stay in five-star hotels, talking about poverty and not giving the options to the people who are actually poor to come out of poverty."
According to Mitra, international environmentalists used the concept of sustainable development in India to stop the construction of a dam in the western part of the country.
"The dam would have given the residents running water and electricity," Mitra said.
The World Bank originally supported the dam, but withdrew because of pressure from international environmental groups who viewed the project as ecologically destructive.
'Earth's needs come first'
The marchers took direct aim at the goal of the United Nation's sustainable development policy, known as Agenda 21. Sustainable development is broadly defined as development that does not harm the environment.
Michael Coffman of Sovereignty International, a group that supports a free-market-based alternative to Agenda 21 called Freedom 21, told CNSNews.com the summit participants "define sustainable development as the earth's needs come first before anything else."
Coffman believes that the summit's message to the developing nations is, "You have no hope, you will never get out of poverty, you could never achieve the type of individualism that the rest of the world has achieved, so you might as well forget it."
"It is truly a religion that we need to be very cognizant of, because it could affect every person in the world, especially those in the U.S., in extreme ways," Coffman added.
Chengal Reddy of the Indian Federation of Farmers' Associations chastised the environmentalists for "misleading" poor people in the developing world.
According to Reddy, environmentalists have inserted themselves into the India's agricultural practices and opposed the use of genetically modified crops and modern chemical farming techniques in favor of more "earth-friendly" organic farming methods.
"There is definitely an arrogance on the part of these western activists. These people, they come all the way from the West and tell us how to live, they don't even understand the basic issues of farmers," Reddy said.
"Most of the Greens, they are a highly confusing lot: Some say you should not have machines, some say you should not construct dams, not have modern technology," Reddy said.
Other marchers were angry that the summit and city officials displaced the street vendors to "sanitize" Johannesburg. Rose Nkosi of the Informal Business Forum said the only way the street vendors could sell their wares to the influx of visitors during the summit was if they each paid $6,800 Rand (roughly $660 U.S. dollars).
"Where can a peasant who has nothing get that money from?" Nkosi asked.
"They say our people must move away because overseas people are coming, our people must not trade," she said.
The marchers expected something better from a summit devoted to alleviating poverty.
"It is too much emphasis on the environment and less for people," Nkosi said.
'Solidarity with our comrades'
Michael Dorsey of the Sierra Club dismissed the protesters' accusations that the Green movement wants to keep people in poverty. "Sustainable development without corporate accountability is indeed not sustainable development," Dorsey said in response.
"We at the Sierra Club stand in solidarity with our comrades in the North [industrial northern hemisphere], and especially the South [developing southern hemisphere]," he added.
Dorsey was more concerned about development that allows corporate control over the poor nations. "It is indeed not just about the impoverishment of people but potentially their imprisonment by the highest corporate bidder."
Greenpeace spokesman Brian Fitzgerald denied that the Green movement is trying to deny hihger living standards to the world's poorest nations.
"There is no reason not to significantly raise the quality of life for the developing world," Fitzgerald told CNSNews.com .
Fitzgerald, however, believes "the goal is not to make everybody like the West."
When asked if the U.S. needs to lower its living standards, Fitzgerald replied, "The U.S. could probably maintain their present standard of living now at a far lower cost to the environment."
Fitzgerald said the U.S. needs to invest in renewable energy sources to stop its ecological "destructiveness."
U.S. makes 'no apologies'
Michael Coffman of Sovereignty International rejected the notion that the U.S. should feel guilty about its environmental record.
"The U.S. has one of the best environmental stewardship records, we have no apologies to make to anyone," Coffman said.
"They are attacking the U.S. primarily because any type of development, any kind of human activity, they see as evil because it attacks Mother Earth," Coffman added.
See Related Stories:
Earth Summit Seen As 'Gathering to Attack Wealth'
Green Group Includes US In 'Axis of Environmental Evil'
Environmentalist Laments Introduction of Electricity (26 Aug. 2002)
Earth Summit: 'Historic Milestone' or 'Big Circus'? (23 Aug. 2002)
Environmentalists Link West Nile Virus to Global Warming (19 Aug. 2002)
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