Friday, May 16, 2008

Food for Thought...

“They Shoot Our Heroes,
Don’t They.”

“A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough.

But a revolution is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”

We all have heroes. Some of them are people working in their community for change, others are known worldwide: Ghandi, Chico Mendes, John Lennon, Saro-Wiwa, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy. For me, it’s Robert Kennedy. The words above were said in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King. They captured a different time, but are perhaps as relevant today. Robert was shot in the Ambassador Hotel on June 5th 1968, having won the California Primary. With his death died the hopes of many.

June 5th is also World Environment Day, established in 1972 at the first UN Conference on Environment. This year’s event deals with one of the greatest challenges that we face in this generation – Climate Change. Under the slogan Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon economy, UNEP is asking countries, companies and communities to focus on greenhouse gas emissions and how to reduce them.

The challenges we face not only include climate change but also water security, energy security, migration, population growth, massive growth of urbanisation, and increasing consumption patters. Underlying this is an increase in inequality between the rich and the poor. We know that the richest fifth of the world's people consumes 86 percent of all goods and services while the poorest fifth consumes just 1.3 percent. Even more extreme, we know that the world's 225 richest individuals, of whom 60 are Americans with total assets of $311 billion, have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion -- equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the entire world's population.

In such an unequal world here are some appropriate words on GNP from Robert Kennedy in 1968:

“Our gross national product now is over 800 billion dollars a year, but that gross national product, if we judge the United States of America by that, that gross national product counts air pollution, and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic squall. It counts Napalm, and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our city. It counts Whitman's rifles and Speck's Knifes and the television programs, which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet, the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play; it does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate for the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America, except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

We are surely missing our heroes.

Race for Tomorrow