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JOHANNESBURG--In
the first week of August,
a group of concerned citizens
and business leaders sent
a letter to President Bush,
applauding his decision
not to attend the World
Summit on Sustainable Development.
Their opposition to the
establishment of new environmental
accords and international
trade parameters reveals
their most deeply cherished
principle, a principle
that can be summed up in
three words: profits over
people. Their letter, however,
was largely a symbolic
gesture, and an unnecessary
one --President Bush never
intimated that he would
attend the Summit, and
even a cursory glance at
his record quickly indicates
that he aims to stay clear
of anything that might
interfere with the machine
of illusion that characterizes
his administration.
Even
if Bush had a personal interest
in going, however laughable
the possibility, he would
not be able to. No favorable
spin could be attached to
this action --he has antagonized
too many of the Summit's
delegates. More importantly
though, in order to participate
in the Summit, Bush would
have to relinquish his denial
of one inescapable fact:
that the US government and
US corporations bear some
responsibility for the significant
environmental destruction
and social inequities that
pervade the world. But perhaps
Bush's denial, what is actually
a legacy of denial inherited
from previous administrations,
is so enormous that it simply
cannot be lugged all over
the globe. Perhaps it must
stay in one place, in Washington,
DC, where the fires are said
to be under control, where
chinks in the armor can be
prevented, and where Bush
can continue in his fight
to rid the US government
of any responsibility for
the condition of the earth
and its peoples.
In the end, what is at stake
for President Bush is an
entire way of life that is
based on a system of production
that is utterly unsustainable;
a system that scavenges the
earth in search of cheap
labor and materials; a system
that churns commodities off
of endless, intertwining
assembly lines that snake
around the world; a system
that relies almost exclusively
on the burning of fossil
fuels that contaminate our
air and water; that produces
commodities that beget still
other commodities (parts,
packaging, advertising, and
then newer commodities thanks
to the bounty of built-in
obsolescence); and, finally,
a system that requires graveyards
for all those dead and abandoned
products. This is a system
of production that has taught
an entire nation that the
exploitation of labor and
natural resources, both domestic
and international, is the
correct model, that there
are people and places that
can be drained and forgotten,
like yesterday's bathwater.
This is why President Bush
did not attend the World
Summit, and this is why he
is unlikely to attend any
other conference of this
nature. Not, at least, until
the would-be saints of globalization
(free trade), privatization,
and deregulation have ushered
in the promised dawn of prosperity
for that half of the world's
population that survives
on less than two dollars
a day, many without electricity
or running water, and who
might have something to say
about it.
Indeed, the have-nots are
usually absent from the picture
that Bush presents in his
public addresses. The semblance
of reality that Bush and
his advisors construct for
the American audience conveniently
disregards the ravaging of
human labor, and the enormous
and ongoing devastation of
the earth that our system
of production entails. Fortunately,
Bush's position on environmental
problems and social inequities
competes in the public arena
with many other more credible
perspectives. And that is
why the president, though
he may want to exclude from
the public arena any debate
on sustainable development,
is clearly unable to do so.
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