In
his perceptive editorial in this issue on solving
the critical problems the International Conference
on Freshwater will address in Bonn, Jack Freeman
concluded that, "What it boils down to, when
you get past the gobbledygook, is: money, money
and more money." Agreed. But not only money.
To begin with, how do we get past the gobbledygook?
Is the gobbledygook an unavoidable obstacle or
does it serve a useful purpose? And if so, what
is the purpose and how can it be made more useful?
By gobbledgygook, I presume Jack is referring to the
name tags used for many UN programs and international
conferences. I have just adopted two such name tags
in launching the Carriage House Center on Globalization
and Sustainability. The Center was inaugurated by UN
Secretary General Kofi A. Annan and we're off to a
good start. But we have been asked what we mean by
globalization and sustainability and we're fussing
with the answer.
Jack spoke of the
Conference on Freshwater as one of many on what
has come to be called the road to
Johannesburg, that is the road to the World Summit
on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg
next September. Though the term "Sustainable
Development" has been widely publicized throughout
the world since the Earth Summit in Rio, I continue
to hear people ask, what is it? Most people in the
know have a pretty good idea of what the "Sustainable
Development" means though their definitions
are often not necessarily identical. But they are
sufficiently close to enable those us who glibly
use the terms to converse meaningfully with each
other. We are in much the same position as Justice
Potter Stewart who refrained from defining pornography
in the opinion he wrote in the Supreme Court's decision
in Jacobellis vs. Ohio by simply saying that "I
shall know it when I see it."
Name tags are as indispensable in discussion as
the separation of topics is to the orderly consideration
of the complex issues the UN is addressing. But some
name tags are more useful than others. Global warming
is a great name tag for the conferences on Climate
Change. It tells about the consequences of greenhouse
gas emissions and incites inquiry into the causes.
AIDS is also a highly descriptive name tag for the
disease that is damaging so many people throughout
the world. Most everyone knows about the horrors
of the disease. The name tag implies that the conferees
are meeting to learn about causes and cures. The
international artist, Robert Rauschenberg, called
attention to ozone depletion with a dramatic painting
of the word ozone with goblets of paint dripping
from the words.
Such name tags as globalization and sustainability
are words of generality and they cry out for definition.
At the Carriage House, we have decided to create
what we are calling Carriage House Initiatives. Our
first is a Carriage House Initiative on Clean Air,
and Tim Ingham of Honeywell is serving as chairman.
The aim is to address the causes and cures of air
that is polluted and can be improved through the
latest systems conserving energy. We have also created
a Carriage House Initiative on Workplace Distance
Learning as an aid to worker education and training
in helping developing countries out of the binds
of poverty. Marshall Goldberg, the Executive Director
of the Association of Joint Labor/Management Educational
Programs, is serving as the chairman of that initiative.
And there are other such defining issues in the making
with more to come in our effort to give mean to the
generality of globalization and sustainability.
But what about the International Conference on Freshwater
faces? To put it mildly, the name doesn't grab you.
It tells you nothing about the problems and nothing
about the cures. To be sure, it is very difficult
to summarize the problems and cures in a name tag.
But something more dramatic is needed than the mere
mention of Freshwater with 1.3 billion people living
without safe water, 2.4 billion without basic sanitation
and two million children dying each year from diseases
caused by poor sanitation and hygiene.
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