| JOHANNESBURG--As
the World Summit for Sustainable Development
goes into the history books, and the city of Johannesburg
prepares to get back to its usual routines, here
are some personal notes from a reporter's notebook
about the past 10 days: Does bigger mean better?
Although
the summit failed to match some of the official forecasts
of the number of participants (UN conferences seldom
do), it will still be remembered as the largest UN
conference of all time. Summit Secretary General
Nitin Desai had expressed concern the week before
the summit that special provisions would have to
be put in place to deal with the problem of overcrowding,
but here in Johannesburg everything seemed to run
very smoothly.
At one
point the NGOs protested that they
were being kept out of the convention
center and threatened to walk out (a
tactic they have used before), but after
a compromise was worked out with summit
officials, that threat was withdrawn.
It wasn't until the summit was effectively
over that the "walkout" took
place.
Ink-stained wretches rejoice.
Among the ladies and gentlemen of the
press, the Johannesburg summit will be
remembered as a high-water mark. The
accreditation process was handled with
incredible speed and efficiency. The
pressroom in the basement of the convention
center was spacious, well organized and
equipped with a couple of hundred computers,
all with Internet access. What's more,
there was a technical support desk manned
by some young men who could be summoned
for assistance if anything went wrong-and
seemed able to solve any problem in a
matter of minutes. Sue Markham, the summit's
spokesperson, was also unfailingly helpful,
both at the daily noon briefings and
whenever anyone approached her with a
question. As at conferences past, two
of her aides, Dan Shepard and Pragati
Pascal, also stood out for being both
extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
But where was the buzz?
For all of these reasons, the summit
was a delight to cover-except for the
fact that it generated only minimal excitement.
With the man who might be called the
villain of the piece, President George
W. Bush, staying away, and the US Secretary
of State not making an appearance until
the very last day, it was almost impossible
for critics of the United States and
its anti-Kyoto-Protocol policies to score
any solid hits. When one side in a confrontation
consists only of low-level functionaries,
it's tough for a reporter to convince
his or her editor that news has been
committed.
But George W. Bush wasn't the only person
missing at Johannesburg. Cuba's President
Fidel Castro, whose speeches have provided
the highlights of many previous UN conferences,
chose not to come, along with several
other newsworthy figures. Rio, as I remember
it, was a magnet for celebrity newsmakers
such as Jacques-Yves Cousteau and artist
Robert Rauschenberg. The only real celebrity
at this summit (aside from some heads
of state) was a former head of state,
Nelson Mandela.
So what's the bottom line?
Predictably, summit officials have hailed
it as a triumph, while NGOs have denounced
it as a betrayal. Compared with Rio,
it made progress in a few points and
lost some ground in several others. And
it was the occasion for a number of countries
to make some financial commitments. But
such commitments have been made before
and then forgotten. Will this summit
make enough of a difference to make such
irresponsibility a thing of the past?
I suppose it's possible, but it's probably
not a very good bet.
|
