The ”savage” principle of the survival of the fittest should no longer rule the way in which society is constructed, delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) heard on Monday.
This theme, introduced by South African President Thabo Mbeki, was reinforced by several prominent figures taking part in the 10-day conference in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Mbeki said: ”There is every need for us to demonstrate to the billions of people we lead that we are committed to the vision and practice of human solidarity, that we do not accept that human society should be constructed on the basis of a savage principle of the survival of the fittest.”
Human society, for the first time in history, possessed the capacity and knowledge to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment, said Mbeki who was elected president of the WSSD.
As delegates got down to business in Sandton, groups opposed to the WSSD met in nearby poverty-stricken Alexandra township and told reporters they plan to ignore warnings by government and go ahead with an unauthorised march on Saturday.
Speaking for the alternative Social Movements Indaba (SMI) at a press conference in the township, US citizen Elise Miller said permission had been asked for the march — but had been denied.
”We will march in any case,” she promised.
Asked whether she expected the police to stop them, she said ”yes”. Pressed on what would happen next, she said the marchers would use ”people’s power”.
Queried what this meant Miller said the public could ”rest assured” that the march would be peaceful.
”If there is violence, it will be from the side of the authorities,” she said, referring to another unauthorised march last Saturday from the Wits University campus to Johannesburg’s central police station which police broke up with stun grenades.
The summit, attended by thousands of delegates from across the world, will explore ways of reaching a range of global targets aimed at diminishing poverty without destroying the environment.
These objectives were adopted at the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago.
In Sandton, United Nations Environment Programme head Klaus Toepfer echoed Mbeki — saying the time had come for the nations of the world to translate political commitment into action.
He told delegates and guests the WSSD was a ”defining moment” in the efforts of the international community to put the planet on a sustainable path for the future.
Mbeki said it was sad that the world had made little progress in realising the grand vision of the Rio summit.
”It is no secret that the global community has, as yet, not demonstrated the will to implement the decisions it had freely adopted.”
This had resulted in an avoidable increase in human misery and ecological degradation, including the growth of the gap between the north and south.
”It is as though we are determined to regress to the most primitive condition of existence in the animal world, of the survival of the fittest.”
WSSD secretary-general Nitin Desai said the same international solidarity that had helped to end apartheid was needed to address the global divide between rich and poor.
But not all developed countries appeared to be ready to be pinned down to detailed targets in terms of time frames.
Japan made it clear it would resist any attempt to attach a date to the target set for aid from developed countries at the Rio summit.
Deputy director of multilateral co-operation Yutaka Ishikawa told reporters his country was already extending a fifth of the world’s total overseas development aid, or some $10-billion.
At the Global People’s Forum, a non-governmental organisation event running parallel to the WSSD, chairman Richman Gordon said poverty should be a priority at the summit.
”The world cannot sustain the development if people are hungry.
”The world’s problems are not created by God, but by the rich and international countries driven by greed. Rich countries do not care for the poor,” he said.
A World Bank report released at a news conference at the summit says:
”A major transformation starting in the rich world will be needed to de-couple growth and environmental impacts, and radically change the composition of the world’s output toward high input efficiency and environmental responsibility.”
Subsidies, mispricing and inadequate taxation of environmentally damaging products should not be allowed to continue to provide the wrong incentives for rich-world consumers and producers, the report says.
At plausible and relatively conservative growth rates, the world economy would have tripled to US140-trillion by the year 2050.
”A $140-trillion world simply cannot rely on the current production and consumption patterns,” says the World Bank report.
World Bank vice-president Ian Johnson told reporters: ”Getting growth in Africa means developing agriculture.”
The inefficient agricultural subsidies in the North presented a major obstacle in this regard. The bank would use ”moral persuasion” to ensure the situation was addressed.
Meanwhile, the South African Government on Monday apologised to two female members of the Swiss delegation to the WSSD for break-ins into their hotel rooms over the weekend.
Essop Pahad, the Minister in the Presidency, said at a news briefing on Monday South Africa’s security forces would do everything in their power to ensure all delegates were safe.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said police had begun investigations into the incidents, and added that security forces would ”apply the law to the fullest” in dealing with such matters. – Sapa