No worries Karim. I understand the silence is a burdened one. I look forward to your call. I ascend to your impressions of Suntou and Saloum. Like you they are immensely considerate. You all take after JDAM over yonder. Haruna. I wish I had a role model like that. It is as well he is my prophet. I am glad to share him. In a message dated 6/4/2009 3:39:20 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Haruna Thanks for the link in GDP project on rice production. You are show great with diverse knowlege in a wider area. I cannot imagine how long we will continue to be a lost generation of Gambian in the diaspora. By the way I will find time to speak to you during the week end to discuss after a long silence. Please forgive for the communication break down Suntou is aware. Him and Brother Saloum Daboe are humble gentle men. ____________________________________ Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 12:16:42 -0400 From: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Full speed in the wrong direction To: [log in to unmask] Karim and Jabou, when it is published, I recommend Bassey's book _To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa_ (http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100628980) in January 2010. It should make for an enlightening read. I have always wondered why when Australia has so much mineral resources, she is palpitating at the opportunity to extract the same minerals from Papua for example. And then they create a need for it. Niyaamoi Faloo, Australiano Nyaa maatale. I think All natural resources ought to be exploited at the exact or slower speed than they took to form or crystallize. But no. They can't wait to get in, grab, and get out. All nations who do not extract their own minerals beware. I hope Mali goes easy with the cement production at the new plant. And please grow your material sciences curricula at your universities and conduct new research for new uses of your minerals. The old ways led to global bankruptcy. After we clear the accident scene of casualties, there comes the African with his charriot loaded with bushels of corn heading for the cliff. He aint got no brakes. The grandboubou is caught in the wheel well. Alamaa nema ning kafarr kelayeh. Oh before I forget Karim, I have a significant accord between AGRA Alliance and the Japanese government to double Africa's rice production. Check it out at _www.thegdp.wordpress.com_ (http://www.thegdp.wordpress.com/) under ROP Dispatch. Haruna. -----Original Message----- From : abdoukarim sanneh <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Sun, 31 May 2009 8:48 am Subject: Full speed in the wrong direction Full speed in the wrong direction Has the world made real progress since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit? Nnimmo Bassey 2009-05-14, Issue _432_ (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/432) _http://pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/56259_ (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/56259) _Printer friendly version_ (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/56259/print) cc _Coda_ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/coda/190707279/) _CSD-17_ (http://tinyurl.com/d7eogp) presents a unique opportunity for global governance to rise above the selfish interests of individual countries and regional blocks to work towards sustainable develop ment worldwide, writes Nnimmo Bassey. But, he warns, a complicated negotiation text lacking in ideas to galvanise nations into acting in solidarity, is likely to maintain the status quo. Bassey expresses dismay at G-77 references to ‘national laws and cultural contexts’ when the Commission for Sustainable Development ‘should be raising the bar, not subjecting universal ideals to parochial local regimes’. Bassey suggests that restoring confidence in global governance and democracy is an important part of tackling the food, climate and economic crises on every delegates’ mind. What is even more problematic to the negotiations, however, is the lack of unanimity in defining what ‘sustainability’ actually is. It was a bumpy ride on the _Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD)_ (http://tinyurl.com/d7eogp) highway last week, as delegates appeared to be driving forward with their eyes fixed on their rear-view mirrors. Considering events in the world, everyone agrees that the themes of the last CSD cycle and those of the present one have proven to be prescient and timely. The last one focused on energy and climate change, while we are here in CSD-17 talking about agriculture, land, rural development, drought, desertification and particularly Africa This week offers clear opportunities for delegates to take a good look at the road ahead and avoid the obvious, as well as the hidden, bumps and potholes. Throughout last week, delegates recognised the convergence of crises=2 0confronting the world today and the urgent need for concrete action to be taken. There were repeated talks about the food crisis, the climate crisis and the economic crisis. The other crisis that did not show up is the crisis of the growing deficit of confidence in global governance and, in some cases, the deficit of democracy. And this should worry our governments. The world sorely needs to regain confidence in internal governance, in an era where financial and transnational institutions are enjoying massive bailouts, while the citizens of this world are out in the cold, hungry and unprotected The CSD presents a unique platform for global governance to rise up beyond individual countries’ or regional blocks’ selfish interests. Unfortunately, the bright spots in this regard have been few and far between. As we listened to delegates go through the chair’s negotiation text last week, we could not help but wonder how they would find their way out of the maze of brackets and additions that have so riddled the texts, and if the final outcome will be recognisable. Obviously, this is the way negotiations of this nature go, but we are concerned that additions and subtractions on the text do not appear to be introducing ideas that would galvanize nations into acting in solidarity. What we see are grounds being set for competition and business as usual. The world sorely needs inspiration to empower and engineer actions. So far, memorable texts would need to be ferreted out with the aid of a Hubble telescope. We would agree that delegates are not wordsmiths, but what is the point in introducing texts without clearly seeing how the jigsaw fits or unravels? The transformation of the world will not be built on episodic entries that focus on maintaining the status quo and preserving narrow interests and privileges of some nations and blocs. The _G-77_ (http://www.g77.org/) kept bringing up references to national laws and cultural contexts to cap some provisions. These may sound progressive, but in reality they may prove obstructive to the attainment of justice and higher ideals of liberty. For example, when G-77 speaks about rights of women, they add ‘in accordance with national legislation’. The CSD should be raising the bar, not subjecting universal ideals to parochial local regimes. The picture that comes through all this is an insidious resistance to change under the cover of tradition. Right from the preamble to the negotiated text, G-77 and China inserted a highly volatile piece of text on the sovereign right of states to exploit their natural resources. There is nothing unusual about states having the sovereign right to exploit their resources, but we could raise the issue of what would be the case for countries whose political setting is not settled. And what about those whose sovereignty is threatened or subverted? It appears that basic questions, including the prior right of communities and indigenous peoples, even before the rights of states, need=2 0to be settled on this issue. Given the themes of CSD-17, one would be right to assume that G-77 would drive for the best texts that would guarantee the right context for the citizens of this bloc. We note that the bulk of the work done to improve the section on Africa was done by the delegations from the USA and the EU. The most outstanding contribution of the G-77 and China in that section was when they asked that the proposal to encourage broad public participation of civil society as a partner be removed, in particular in responding to food insecurity. This was very curious. Apart from the brilliant addition to the introduction of the section on desertification, this has not often been the case. When G-77 suggested that desertification ‘is a global problem that requires a global response through concerted efforts’, that really shone. However, some of the areas bracketed or deferred by G-77 raised some worries. Why would G-77, for example, need to defer immediate acceptance of a clauses such as ‘mindful of the growing scarcities of many natural resources and the competing claims to their use ’, and on building ‘the resilience of rural communities to cope with and recover from natural disasters and conflicts’? In many other sections, we find an unwillingness to assume responsibilities, but rather a readiness to push implementation burden on to the ‘international community’. The issue of the right to food was firmly raised by the UN rapporteur on the right to food when he addressed the session on 7 May. He affirmed that the right to adequate food is a human right and emphasised that the CSD should recommend measures that would promote the adoption of national right to food strategies and for states to implement the findings of the _IAASTD_ (http://www.agassessment.org/) . He also strongly recommended that states should realise the centrality of the role of smallholder farmers in meeting the food needs of the world. The ideas pushed by the rapporteur found echoes in a few submissions of Switzerland and G-77 during the negotiations. On the whole, the EU has made substantial additions on forests, drought and desertification. They underlined the need for the _UNFCCC_ (http://unfccc.int/) parties to utilise the _UNCCD_ (http://www.unccd.int/) framework in combating drought and desertification. G-77’s reference to the UNCCD was mainly on the imperative of the industrialised world to meet their commitments with regard to provision of resources. The USA, Canada, Australia and Japan worked often in tandem, but Australia must be given the medal for fighting to foist _WTO_ (http://www.wto.org/) rules as a damper on more progressive trade and business relations. In a bid not to mention genetic engineering by name, delegates have taken the convoluted route and left everyone wondering what they are really talking about. The G-77, for example, ‘supports e fforts to increase the nutrition content of food’. While that is not a bad idea on its own, we must be wary of falling into the hoax of the so-called golden rice, or the new experiments with genetically modified super cassava, both engineered to have enhanced levels of vitamin A for poor people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The strong underlying hands of what has been termed philanthropic capitalism keeps excessive pressure on the staple foods of vulnerable peoples with utter disregard of the precautionary principle that is cardinal in biodiversity protection. Mexico recommended the using of plantations of non-native species of trees to combat the spread of sand dunes. Sadly quite a number of trite additions were brought into the section on rural development. It is hoped that such will be thrown out during the negotiations. With a week to go in the negotiations, it is hoped that delegates will safely disentangle from the web of brackets with a clear road map and not just a pack of words. We note that in the course of last week, delegates queried the possible meanings of otherwise simple words or concepts and answers were sometimes immediately offered or deferred until the following day. In one case, the USA brought up the concept of using smart growth techniques in _Working Group 2_ (http://tinyurl.com/putwcg) [PDF]. G-77 asked to know what that meant. USA explained the following day that they have found out that the smart growth concept had several meanings and therefore withdrew the submission. That was a good example of helping make progress and ensuring that obscure terminology are not used to conceal hidden examples. If it was just that a concept such as the ‘green revolution’ has become obfuscated, we would not have a reason to worry too much. But the CSD-17 has also revealed that there may not be unanimity of understanding of the very concept of sustainability. In a conversation on the lobby, a veteran participant said that she was always of the view that _Rio 1992_ (http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html) outcomes were very tame, but now she can see that it was far more radical than what may be expected of CSD-17. And she asked the question: Are we making progress in reverse gear? Delegates have the duty of giving an answer to this question next week. Already there are talks of a possible 20th anniversary session of the CSD in 2012, and Brazil may possibly be the host. Will this be a date to celebrate a revival, or one to place Rio 1992 on the funeral pyre? * Nnimmo Bassey is executive director of _Environmental Rights Action_ (http://www.eraction.org/) in Nigeria. Pambazuka Press is publishing his book _To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa_ (http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100628980) in January 2010. ____________________________________ " Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 Optimised for MSN. 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