Date: Thu, 22 May 1997
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Hendrik)
Subject: "Global Leaders have no clothes"
Last year (1996) the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had invited
Robert Theobald, New Orleans based U.S. economist, to deliver the "Fall
Massey Lectures", part of the "Ideas" programming series. However,
shortly before the lectures were scheduled to begin, the CBC cancelled his
appointment, purportedly because of disapproval over his innovative
approach to presenting ideas (which can best be described as cooperative
and provocative).
In the wake of the ensuing publicity a successful program of lectures and
workshops in Canada was organised which saw him travel in Canada in the
last six months. He has just published "Reworking Success" (New Society
Publishers), and today we received a column on the Canadian election
which he prefaces as follows:
I have been encouraged to write a column on the Canadian election, in the
context of the failure of all recent elections to avoid the real issues. I hope
it will be relevant to those in other countries as well.
This column can be forwarded to listserves, etc., if it is felt to be useful. It
can also be published without my permission, but I would be interested in
knowing what uses anybody finds for it.
*****
GLOBAL LEADERS HAVE NO CLOTHES.
Robert Theobald.
Imagine a father arriving home to see his house on fire. He runs into the
burning shell to rescue those he holds most dear... and emerges carrying his
safe full of money and securities. After making sure that the money is
secure he runs back towards the house to save his children... but it is too
late. His family is consumed in the flames.
Like the father, our politicians continue to ignore the increasingly visible
dangers. They act as though economic forces are the only ones of
importance, that maximum economic growth will solve all problems, that
international competitiveness is the primary relevant determinant of action.
They ignore the accumulating evidence that the gaps between the rich and
the poor are widening both within countries and between them and that
current directions will worsen developing dynamics rather than reverse
them.
The economic profession, in which I was trained, has disgraced itself by
failing to surface these realities. Instead, economists continue to reinforce
the patterns that jeopardize the lives of our children and grandchildren.
They continue to base their entire house-of-cards on an already disproved
belief that the biosphere has an infinite capacity to provide us with raw
materials and absorb our garbage.
Both politicians and economists continue to pretend that the approaches we
have used in the twentieth century will work in the twenty-first. When
challenged, they say that there are no choices. It is like saying that the
father had no choice: that he was forced to save his money before his
children. The results he experienced reflected his choice, just as the trends
we are experiencing globally reflect ours.
Going into the Canadian election, there was widespread recognition that all
of the parties, taken together, excited the enthusiasm of less than a quarter
of the electorate. One might have hoped that this would have led one major
party to decide that it was time to level with people and to treat them as
adults rather than to disguise what is really going on in the world.
It is time to face the fact that NAFTA and the World Trade Organization
have already reduced the rights of communities and nations. Now a
Multilateral Agreement on Investment is being negotiated, essentially in
secret, to eliminate even more local, and national, decision-making. Despite
the extraordinary implications of the proposed agreement, no major party
seems aware of the importance of deciding where Canada should stand.
In one sense, this is not surprising. A real discussion on what is important
to Canadians would break through the superficialities of the debate and
show that not only does the Emperor has no clothes on but that he's making
obscene gesture!
Long-run ecological issues are continuing to worsen as the citizens of
developed countries refuse to face the consequences of their actions or their
responsibilities to the rest of the world. The rich countries were put on
notice at the Rio Environmental Conference that they had to take the first
steps if a global debate on population and ecological balance was to
develop. In the five years since Rio, we have not even kept the
commitments made at that time.
The consequences of delays are cumulative and they have already started to
damage our interests. These dangers are not only systemic and long-run.
They affect our individual, immediate lives. For example, skin cancers
have risen dramatically because of declines in the ozone layer. Weather-
related disasters, like the floods in Manitoba, are on the increase and these
events have been credibly related to global warming.
More and more people see national and provincial government as irrelevant
and irresponsible. This is deeply unfortunate because my travels across
Canada after the cancellation of the 1996 CBC Massey Lectures showed
that there is a large, concerned and thoughtful group of people that wants
new directions and positive solutions. This is not only my opinion. Polling
data from MacLeans Magazine and non-profit groups show that Canadians
have not given up on their historic commitments to a civil society and social
justice. They have decided, correctly, that the old means of attaining them
do not work but they are nevertheless willing to look in new directions.
Elections should be times when people have the opportunity to talk about
their dreams and visions, to surface their concerns, to return a Government
which will serve the needs of its people. Is it too late, in the waning days of
the campaign, to ask for passion instead of sound-bites? Can we look
beyond our greed and short-sightedness and demand that politicians address
the critical issues before it is too late?
Our house is burning. When we emerge, will we be carrying a safe full of
money - or the real treasure in our lives; our children?
