|
|
 |
 |
| |
Reflections on Johannesburg
Dan Simon
 Sometimes
you just have to be there.
The devastating poverty most of the world's residents live under seldom registers on the average resident of an industrialized nation. Maybe an occasional plea for aid from a charity flashes a few disturbing images of some poor village halfway around the world, before our television's return to the latest sitcom or sporting event, but the memory is quickly replaced by other commercials or scenes.
Philadelphia resident Hollister Knowlton got a closer look at such living conditions while attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Knowlton, who was serving as a delegate from the Quaker Friends Committee on Unity with Nature, was deeply moved by the experience.
"I think the strongest and most devastating memory is of the dramatic gap between rich and poor," she recalled. "I stayed in the home of a Quaker woman, who I guess was middle class, but you know, everybody there like you and me lives behind concrete walls and razor wire.
"The first night I was faced with that I went, 'Oh my gosh! What's going on down here?'"
Knowlton described seeing Black townships where homes were built from corrugated metal and cardboard, and hundreds of residents shared one community water faucet.
"The sense of inequality was sharp and painful," she said. "It's so overwhelming."
The contrast became even more pronounced when she compared to the role the United States wanted to play at the Earth Summit.
"The U.S. subsidizes $30 billion for fossil fuel and nuclear industries," she said. "Worldwide the figure is more than $200 billion.
"We were trying to get the U.S. to move from that position. A mere 3.3 percent of that $30 billion could provide the 1.6 billion people in the world who don't have electric power, electricity, but the U.S. wouldn't even consider that."
Since returning to the United States, Knowlton has spoken at several organizations about the conditions she's seen, but isn't sure she's having any impact.
"I try to get people to really look at their lifestyles to see what they're doing with their lifestyles," she said, "most don't change, but some have.
"If we don't care, we're accomplices to murder and the destruction of the planet. It's our economic system we need to take a look at. We need to factor the true cost of the way we live."
Knowlton says that for everyone to lead the kind of lifestyle the average American enjoys, it would take four planet earths instead of the single one we're currently using. She's been speaking mainly to faith-based organizations.
"I'm seeing them respond," she said. "They're eager to do something, but when push comes to shove, I'm not sure what sacrifices they're willing to make.
"In general the faith-based communities are just as blind to the problem as the rest of us, but I have a sense of hope that I can appeal to them from a moral and ethical standpoint. But do any of them drive less? One family I know is considering giving up their second car."
It's obvious this is a painful topic for the Philadelphia woman, who is haunted by a plea from the South African poor she met while in Johannesburg.
"They begged me to tell Americans about them," she said, "what their lives are like.
"I'm beginning to see it as a moral concern when four percent of the population uses 25 percent of the earth's resources. It's a struggle to determine what I'm going to do next. I don't know what to do, what to ask others to do. I'm not doing enough."
Knowlton suggested a few things people in industrialized nations can do to help the situation:
• Use less energy, particularly fossil fuel products.
• Urge elected officials to support sustainable development (a handwritten letter is still the most powerful tool you have.)
• Donate to charities that aid world poor.
• Consume less.
She also suggested links to the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment, National
Council of Churches' Eco Working Group and to the Friends
Committee on Unity with Nature.
|
|
|
|
