Posted on 17-8-2002

Sustainability, Lies And Politics

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 18 (AFP) - No penguins waddle around the Antarctica "Ice
Station", the first of hundreds of exhibits to open for the Earth Summit
here, but a bewildering maze built of rusted metal and an art display
crafted from waste demand as much attention. The Group Mission Antarctica
is one of some 7,000 organisations promoting a vast array of causes through
exhibitions and meetings ahead of and alongside the UN World Summit on
Sustainable Development, to be held from August 26 to September 4 in
Johannesburg.

The Civil Society Global People's Forum, which is expecting some 40,000
delegates, starts a week ahead of the 10-day summit at the Nasrec
exhibition centre, southwest of the city. "We will be hosting around 90
events a day and 350 exhibitors have confirmed," said Desmond Lesejane, the
chief executive officer of the Civil Society secretariat, five days ahead
of its opening. Civil Society events range from the predictable -- like
sustainable agriculture and trade, alternative energy, eco-tourism,
recycling by municipalities and poverty eradication -- to creative events
like an African dress festival and a glass exhibition. Fringe activities
like a healing circle for the Earth and a "Rainbow Maker", which aims to
create 600-metre (-yard) natural rainbows in the sky, are also on the agenda.

The groups hope to emerge with a common "Platform 21" to present to
negotiators, despite their diverse causes and more militant groups
contesting their legitimacy. Land activists, for example, are among the
anti-globalisation groups which have broken away from the Nasrec programme
to host a "Landless People's Camp" (LPC), where they expect up to 5,000
supporters. "The LPC is separate from the civil society forum and the
government movement," said National Land Committee spokesman Andile
Mngxitma. "Since Stockholm (where the first environmental commitments were
made in 1972) we have had 30 years of broken promises," he said, casting
doubt on whether the summit would contribute to development and the
planet's future.

But Lesejane downplayed divisions between groups, saying instead that all
of them would be represented during a march on August 31 to the elite
northern suburb of Sandton, where the UN conference will be held, and where
Platform 21 will be handed over to world leaders. "One memorandum might be
presented but there are many other messages," he told AFP.

The Civil Society programme kicks off with pre-summits by organised
sectors, like women and indigenous people, according to Lesejane. Their
opening ceremony, at which South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected
to preside, followed by a three-hour international concert, takes place on
August 23 at the Johannesburg stadium. During the next week delegates will
work on developing Platform 21, through meetings focused on issues like
human security and science and technology, and "cross-cutting" issues like
poverty eradication. Demonstrations are also planned around the summit,
with some four permits granted -- out of seven applications by Friday -- by
the Johannesburg city council.

The Basic Income Grant Coalition (BIG), for example, intends to create a
human chain of thousands of people from near the overcrowded township of
Alexandra to Sandton on September 3, symbolically linking the poor to the
summit's decisions. BIG has demanded access to a basic income grant of 100
rand (10 dollars/euros per month) for around half of South Africa's 43
million people.

From September 1-4, Civil Society delegates will concentrate on building
alliances to implement their decisions, Lesejane said. "This will inform
what Civil Society does in the future, so that the summit is not simply a
talkshop."

At the Ubuntu village near Sandton -- to be the service and recreational
hub for the summit -- the world's largest tent, Tensile 1, has 11,000
square metres (118,360 square feet) of exhibition space. Everywhere the
words "sustainable" and "partnership" are blazed across banners. Even
delivery trucks at the Ubuntu Village reflected the "sustainable
development" theme. A "Piki Tup" truck, responsible for eco-friendly waste
disposal, and a Hare Krishna van, supplying vegetarian food, were stationed
at the entrance to the village.