DESPERATELY WANTED: GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY
By Anselm Görres, President of the German EcoTax Association,
personal view; October 2001
For the bloody terror of the World Trade Center there can be no
excuse. But there should and must be a search for causes, a search
that goes beyond the search and the hunt for the criminals and terrorists
who brought it about. In the 1970`s, Germany lay under the spell
under of a small band of terrorists called the Bader-Meinhoff-Group.
While this group never managed to muster support from more than
a very tiny part of the population, the same is not true of the
terrorists that schemed and enacted the strike on New York. In contrast,
there is no doubt that within the Islamic World, large parts of
the population - and not only its poorer segments - openly or abeitly
are supportive of the terrorist attacks on New York.
So all of us in the Western Hemisphere have to ask ourselves, whether
or not in the last decades, we have done enough to offer an attractive
future prospect to the 1.3 billion humans that live under the crescent
of Islam. If Democratic Capitalism is the common denominator and
the global promise of our Western Way of Life, then we cannot help
but observe that both elements of this double promise are out of
reach for the large majority of Muslims. As a rule, people in Islamic
countries are far from enjoying peace, prosperity and people's rule.
Their life is characterized, in the majority of cases, by poverty,
despotism and an utter lack of bright expectations.
How can we respond to this unsustainable situation? The only useful
response can be found in a combination of Global Governance and
Global Sustainability. Global Governance means an agreement on globally
valid rules of the game, the respect for global institutions, and
the global realization of social, political, economical and ecological
minimum standards. These minimum standards must foremost protect
the weakest and the poorest members of the world community.
Global Sustainability must be the principal guideline and criterion
that Global Governance has to serve and obey. Global Sustainability
means nothing else but to create conditions worldwide that will
grant peace, prosperity, democracy, human rights and the preservation
of natural resources to all people on this planet. To pursue and
outlaw terrorists all over the planet is only a necessary precondition
- a bitterly necessary one - but certainly not a sufficient condition
to create Global Sustainability.
This is the point where the challenge of the WTC Attack and the
challenge of the global ecological crises should lead us to the
same response. In both cases, we must find global answers to global
challenges. And neither Europe nor the U.S. can claim to be without
mistakes or failures from the past.
There is a piece of good news that can derived from all these reflections.
If the Western World can rise to a reaction to the New York attack
that is more than just military or police retaliation, if we understand
it as a call for Global Governance and Global Sustainability, there
is a good chance that these terrible events, brought about by evil
and malevolent people, can have some benevolent results for our
global community.
And one more thing seems almost certain: An energy policy that
reduces the West's dependency on fuel imports from Arab and Islamic
countries will also reduce our exposure to an area of crisis.
ends.
|
