Aid Worker Voices

Address at opening ceremony for LEAF event 2010

A blast from the past
I recently came across this address I delivered in Sri Lanka 14 years ago, long before I imagined critical Hydra theory. The optimism and faith in human agency I exhibit in this essay are for affect; in reality my faith in humanity is weak, especially given the genocides occurring in Gaza and Myanmar -and elsewhere. Are we a failed species? Only time will tell, but we seem incapable of tamping down gluttony and greed and these sins will surely lead us to a environmental future incompatible with human life.

The Leaders in Environmental Advocacy Forum (LEAF) event was an academic summit on global environmental issues co-organized by the Periclean Scholars class of 2011 at Elon University and faculty at the University of Colombo.

My comments touch on environmental issues, policy changes, the failings of capitalism/neoliberalism, and the hope of human action to make fundamental change.

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Address at opening ceremony for LEAF event
22 January 2010
KG Hall, University of Colombo
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Distinguished guests, Ambassador Buteni, Vice Chancellor Hirimburegama, colleagues, friends, it is my deep honor to share the platform with you this morning.  To all who gather today to formally begin this event, I say welcome.  I bring best wishes from Elon University and our President, Dr. Leo M. Lambert.  I humbly accept the privilege of representing Elon University and more specifically the Periclean Scholars program at this important event.

First, I wish to thank all of the various sponsors that have made this event possible. The US Embassy staff has been extraordinarily supportive and helpful during the entire planning phase for LEAF, and for that we all owe a great debt.  I especially wish to thank the University of Colombo for their hospitality and the use of this wonderful venue.  With great pleasure I want to thank the Periclean Scholars Class of 2011 and their Mentor Dr. Crista Arangala for having the vision and passion necessary to make this event happen. It has been an honor to work with this group.

Finally, I wish to thank all of the speakers who have filled out our packed program and that we will hear from shortly. These esteemed leaders who will be sharing their insights with us represent a veritable “who’s who” of environmental academics and activists in Sri Lanka, and we are proud and grateful to have you here today. We await your wisdom and guidance.

Elon University and Sri Lanka have something in common.  Our university mascot is the Phoenix, the mythical bird that rose from the ashes to live again.  Indeed, in 1923 our campus suffered a catastrophic fire and then was swiftly rebuilt.  Sri Lanka is now recovering from two infinitely larger and more devastating crises:  a protracted civil war and the 2004 tsunami.  In Sri Lanka’s case, the rebirth after these crises provides opportunity for rebuilding with a renewed sense of global and environmental awareness.

I have three interrelated thoughts I want to share with you this morning. First, I wish to talk about the concept of what it means to be a global citizen. Secondly, I will review what I believe to be one of the major themes of this event, namely the tension between the need for environmental stewardship on one hand and economic development on the other. Finally, I wish to share with you a dream I have for this event. What I will not do, as we would say in the United States, is “preach to the choir.”  All assembled here today are keenly aware of the many dimensions of the environmental crisis from climate change and pollution of our air, land and water, to the precarious drop in biodiversity evidenced by increasingly common extinctions of both flora and fauna species.  The experts who have come together for this event will, in these two days, probe deeply into these problems and we will all be further educated.

One responsibility we all bear by being blessed with the opportunity to attend this event is to pass on the various knowledge that our fine speakers will share. Light up the Internet with Tweets, Facebook status updates, YouTube videos, blogs posts and even a good old-fashioned email or two about whatever ignites you.

A friend from Kenya once told me that he “was just trying to put out the fire closest to him” at the time.  I live my day to day life like that, and I suspect that many of you do as well: we all tend to have many priorities in life, but we must take the time to put out the closest, most immediate fire or we risk being burned.

As we look out on the world stage today we see many fires:  contentious and violent elections in Haiti and the Sudan, wars in Afghanistan and Tunisia, the constant threat of al Qaeda, a political crisis in Lebanon, and potential for civil war in Cote d’Ivoire.  As global citizens we feel pulled to react to close fires, these humanitarian crises, both the human-made and those acts of nature like the tsunami of 2004.  There seems to be an endless series of fire to put out.  And here is the rub, one highlighted by many environmental activists using the parable of the frog put into cold water that is slowly heated up, the frog not noticing until it is too late to escape.  The critical global environmental crisis we face, unfortunately, never seems to be the closest fire needing to be put out.   This must change, and we, as informed global citizens, must lead the way.

So, what does it mean to be a global citizen and what can a global citizen do to press the issue of our environmental crisis?

Here is my modest attempt to define “global citizen”:

Global citizens understand at a fundamental level that all humans are born with basic rights, share one planet and thus one fate.  Global citizens, further, embrace an ideology of human growth and potential based upon the assumption that all global citizens should work toward creating a global social structure wherein all humans are not only allowed to reach their full potentials –intellectual, physical and spiritual- but are actively encouraged to do so. But, that this fulfilling of human potential is done in such a way as to honor the fact that humans are only one species among many, and that we must live in sustainable harmony with all life forms on the planet.  Further, global citizens understand that while they are entitled to certain rights, this role also entails an array of important responsibilities.[1]

A global citizen is ever mindful that environmental issues are almost always justice issues: it is the marginalized here in Sri Lanka, in the savannahs of Africa, and elsewhere around the world, that feel the most immediate brunt of climate change.  We in this room who have great privilege bear great responsibility to work with all of our energies both for and with our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate.

Underlying this definition of the global citizen is the assumption that human agency exists –we have and exercise free will- and that history unfolds not despite but rather because of individual human action.  This is a key point later in my comments.

One important job we all share as global citizens is to be an active part of the political process. My comments now turn to the intersection between politics and economics and how these both relate to development issues and the environment.

The zoologist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously stated “nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution”.[2]   As I sociologist I will offer a similar assertion, namely “nothing makes sense in global society except in the light of capitalism.”  Allow me to elaborate.

Led in the 1980’s by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States, the major Western economies of the world were driven by the ideals of small government and unrestrained markets toward the policies of privatization, deregulation and an absolute trust in the “free hand of the market”. Western political leaders then and to a large extent now appear content to allow the blind machine of capitalism to move history forward.

I contend that capitalism, left to its own devices and without mindful control by thinking, feeling leaders and average citizens, will result in the blind, mindless ruin of our planet.  The algorithm of capitalism tends toward a myopic search for immediate profit and discourages a “long view.”  To the point, environmental regulation is rarely if ever the idea of industry; it must be imposed upon most corporations by governments.

It is very simple:  the raison d’être of all corporations is to maximize profit in the short term.  Throughout human history the raison d’être of democratic governments has been the maximization of human welfare.  The problem is not governments that are too big, but rather governments that are not aggressively monitored and guided by the citizenry.  This is why nurturing the development of responsible, informed and proactive national and global citizens is so vitally important.

Privatization and neoliberalism -the term used by many progressives in Latin America- lead us in the wrong direction, away from human agency and toward a world controlled by an amoral -and hence, I would argue, immoral- invisible hand.

But let me be clear:  Both social and economic entrepreneurial initiatives –exemplars of human agency- must be encouraged and nurtured, of course, but we all need to be vigilant citizens who look after the long term consequences of our economic growth in a way that simply does not come natural to an unfettered, un- or under- regulated private corporate world.

As stated a few minutes ago, one important question to be addressed in the next two days at this event is the tension between the need for environmental stewardship on one hand and economic development on the other.  This tension is not unique to Sri Lanka, of course.  Indeed, the entire global community is facing the exact same problem.  Sri Lanka is a microcosm of the rest of the world in this regard, and what we accomplish in the next few days is important.  I suggest that we collectively and individually seize this moment to explore the possibility of providing to the rest of the world a model for how to proceed regarding this tension. The next steps we take following the closing session of LEAF are critical, and we must all commit to specific short and long-term goals generated by what we have learned at this conference.

I will conclude my remarks by stepping down from the more general and theoretical observations I have made.  Please allow me to share a very specific dream I have about a possible outcome of this LEAF event.

I dream that as a direct result of this event efforts are put in motion ensuring that Sri Lanka become the first nation to write into law that all companies put environmental sustainability into the language of their articles of incorporation and mission statements.   And further that both company and national bylaws and regulations make these commitments not only legally enforceable but absolutely transparent as well.  What I propose reflects what is known as the “triple bottom line”, those bottom lines being human welfare, environmental sustainability, and profit accounting for all measureable externality costs.  This is possible.  There are many corporations leading the way around the world already using the triple bottom line model while staying competitive in the global market.

I pledge to work with the Periclean Scholars at Elon University to work toward similar legislation in the United States, and to encourage others to work toward that goal as well.

To make this dream possible there will be a great need for committed and informed global citizens as I defined above, both within Sri Lanka and the rest of the world.  We must all work together and have our actions match the realities we face.  The words of the famous health rights activist Dr. Paul Farmer take on special meaning:  “Humanity is the only true nation.”

As a brief side note, I find it both interesting and highly instructive that one of the revelations that came to light though the recent Wiki leaks is the fact that the Dali Lama himself urged the United States to pressure Beijing to make climate change a higher priority than Tibetan political autonomy. We are all one nation, and it is appropriate and predictable that a Buddhist would make that point most clearly.

By celebrating and emphasizing human agency we can take control over the process of capitalism and redirect the economic system toward a more sensible path, one where the pressures for economic development do not clash with environmental stewardship.  This redirection is no small feat, but it can and must happen.  It will need the full buy in of those in political power, but this buy in must be demanded by all of us:  faculty, students, governmental officials, the media, religious leaders, business leaders and the average Sri Lankan and American.

Let us take the opportunity we have together now to move forward on the aggressive dream of demanding policy changes for business incorporating the ideals of the triple bottom line, or other dreams even more audacious.  The time to take control over our collective future is now, and those in this room are uniquely positioned to turn dreams into reality.

Thank you for allowing me these few minutes.  Let us begin our work. Those in the next generations will thank us.

[1] This definition appears in Understanding the Global Experience, 2010 (Arcaro and Haskell, eds) on page 4.
[2] Biology, Molecular and Organismic Author(s): Theodosius Dobzhansky Source: American Zoologist, Vol. 4, No. 4, (Nov., 1964), pp. 443-452

 

 

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