We are almost halfway home.
Wangari Maathai’s White Paper September 9, 2008
Wangari Maathai on Principal Voices
All the 2006 Principal Voices are submitting a White Paper to the Web site, explaining their views at length.
Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and winner for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, argues that how everyone has a role to play in environmental protection efforts.
Our environment is fragile and the Earth’s resources are limited. We must learn to manage these resources responsibly, accountably and share them more equitably.
This will only be possible if we govern ourselves in a political space that is democratic and respects human rights, the law and the diversity of cultures, traditions and perspectives. In such a world, where dialogue is encouraged, many conflicts can be pre-empted.
Among the many human activities that degrade the environment are deforestation and the clearing of shrubs and other vegetation from the land, both of which exacerbate the process of desertification. Other harmful behavior includes creation of pollution and waste, often driven by the “single use products” such as thin plastics and paper.
Initiatives to mitigate this environmental degradation must come from governments, the private sector and individuals. To encourage and support such efforts, it is essential to raise awareness, so a critical mass of people within government bodies, corporations and among citizens understand what is at stake and are motivated to take action.
In this respect, it is critically important to have strong citizens’ movements — a civil society — that are able to take action and demand a clean environment from all the other actors.
Countries and regions that do not have strong citizens’ movements are unlikely to meet the environmental challenges that face them. In Africa in particular, a stronger civil society is especially needed to address the issues of deforestation and desertification.
One of the issues that is likely to be a major source of conflict in Africa in coming years is the availability of clean drinking water. While people can live without oil or minerals, they cannot live without water.
There are many ways in which the environment can be rehabilitated and sustained. Individuals, companies and organizations can engage in activities such as planting trees, as well as protecting existing trees and forests. They can curb soil erosion through simple techniques such as building trenches and harvesting rainwater, protecting watersheds and riverine habitats. They can also recycle, reduce waste and lower their consumption of fossil fuels. Such activities would help reduce negative environmental footprints.
When I was in Japan I learned about the concept of “mottainai.” It originates in the Buddhist tradition and the concept roughly parallels the “3R” campaign that has been popularlized in the U.S. and Europe for many years; reduce, reuse and recycle and don’t waste. I have been working to make the concept of “mottainai” better known and I hope that it will be adopted more widely.
Through my work over the past 30 years I have seen again and again that women are the first to experience the impact of limited natural resources since they are often engaged in ensuring the survival of their families. Therefore, they tend to be more responsive to addressing the situation, and willing to work for the rehabilitation of their immediate environment. Men, by contrast, tend to be driven by the necessity of earning an income and as such tend to look further into the future rather than worry about immediate survival.
Many people, organizations and companies have resources, knowledge and skills and can support those who are in the forefront of protecting our environment and ensuring that our needs, as well as those of future generations, can be met. In particular, they can support initiatives for women and families.
The Green Belt Movement shares, with many others around the world, the vision of a clean and healthy environment, and appreciates the efforts of those who devote their time, energy and resources to the wellbeing of the Earth and all its inhabitants. Not only do we honor and respect them, but we also hope that more people will be inspired to join them — and us — and play their part.
To find our more about the Green Belt Movement’s work and Wangari Maathai, please visit www.greenbeltmovement.org
acknowledgment June 5, 2008
As I was filling out the GRE Test Taker Survey that has been languishing in my inbox for weeks, I was just filled with a heady wave of gratitude that I was accepted to one of my top graduate schools on my first round of applications just as I am graduating from college. I feel so intensely lucky.
2008 – 2009 Academic Calendar June 5, 2008
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Tying up loose ends May 29, 2008
I guess you could call me a planner. That’s my personality. That’s how I got this far, and it seems to be working for me. But some might find it vaguely amusing that I have more than three months before the first day of school, and almost three months before I move to Denver, and I have already a) rented my Seattle place out for the school year, and b) found an apartment in Denver that I’m ready to put a deposit down on. I like having things figured out, though…I like that certainty. That’s always been the problem with me with dating, because in order to be good at dating you have to let go and let things get figured out in time, and for me it’s either black or white. I know it’s right, or I know it’s wrong and there is no reason to go on.
Now the summer is all about making and saving money for the fall, continuing to improve my credit score for the graduate plus loans, finishing my undergraduate thesis and graduate pre-requisite classes, studying, reading, and absorbing as much information as possible, and then spending time with my friends and enjoying the beautiful Seattle summer. What’s on the menu for non-work, non-school activities? Sailing on the new boat, golfing with Jonathan, reading in the park, and the quintessential summer barbecues that seem to happen almost every weekend.
This should be fun.
Fall class descriptions May 20, 2008
Statistical Methods I
An introductory course featuring statistical reasoning, probablity, sampling, statistical inference, nominal and ordinal measures of association, and correlation.
Economic Development
Deals with financial and economic problems faced by developing societies.
International Political Economy
The course examines 3 contrasting visions of international political economy: economic security, trade and finance.
Rich States, Poor States
Why are some nations rich and others poor? In the early 19th century, the economic gap between Switzerland and Mozambique was 4 to 1 and now it is 400 to 1. Are what we like to call developing countries really developing or being left further and further behind? This course looks at a variety of variables to explain this disturbing situation. We examine culture, religion, invention, geography, disease, imperialism, values, and political systems in an attempt to answer this timely question.
Political Economy of Human Rights
What does one mean by human rights? What can be the political economy of such rights? These are the two central questions that we will explore in this course. The goal is to understand the underlying social, political and economic processes that led in an evolutionary sense to the present human rights discourse. The nature and implications of economic rights will be given special attention. In particular, the implications of such rights for human wellbeing in both advanced capitalist and developing economies will be studied. The social capabilities approach to rights developed by Amartya Sen and others will be extended to the understanding of human rights.
Very tentative fall schedule May 20, 2008
And yes, this means (if I get these classes) that I will have Monday and Friday free! It ALSO means, however, that I will be taking 25 credit hours, and I’m not sure how functional that is in reality. I won’t be working very much or at all (if I can help it), so maybe it’s doable. I’m curious if any grad students out there have advice about class load? Can I drop classes if I need to or is that too undergraduatesque?
