Monthly e-newsletter from Focus on the Global South, India


From 3-14 December, hundreds of policy makers, environmental scientists, media representatives and activists from 180 countries will descend on the Indonesian resort town of Bali to deliberate on what is arguably the single most important issue for the survival of humanity today; the climate crisis (better known by the euphemism of 'global warming'). Ironically the majority of those travelling to the crucial United Nations Climate Change Conference will do so by aircraft, one of the biggest contributors to the emission of green house gases. The global peasant coalition Via Campesina has a simple but powerful message to the Bali conclave; one of the key ways to cool the planet is small scale sustainable farming (see 2c)

But tempers were heated back home in Mumbai where there was a showdown between water activists and local municipal councillors. Six activists were arrested for 'unlawful assembly' when they raised questions on the World Bank funded move to privatise Mumbai's water supply. The press release in this issue demands the withdrawal of the flawed project and calls for improving the public utility to meet the needs of Mumbai's citizens.  

Remember the World Social Forum? Well its back again in a couple of months. In 2008 its avatar will be one global day of action on January 26. Groups and individuals interested to be part of the process can sign on to the statement (2a)

The Pivotal Agent in the Fight against Global Warming

*By Walden Bello**, 6th October 2007


The developing world’s stance towards the question of the environment has often been equated with the pugnacious comments of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir, such as his famous lines at the Rio Conference on the Environment and Development in June 1992:

When the rich chopped down their own forests, built their poison-belching factories and scoured the world for cheap resources, the poor said nothing. Indeed they paid for the development of the rich. Now the rich claim a right to regulate the development of the poor countries…As colonies we were exploited. Now as independent nations we are to be equally exploited [i].

Mahathir has been interpreted in the North as speaking for a South that seeks to catch up whatever the cost and where the environmental movement is weak or non-existent. Today, China is seen as the prime exemplar of this Mahathirian obsession with rapid industrialization with minimal regard for the environment.

Sir,

1. When it is universally and unanimously agreed that, whatever the merits or demerits of the Indo-US nuclear deal, it has far reaching and long term implication for our country; what is the reason for this undue haste with which your government is seeking to operationalize it ?

2. What is the reason for such an important deal being signed and operationalised without consultation with the people of India and the Indian Parliament?

3. What is the rationale for your new found enthusiasm about the merits of nuclear energy, glossing over the fact that the deal assures only about 7-9 percent of India energy needs, that too by 2020?

On 18th December 2006 the US President George Bush inked the Henry Hyde Act towards actualizing the much talked of Indo-US Nuke ‘Deal’. This had been earlier outlined in the Bush- Manmohan Singh Joint Statement of 18th July 2005 at Washington DC. This was further reiterated on 2nd March 2007 in a Joint Statement issued from Delhi, during George Bush’s visit to the country. In order to understand the pros and cons of the Deal and its implications on us and affects on nuclear disarmament efforts, Peace Mumbai, a network of organizations and individuals committed to the goal of a just and peaceful world along with Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament (CNDP) a national coalition working for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, jointly organized a public meeting on Indo-Us Nuclear Deal, What? Why? For Whom? on 11th September 2007 at Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Mumbai. 150 plus people, representing diverse sections of society, participated.