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Across
Frontiers - Fall 2004
GOALS
OF THE JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT
Because
the 21st century will be the defining century for Earth’s
future, this summit could be the most significant event of
this century, even of this millennium. Never before have we
been at the crossroads at which we now stand. We now have
the capacity to kill the Earth very easily in several ways.
We must consider the questions we must answer if life is to
continue.
By the end of this century, what will be our condition and
the condition of the Earth if we continue on our present path?
What will we do about population? Poverty? Can and will we
attempt to reverse our destruction of the natural world? Our
responses to these questions will determine the answer to
the fundamental question of whether any form of life on this
planet will survive.
But
answering those questions will only take us so far. To go
further, thee delegates assembled in Johannesburg must form
a plan that can become the basis of action. We must lay out
a global agenda that coordinates international responses to
the army of problems we face, but that also empowers local
people and local organizations to address the same problems
effectively in their own areas. Both aspects are equally important.
WHAT
TO DO NOW?
To
accomplish that task, we must chart a new course. One of the
most important lessons we have learnt in the ten years since
Rio is that without a global approach, we will never succeed
in overcoming the crisis we face in achieving a sustainable
way for all creatures to live together on this planet. We
do not need an Indian plan or an American plan. We need a
global plan for climate change, population control, ozone
depletion, water development, technology, and the rest –
a plan that combines global vision with local actions and
control.
Our
task is to create a people’s movement round the world
to ring the changes and build the world we envision. Good
intensions are not enough. Meeting the challenge requires
the labor of people working together at the grassroots level
around the world, united as citizens of the world, working
for a common purpose: to create a world that is just, equitable,
and sustainable, and good, not only for all humans but sustainable
for all living beings.
Obviously,
a major social revolution is required, and that is possible
if we can bring another major institutional revolution –
to eliminate the division that institutionalized religion
and political ideologies place between people. We need a religion
and an ideology that brings us common ethics and unites people
under the values of development, unity, justice, and equity.
That is the religion that we all must learn to share, regardless
of what name we call the divine power.
The challenge
is great. We may succeed or we may fail to meet it. But if
we do not put our labor behind our ideals, then failure is
assured not only for all of humanity, but also for our planet.
The human journey began in Africa. It now takes us back to
Africa to lay the foundation for the next stage of our evolution,
one on which the future of the Earth itself depends.
* * *
Dr.Rashmi
Mayur spent all his life promoting the beautiful idea for
uniting the world in order to save it for our next generations.
He is not with us now, but his spirit is still moving us to
continue in the same way, the way he had paved.
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