A few of Sev's thoughts on the WSSD

Oct. 2002
Severn Cullis-Suzuki

2002 is the ten year anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit.  And to
commemorate the event, the UN hosted an even bigger event in Johannesburg,
South Africa.  The Skyfish Project made a debut here, at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development.  Me-- Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Jeff Topham, Aaron Mate
(all from Canada), Ian Cheney (USA) and Bertus Louw (South Africa) were its
representatives.

Johannesburg had to prove itself to the skeptics that said Africa couldn't
host an event like this, with some 40 000 people attending, as well as some
180 heads of State.
The city geared up for the event, putting welcoming billboards up
everywhere, clearing the streets of unwanted residents (in the tradition of
Rio) and the fancy Sandton Convention Center was full of intense military
surveillance; helicopters hovered overhead.

Jeff and I arrived on day 2 of the Summit, picked up by Bertus, my awesome
South African friend, and then we picked up Aaron, staying with his
Greenpeace uncle.  We drove to Waverley to the Still family home, where Ian
had already arrived.  (Tony Still is the head of Johannesburg water.)  Tyler
Welti and Brendan MacKennany (sp?) from Yale also stayed with us.  We set up
the Skyfish compound there, we had our own apartment and the backyard had a
ping-pong table and tennis courts; pretty nice.  We hit the ground running--
headed out to the Summit to get registered.

In the Sandton Convention Center, I spent a lot of time in the bull-pen--
the media center-- a huge room full of monitors and stressed-out journalists
drinking coke and coffee from disposable cups.  Upstairs were six floors of
convention rooms, suits and security.  It was impossible not to feel
completely overwhelmed.  The issues being discussed at the plenaries were on
a global scale:  how to end global poverty, how to provide global sanitation
and clean drinking water, how to prevent loss of biodiversity.   Conferences
like this are made of Caucuses, committees, panels and discussion groups,
and many, many versions of documents, as negotiators lobby for the phrases
that best serve their interests.  A lot of paper gets pumped out, to be
replaced by the next day's versions.

We had a booth for the Skyfish Project at the NGO forum at NASREC, a
convention center about a 40 minute drive away from the Sandton Convention
Center on the outskirts of town.  Since there was no public transit and the
taxis were quite expensive, going back and forth was out of the question.
It definitely left something to be desired.  We would split up, some of us
going to the Summit, some others going to NASREC.  There we met other NGOs
and got people to sign our Recognition of Responsibility.  Reps for the NGOs
were pretty amazing, from people who are working on water and agricultural
practices to literacy programs to a group of Tibetan exiles who are
traveling all over to get their message out.  Meeting them was pretty
humbling.

One thing we did have was the attention of the media.  The press, bored with
the conference-ness of the conference, were eager to talk to "the 12 year
old in Rio" who was now 22 and back at the Summit.  Because of that angle, I
did interviews on BBC, NHK, CNN, SABC and many other African TV and radio
stations.
We also had a documentary film crew with us, making an expose of the Summit,
as seen through our perspective.  That was a bit trippy, having a film crew
with us all the time.  They were great though.  And I was glad that they
were into exploring outside the Summit; we visited several townships and the
South African cameraman took us to visit some friends of his in the slums of
the inner city.

On the political front of the Summit:
Kofi Annan, was, as ever, trying to keep the perspective of the conference
and trying to remind the leaders of their responsibility for each other and
especially for the poor and the oppressed, and asked them to "stop being on
the economic defensive and become politically courageous."  I think he's a
really good guy.
Blair re-committed England to the support of Africa, his "passion."  Bragged
that England will exceed their Kyoto numbers, and upped England's aid by
50%.
Mugabe gave a speech renouncing European advice or aid and got a standing
ovation from the African leaders at the plenary.
When the US representative, Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke, two days
late, he got booed and protesters in the crowd ("protesters" being members
of the plenary audience) unfurled banners saying "shame on Bush", which they
also chanted throughout his speech.  Poor guy.  The anti-American sentiment
was tangible by the end of the two week conference.
Throughout the Summit the US aggression towards Iraq was just developing, so
this was an outside political issue that was pushing in.  The pressure of
Israeli-Palestinian conflicts were evident too-- there were several
Anti-Israel protests, as Shimon Peres was representing Israel at the summit.

The Summit re-confirmed for me the problems with conferences like this and
the stark contrast of talk and action.  I did a long interview with Nitin
Desai (the Secretary General of the Summit) for the documentary.  I couldn't
help asking him straight out if I could address the plenary, like in Rio.
He gave a bureaucrat's answer, saying that he was just a facilitator of the
summit, that individuals have gone through an extensive process in order to
be here, so his hands are tied in the face of the process.  This is one of
the dilemmas of conferences like this, where the lengthy process becomes
everything, in the name of democracy and diplomacy.

By day three we were already pretty exhausted by the Summit.  Luckily, we
bumped into Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis, who let us know about the  Landless
People's rally-- finally a hint of what was going on outside the summit.
We were very excited to see what was going on.
The Landless People's rally was held in a crumbling old movie set on the
outskirts of town, near NASREC.  It's been changed into a sort of small
stadium.  We got there and the building was full of the "landless people" --
singing and swaying in the bleachers.
The singing was so powerful and just so different from what we'd been seeing
at the Convention center・it made me want to cry.  Then the camera swung in
my face, so that stopped that.  Pretty powerful though.  Many of the people
had their land taken by the government for development reasons (malls) and
were transported to other areas of the sprawling city.  Literally carted off
in big trucks, and told that there would be building materials at the other
end・Now they have nothing to lose, so were here, preparing for the march
from the township of Alexandra to Sandton.    These were the infamous "poor"
that were being discussed in the Convention Center everyday.  Yet they were
out here, trying to be heard.
We participated in the 15 000 people March held two days later, and marched
from the shanty houses of Alexandra to the towers of Sandton for some 5
hours.  We were surrounded by Africans singing and dancing the whole way,
and by people from all over the world here for the summit.  There were
people from every sector, every nook and cranny of social and environmental
activism. It was really amazing.  Tanks and soldiers lined the streets, but
there was such a sense of solidarity and peacefulness in the march.  Only
when the march stopped at Sandton and became a rally did things get a little
restless, and I was sad to see an Israeli flag being burned (an instant
focus for the press) and heard many contradicting statements about different
political leaders (Mugabe et. al).
Overall, a very moving experience and unlike anything I've ever been a part
of before.

One day, on a Greenpeace tip, we went out with a woman who runs a small
volunteer organization called CLAW that goes out into some of the poorest
communities and runs veterinary clinics, giving pets shots and flea baths.
It was a pretty intense picture: we arrived to a shanty town and she and her
volunteers set up their van-clinic as dozens of children lined up carrying
their dogs.  She says that treating the pets helps the sanitation of the
communities, teaches them about how to care for them.  It was evident that
she also has become an informal social worker in the communities; she says
that they sometimes find orphans who have lost their parents to AIDS, and
she helps them find help.
The visit with CLAW, the Landless People's Rally and the March were
inspiring things to witness and be a part of.  Action and passion and
movement・things hard to see on the Summit side.

Other highlights:
Went up to the fifth floor where the plenary was happening and saw a
familiar man walking ahead of me-- it was Mandela!!!  He and Graca were
walking along the corridor!!  I caught up and walked alongside of them,
gawking at Madiba in his classic Madiba shirt・it never occurred to me to
actually talk to him!  Wow.

At the landless people's rally I gave a message of solidarity to the people
from us in Canada.  That was pretty intidimating and empowering at the same
time, what an adrenaline rush.  Afterwards I sat down next to a white woman
・
and suddenly I realized she was Maude Barlow.  I interviewed her on a pile
of rubble outside the rally.  That was great.

Being in Africa and the Summit craziness with my friends-- sharing such a
surreal experience with buddies was amazing.  The discussions and ideas that
were provoked were great.  I learned so much from them.

Results of the Summit:
The negotiations for the Political declaration and the Plan of
Implementation went  right to the wire, the JUSCANZ (Japan, US, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand) countries acting as a block, and the US basically
isolating itself against everyone.  When it finally came out, it was 9
o'clock at night, the conference had already ended.  People working on
sanitation issues were very happy that the target of halving the number of
people without clean water by 2015 was put into the Plan of Implementation.
I scanned through the Declaration and realized that the line acknowledging
the Earth Charter (I good document I was on a UN Commission for) had been
cut.  A little group of people were gathering, the Human Rights Caucus, and
they called together what press they could to renounce the document because
all acknowledgement and support for the upholding of human rights had been
cut from the declaration.
So, I left with the film crew, feeling quite dejected about the four page
document, the legacy of the Summit.  You can look it up- the Political
Declaration and Plan of Implementation at http://www.johannesburgsummit.org

I don't know what the concrete results of the march was, whether the South
African government is addressing the demands of the landless people.  I
don't know what the impact of the rally and march was on the Summiteers.  I
just hope that it got media attention to the rest of the world, showing that
not everyone was represented at the Summit and that real action is really
needed.  Same old issues.

The film will be aired on "the Nature of Things" on January 16th.  I'm a bit
nervous about it, I really hope it's a good show!

* * *
I'm now in my home of Vancouver, finally, dealing with the responses to the
trip and trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing with all this.  After
the giant issues of Johannesburg I still really believe in our Recognition
of Responsibility because it's about walking all this   talk!!!  We're now
at some 500+ signatures.  Hey, it's a start.  The comments that people have
written on the website are wonderful.  It's pretty encouraging.  I also
getting ready for my trip to Japan, which is very exciting.  Lots to think
about, I wonder what that trip will bring.  Lots to look forward to.

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