Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Green Economy, Rio+20, and Greenwashing

I just finished reading an excellent article entitled Rio+20 and the greenwashing of the global economy

The article explains how the business lobby has tried to influence the green economy concept of that the UN has introduced.

The green economy is a term used by the UN as part of the Green Economy Initiative. But as I said previously,

"... in that site I find no definition of the term, instead you see constant referral to "greening the economy". Those are not the same."

We need to have a real green economy, not a greenwashed economy.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Occupy Wall Street - what is it about?

Recently, there has been a number of major protests in the US. The most noted of these is the Occupy Wall Street. But there has also been Occupy Seattle, Occupy Oakland, Occupy London, etc. The protests in Greece and Spain have a lot in common to the Occupy movement.

But what is all this about? I of course cannot speak for the protesters, but will give what I see as the reasonings behind it.

There are really two main themes that the protesters are really fighting for: real democracy and economic (and social) policies which address people's interests before considering business interests.

I have many times in this column talked about corporatocracy. The protesters want their voices heard. They want a government that listens to the people and not to where the money flows. I have already at length discussed the cause and effects of this and solutions in my article on Corporatocracy.

What I find disturbing is the reaction to the protests by the police and local governments. They have acted as bullies, not allowing the freedom of speech and assembly the protests are entitled to. This is being done with the encouragement of businesses who claim the protests are hurting there business. In reality the protests are hurting there political postition.

It is interesting to see the response of the US (both federal and state) to the Occupy movement. They applaud the protest movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria as examples of people regaining power; but when the protests are in there own country, it is somehow wrong.