(no subject)
Aug. 25th, 2005 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianNew National Geographic came yesterday, and in the "My Seven" column of the September issue, Wangari Maathai listed "Government" as one of the seven most important things.
Why?
Because - and I'm doing this from memory, so it's a very rough paraphrase - getting a democratic government in Kenya was instrumental to stopping destruction to the environment through privatization of public lands.
One day, I hope we will also get a democratic government because it would be awfully nice to stop giving away oil drilling rights on national park lands and to prevent local governments from claiming privately held lands for public use when that public use is to turn it over to other private hands so they can build a strip mall or other publicly accessible commercial venture.
Although National Geographic doesn't have the "My Seven" column online, they do offer this multimedia segment where Maathai talks about environmental awareness, hopes for Kenya, and... very democratic stuff here... empowering the people.
I'm going to check it out when I get home from work; I must say, since the "My Seven" column was first started, there has never been another list that I felt was as important to me.
Why?
Because - and I'm doing this from memory, so it's a very rough paraphrase - getting a democratic government in Kenya was instrumental to stopping destruction to the environment through privatization of public lands.
One day, I hope we will also get a democratic government because it would be awfully nice to stop giving away oil drilling rights on national park lands and to prevent local governments from claiming privately held lands for public use when that public use is to turn it over to other private hands so they can build a strip mall or other publicly accessible commercial venture.
Although National Geographic doesn't have the "My Seven" column online, they do offer this multimedia segment where Maathai talks about environmental awareness, hopes for Kenya, and... very democratic stuff here... empowering the people.
I'm going to check it out when I get home from work; I must say, since the "My Seven" column was first started, there has never been another list that I felt was as important to me.
