I agree with most of what David Wood has said - there are occasions
when protests to govt should be made; although it is an individual
decision for each of us as to what "portfolio" of protest methods -
from induvidual non publicised buying methods to very public protests
we make. Just a few things I am not so sure of. The
.."key concerns of 'third world' peasant-farmers for example"..
Would be at least partially addressed by third world citizens making
a conscious effort to buy from local suppliers eg those farmers, or
for city dwellers, local co'ys in their own countries, not branches
of 1st world co'y in those cities. As for assuming that .."somehow the wealthy
have a right to travel around the world (as long as
they behave when they get there).." I beleive thatproperly managed,
tourism can be an important source of employment for local people,
and can even enhance environmental protn. by raising the local value
of environmental features, fauna, flora, landforms etc. By properly
managed I mean a) Environmentally audited so as to cause the keast
pollution - the plane journey there will of course be very polluting,
but at least once there travel can be organised to be less polluting,
b) most important, hotels, restuarants etc patronised should be
locally owned, not run by some remote 1st world corporation c)
Tourism should avoid the most damaged or damageable areas d) For
areas that can bear numbers of tourists, impose quotas so that these
areas are not overloaded. Economically this will raise tye price of
holidays to "semi-sensitive" areas - this higher price, through b)
above, to benefit local people
About a crackdown from the state - I have not heard of the "Worgl
local currency scheme in Australia" - but what I am advocating ,
millions of people quietly shifting their spending habits from, say,
McDonalds to Charlies High Street cafe, or from say Tesco to Station
Road General Stores, is not something any govt could crack down on.
What could undermine this shift is the likely frantic response by the
large co'ys which would be major and unsustainable price cuts to
drive as many as possible of the small boys out of business. That is
when the real test of our "greenness/anti globalisationnness" comes
Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|