Abhik Gupta
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
-
-
Clement Attlee had said that “Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking”! I think it is the many paradoxes of democracy that sometimes lead us to doubt it and lose faith in its ability to deliver. Democracy’s ideals are kept alive by the civil society of a given place or country and I agree with Joern Fischer that if the civil society really wants change, then change does take place. But a lot depends on the priority attached to a given problem by the civil society. If we look at the local or regional level in different parts of the world, which rung of the priority ladder does issues like human-biosphere relationship or natural resource conservation and sustainable management occupy? The demand has to be generated at the base to travel upwards, but for that to happen, the capacity-building exercise has to percolate from the top to ultimately make the whole process of awareness generation thrive from mutual and cyclic feedback and dialogues. And denialists or not, planetary dialogue could be an effective way to enable us to keep on moving forward.
-
While the EU or the USA is likely to provide the major nucleus for any thrust, it may become weak and ineffective if the developing world – and that’s a sizable chunk – remains passive like a deadweight, or worse, exerts a retro-pull. We are already the victims of this chaotic cross-pulling in our efforts to meet the challenge of climate change. Learning from ecosystems, the real controls are diffuse, and consequently any change also ought to begin from multiple centers in order to achieve a smoother and lasting transition. And this way, it could be a local in global and global in local kind of approach that may reduce possible friction and contradictions that could slow down the process of transformation. I am not sure whether I have made myself clear. Perhaps we could have more dialogue.
-
