Publications by Demotech : Missing tools for U.N. Rights, Duties and Responsibilities, Article 9 part c
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Missing tools for U.N. Rights, Duties and Responsibilities, Article 9 part c
Reading through the document "Rights, Duties and Responsibilities for the Third Millennium", I have a strong feeling that the TOOLS are missing to promote those rights, duties and responsibilities.
Notwithstanding good will, all individuals working in their many links to smaller and larger organizations, FEEL they have next to no opportunity to change anything amiss for the better.
This FEEL has to be changed by creating and handing out TOOLS for doing what follows from rights, duties and responsibilities as put down in the "Declaration of Human Duties and Responsibilities".
The good news is that creation of these tools at short notice is well possible. It is easy to do compared to enforcing those rights, duties and responsibilities.
I have very positive personal experiences in practical conditions and I see others having similar or better results.
The bad news is that the method to achieve these results is counter-culture. You simply will not believe it may work. The method used is against your imagination as well as your expectations.
Now it is my task to do some explaining and it is Article 9 part c that offers me an opening:
Article 9 is about ?The Duty and Responsibility to Protect and Promote a Safe, Stable and Healthy Environment?
It states:
2 (c) States, inter-governmental organisations, all other relevant non-State actors, including the private sector, and individuals have a duty to provide for and promote a free flow of basic scientific information about the environment, and shall promote and enable research and analysis necessary for the development of appropriate new models for the preservation and promotion of a safe, stable and healthy environment.
Just two more words would make it right, would promote that those tools indeed will become available at short notice. The words ?AND ECONOMY? have to be added to the word ?ENVIRONMENT?.
It is a save, stable and healthy economy we need most of all. The environment will follow suit.
How could it be that economy could change and become friendly towards the environment, towards nature? The answer is PEOPLE. Involvement of people, people for whom the environment is the part they drink, breath and live. And will protect.
But right now in economy people hardly matter, their participation is limited to being consumer or -more often- hoping ever to become a consumer. What could make such a change?
It is as stated in Article 9 part 2c: ??provide for and promote a free flow of basic scientific information about the environment?? and also: ?? promote and enable research and analysis necessary for the development of appropriate new methods ..?
My optimism is based on the fact that today individuals CAN contribute effectively to the most complex construction of knowledge for a just economy. That is IF good use is made of OPEN SOURCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. Open Source research and development offers what is asked for: a free flow of basic information, it provides the research and analysis needed for the tools I mentioned before.
Only shortly this participation in Open Source has become possible through the use of Internet. Extremely high quality and rapid development results from ad hoc cooperation of individuals around certain issues.
A most noteworthy example of OPEN SOURCE cooperation is the development of the Linux high-end computer operating system. This alternative for Windows is absolutely free for any person on this globe to obtain, to use and to adapt. You will find good research on this phenomenon of Open Source cooperation at "Think Cycle", a group from the MIT-University in the USA. (),
But supporting human rights by directing research full focus on poverty is also well possible through "Open Source" research. What has to be achieved is not little. I cite from Mrs. Mary Robinson?s paper:
?Extreme poverty is the life long experience of millions and millions of people in our world today. The numbers are growing. Poverty remains a global problem of huge proportions. Of the world's 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than US$ 2 per day, and 1.2 billion live on less than 1 dollar a day. Six infants of every 100 do not see their first birthday and 8 do not survive to their fifth. Of those who do reach school age, 9 boys in 100 and 14 girls do not go to primary school".
What is needed to eliminate deep poverty together with safeguarding the environment is well known. It offers a fivefold increase in economic potential to the poor. It asks a twenty fold reduction of their environmental load from the wealthy.
And the wealthy, that is you!
Again the news is good. Research as indicated in Article 9, part 2c can be done. The wealthy can live in comfort, the poor can have their five fold increase. This is how it may work in practice:
Demotech, the small research facility that I myself initiated and worked with, produced the recipe for a water pump, fully appropriate for conditions as found in poverty. The technical design was developed increasingly towards what was locally available, possible and needed.
Reports tell me now a hundred thousand of these pump exists in and around Nicaragua. They perform well. They were locally made and locally paid for.
Demotech, designing for a DEMOcracy supporting TECHnology, has produced similar design recipes, that could produce similar results. We face one big obstacle: TIME. Research for a hundred fold reduction of cost while keeping the quality at a high level takes too much time.
For that reason as well Demotech embraces OPEN SOURCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. We want to achieve full transparency of all design decisions. We will facilitate participation with our website by hosting discussions, storing images and making upgrading of ideas as simple as possible. We already experienced such openness accelerates progress of design to a high degree. We expect a different, but satisfying economic return for our work.
I could tell you fascinating stories about people who do similar work:
Crippled people running an excellently performing revalidation clinic in Mexico.
A piece of Indian dessert changed into a beautiful wood, as a process integrated with the education of children in neighbouring villages. < >
A design centre in The Netherlands creating attractive innovative concepts for sustainable living in the wasteful country of the Dutch people. Over the years I have seen their concepts grow into a valuable reality: water purification, sanitation, meaningful work, electrical transport ?
All together my message is: Article 9, part 2c should be endorsed. It will work. You will love to participate in its growing into reality. It will boost your imagination, it can make the future nice.
Publications by Demotech : Missing tools for U.N. Rights, Duties and Responsibilities, Article 9 part c
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