WILL WORLD EXPOSITION 2000 PRESENT SOLUTIONS FOR THE NEXT CENTURY?
| The signatories to the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 agreed
that if humanity does not want to turn into an endangered species, they must come up with
answers to the ecological and social problems faced by the globe. "Humanity", concluded the summit, "has reached a decisive point in its history." This is the point where measures to counter environmental degradation were further outlined in the famous Rio declaration. Yet another turning point, the new millennium, is just around the corner. Marked by a huge world exposition and discussions on global sustainable development spanning five months next year, many, especially in southern Africa, would be hopeful that problems affecting the globe will take centre stage and steps towards implementation made. Such is the grandeur and seriousness being planned for the millennium event, World Exposition 2000, (Expo 2000) to be held in Germany from June to October next year. According to the Expo 2000 organisers, only development of a humankind which respects nature and gives preference to environmentally compatible technology can be considered to be desirable for all six billion of the earth's inhabitants. With the theme, "Humankind, Nature and Technology", Expo 2000 which will be held in Hanover, is being propounded as the ultimate stage where all important ideas and technologies that will "carry the world" into the next millennium will be paraded. This kind of thinking has not gone down well with some critics of the Exposition who feel that the event is being used by the North to market their technologies as well as remind the South that the technology gap is ever widening, under the guise of sustainable development. The history of the World Expositions dates back to 1851 in England. The annual Paris Industrial Exhibition inspired the British Royal Society for the Promotion of Trade to stage similar exhibitions from the 1840s onwards. In 1849, a commission, largely under the patronage of an influential official called Henry Cole, presented Prince Albert - the chairman of the society and husband of Queen Victoria - with a proposal to internationalise these industrial exhibitions. Since the first international World Exposition in 1851, there have been many other expositions, big and small. However old the World Exposition idea may be, it constantly needs to be reinterpreted. The present generation already feels itself to be living in a global village and expects answers to the social, ecological, economic and cultural issues that it faces on the threshold of the new millennium. Expo 2000 organisers say that the models and projects to be presented by nations, corporations and organisations will reflect the way ahead in matters relating to the theme of "Humankind Nature and Technology". The exposition will have an additional component dubbed the Thematic Areas and the Projects all over the World. In the Thematic Area, it is intended that visitors will experience concrete proposals for solutions to the global challenges of the 21st century ranging from a "factory that does not pollute the air to an ear implant for children who are born deaf". The Projects all over the World are the extended workbench of the Thematic Area. At hundreds of different locations, commercial companies and non-profit-making organisations will be demonstrating how visions can be turned into reality. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states will all be represented first as a group of nations and then individually. The Expo has given SADC the stage to showcase their water projects to the world. Most importantly, the regional body's efforts in increasing cooperation and integration between members were further boosted by the idea of joint exhibitions. Visitors to the SADC pavilion will enter the "Water Room" through a "waterfall". However, it is not only the mutual concern about water, which unites the development community of southern Africa; its goal is also the promotion of regional cooperation in the fields of agriculture and politics. There will be 14 figures representing the member states' national stories related to water and associated subjects. In five thematic exhibition rooms, individual water projects from the SADC countries are presented on the subjects of water supply, water, water management and agricultural exploitation of water, as well as on resources conservation and tourism. It has emerged that some countries in southern Africa may soon face serious water shortages due to continued degradation. Participants at a two day southern African workshop on water, held in Harare recently warned that unless the region comes up with an effective water management plan, it would face shortages because of increasing demand and unchecked degradation of existing water resources through pollution. In spite of the criticism to the Expo concept, southern Africa will be exhibiting water related projects when these still need strengthening and are inferior to those of the developed world. When journalists from the developing countries toured the "Expo City" and met the organisers and officials of the German Development Ministry, indications were that all was not well as far as the underdeveloped countries were concerned. One official of the Expo admitted that the fair was eurocentric. Only the presence of countries from the south would make it appear like a global event. In a briefing to journalists from the developing countries, the mayor of Hanover, Dr Herbert Schmalstieg was upbeat about the whole project. Schmalstieg said that the expo has never existed in this form before. The German government has earmarked 100 million Deutsche Marks for helping more than 90 developing countries represent themselves at the Exposition. Recipients are getting one million marks each and would need to raise extra money to adequately represent themselves. This kind of "philanthropism" has been criticised as a guise by the German government to curb its rising unemployment rate by making even the poorer countries invest in the country. Most of the money has remained in Germany where architectural and construction companies have been engaged to design and build pavilions for some developing countries. Critics of the exposition have also questioned the benefits of such an event to regions in the developing countries, ravaged by war, AIDS, poverty and other problems. Questions have been asked whether the capital injection to finance the Expo, running into billions of dollars, could not be used to improve the lives of millions of poverty stricken people in the south; to fight the AIDS pandemic that has devastated southern Africa most; and to prop-up the poor economies of the south. "Mozambique is to take part in the Expo-2000", said a source from the Mozambican organising committee. An official of the Mozambican organising committee disclosed to the Mozambican News Agency (AIM) that the southern African country will display its works under the theme "Environment and Development". The unnamed source explained that this was regarded as the most appropriate approach and would fit perfectly into the general theme. He added that the Mozambican government intends to take advantage of the exhibition and publicise, among other things, the potential of the Zambezi valley, in the centre of the country. Parallel to its own pavilion, Mozambique will also be part of the joint exhibition of the member countries of the SADC. Zimbabwe will also be exhibiting projects associated with the main theme. The country's Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE), formally initiated in 1989, will be one of the projects under exhibition. The project represents an attempt to move away from the adversarial relationship between conservation and local socio-economic concerns. A central principle of CAMPFIRE is that wildlife is a resource, and therefore should become valued and guarded by those who have tenure rights to it. Other projects which will be exhibited by Zimbabwe include the Community Health Capacity Project and the project of turning water hyacinths into productive use as a part of substrate for mushroom cultivation. Other SADC countries will also be presenting their different projects all linked to the theme of the exposition. Although all SADC states have confirmed their participation at the exposition very few citizens of these countries know about the event. All the same few will be able to attend in their individual capacities-tickets are going at DM69 (Deutsche Marks) per day. (SARDC). |
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