Subject: Re: Development NGO accountability? (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 12:56:53 WST

To: Recipients of CHRM-GENERAL <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Hi Ken,
Interesting concept. Lord knows a great deal of damage has been done due to
"development". I doubt a court case would get far, but it would sure create
some attention, and maybe wake a few people up.
Noel

[email-masked] wrote:

Permies may also have some ideas on this. Funding a challenge may be a 
challenge as well.

Possible groups to get onside with could be.
1. Permaculture
2. Aust New Zealand Society for Enviromental Economics.
3. HM
4. Organic Growers Assoc
5. Bio-Dynamics.
6. SOMA/ Orthomolecular Doctors.
7. ?

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
> Not strictly a CHRM question, but subscribers of this list may be
> interested and have some ideas on this:
>
> I was wondering whether anyone had any views/experience on the idea and
> practicality of making development agencies, governmental and
> non-governmental (NGO's) in the developing world accountable for their
> actions,  for many of their so-called agricultural improvements.
>
> E.g. Notifying them that if they initiate a potentially detrimental scheme,
>  warning them of the long term consequences, and that if they persist and
> the consequences do turn out be negative, then they will face legal action.
>  E.g.  irrigation and salinization and river depletion - and the human
> cost.  Same for fertilizer and soil erosion.  Same for boreholes and the
> lowering of  water-tables below root level and the massive dependance
> (agricultural "development") created on very limited fossil water.  Same
> for high yield and some "alternative" crops and their vulnerability to the
> weather and disease.  Same for inapropriate maize agriculture in sem-arid
> areas.   Etc. etc.
>
> Likewise for legal action against them for past actions.  Particularly as
> they (E.g. Oxfam, CAFOD, Christian Aid, et al.) are often quick to blame
> multi-nationals, governments, the IMF (when actually it is the development
> agencies who have created this dependance of poor people on the vagaries of
> world trade in the first place!) etc. for creating and exacerbating
> poverty, yet do not seem to be accountable for the actions that have
> exactly the same human consequences - the degradation of natural resources
> and the resulting poverty and conflict (which ironically is then seen as
> underdevelopment!).  And if population growth (created by such
> "agriculutural development") is not a problem according to these agencies
> (I have statements from most of them on this) then it that case it must be
> their direct policies (the "agricultural development") that are responsible
> in that case(for the resource degradation and poverty)!
>
> I am seriously thinking of bringing a private prosecution against some of
> them.  For years environmentalists etc have been warning of the
> consequences of taking the land beyond it's carrying capacity, of the
> problems of degradation of natural resources such as the soil through  the
> use of fertlisers. etc. and the the move of people off the land into the
> slums of the towns.  Now that this has happened, (through the destruction
> of the soil) in places like Rwanda, Kenya and Haiti,  with disasterous
> human consequences.   It is not as if there is no alternative to this kind
> of development.  Education as to the value of conserving natural resources
> has been  very successful in the Indian state of Kerala.  Am I being
> relatistic about initiating legal action at some point (can't afford it
> right now) on such issues?
>
> Any chrm-general views on this?
>
> Regards,
> Kenn
>
> K.H. von Kaufmann,
> 2 Hamilton House,
> High Park Road,
> Kew, Richmond,
> Surrey,
> TW9 4BJ
> UK
> Tel:(0181) 878 2055.
> [email-masked]

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From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 08:13:44 WST

Reply-To: Conference "chrm.general" <[email-masked]>
From: [email-masked]
Sender: [email-masked]

As a practicing lawyer for some two decades (ending 1981), I watched what
damage suits did to American society. It included closing most public
swimming pools and many playgrounds. It also included such things as the
impossibility of buying a rare hamburger in a restaurant -- got to kill the
ecoli -- or non-pasturized freshly-pressed apple juice -- the recent Adwalla
scare. The visibility of work-related injuries led to OSHA which has done
two things: made workplaces on the whole much safer and significantly raised
the cost of doing business in many industires. Perhaps it has also given
Americans a sense that they're being watched. But the price of work injuries
has declined. 

I hate litigation. I hate it because it is always backward-looking.  And
lawsuits take years to conclude. They are very, very expensive to mount
effectively -- much more so than when I was a baby lawyer. $100,000 would be
a drop in the bucket for the type of litigation I think you are talking
about. So, perhaps, would $1M. 

More effective by far would be using something like the www to disseminate
"countdown" information on various sites. For example, falling water tables
could be measured and reported upon at regular intervals -- annually or
half-yearly, at the same time each year. One would have to select what kind
of information to gather, how to measure the changes, and then devise an
effective way to report them. If coming from respected sources, the
information would have more impact than from an individual. Being crystal
clear about what exactly you want to raise consciousness about is the first
step. Generalities don't cut it.

The effective would be snow-balling: tiny, at first, then vast. People from
the areas reported upon would begin to find the "watch" and interest would
rise. People from areas not reported upon might draw comparisons. I would
think that in 2 or 3 years, you could change the way enough people see the
condition of the planet that you might get a "Hundredth Monkey" effect. Then
governments and NGOs would have no choice but to respond. HOW they would
respond would be trickier to manage. You might want to think about what kind
of a response you would like -- following Allan's model and having a clearly
expressed goal -- before beginning.

Barbara

>the consequences do turn out be negative, then they will face legal action.
Barbara Ashley Phillips
Clear Creek Gardens & Game, Inc.
Rt. 1 Box 138
Post Office Box 676
Halfway, Oregon 97834
Phone office: (541) 742-6558  ranch operations: (541) 742-2238 Fax: (541)
742-5175 
Email  [email-masked]  http://www.neoregon.com/ccgg
Website: http://www. neoregon.com/ccgg (B&B Inn) and 
                 http://www.neoregon.com/hcbison.html (Hells Canyon Bison)

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From: toby hoffman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 20:23:54 -0500 (EST)

I'm for it! Also class action on the leaking fuel tanks at svc stations, 
muni sludge sold as fertilizer.    Toby Hoffman, Charlotte, NC