Message-ID: <33824F72.4D61@squirrel.com.au> Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 12:27:14 +1100 From: resolve <mailto:resolve@squirrel.com.au> Subject: Re: Boring reply & sustainable IT To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
> Should we give Europe back to
> homo sapiens nethanderalensis? Were they even the original human
> inhabitants?
>
> Jon Sanford
Yes, I don't think this is really the issue being discussed, Jon. The clock can't be turned back, and there isn't much left of the land that was stolen or of the cultures that were dispossessed during the course of the various colonial activities of the previous centuries.
The question at hand is more along the lines of "Are present inequalities, going on right now, being addressed adequately, or are they simply being denied and covered up with token "AID" programmes which mask the fact that even if the money sent over to under-developed countries were trippled, unequal trade practices established in the last couple of centuries prohibit the under-developed nations from getting ahead. They are stuck with producing raw materials for western consumption and manufacturing which they can't eat or put to much use themselves.
Apparently they only really get ahead when the West is preoccupied with other activities, such as war, and leaves them alone altogether.
It's not a question of returning America to the Sioux and the Apache at this point in time, as you well know, Jon. What needs to be addressed is the reduction of Western consumption of the world's resources, and of course the reduction of populations throughout the globe...
On another note, perhaps more pertinent to this list (as I understand it) -
Technology helps humankind overcome many obstacles, but can it progress in a society which lives simply and consumes relatively few resources? If computers were widely distributed throughout the under-developed world, for instance, in place of guns and various other weaponry perhaps, how sustainable would this process be? Pollution from traffic and factory waste produces an intollerable environment and alters weather patterns. Can Information Technology progress and be sustained without these costs to the environment and the over-consumption of resources?
Lee.