moving forward
meena raman | friends of the earth
international chair, malaysia
For many people around the world,
2004 will be remembered as a year of tragedy,
terror and loss. Thousands of men, women and
children lost their lives in the ongoing
senseless and illegal war in Iraq . Tens of
thousands were killed and hundreds of
thousands displaced in Sudan , just one of
the many places on the planet where the earth
is being bloodied with human rights abuses.
And the year drew to a mind-numbing close as
an earthquake and tsunami left several
hundred thousand people dead and millions
homeless across South Asia and East Africa .
Friends of the Earth groups in the region and
elsewhere in the world mounted an immediate
response: WALHI/Friends of the Earth
Indonesia in particular mobilized forces to
help the homeless and suffering in Aceh,
where the director of their local office was
among the dead.
These overwhelming human and natural
disasters took place in the context of the
ongoing neoliberal economic globalization
that is threatening environmental
sustainability and social justice around the
world. Nonetheless, communities and
campaigners were able to prevail in a series
of exciting and important victories – against
polluting mines in Indonesia and Peru ,
nuclear dumps in Australia and South Korea ,
water privatization in Uruguay , GMO crops in
many European countries, and toxic chemicals
in the United States , to name just a few.
This annual report will focus on the
successes to which Friends of the Earth has
contributed in the past year. We hope these
stories will help to keep spirits up, and
will spawn further victories in coming
years.
In 2004, Ricardo Navarro from El Salvador
stepped down as chair of Friends of the Earth
International and the Bi-Annual General
Meeting elected me as his successor. We are
all grateful to Ricardo for providing us with
such inspirational and charismatic leadership
over the past four years. Friends of the
Earth International focused on moving forward
in 2004. We emerged from a testy period of
internal tensions in the previous year with a
commitment to resolving conflicts and
managing our diversity. We began to address
issues such a solidarity, alliance building,
political differences, decision making,
internal leadership, identity and
participation through a wide-ranging
strategic visioning and planning process that
will carry us into 2006.
The road ahead will not be easy, as we
face an increasingly unipolar world which
continues to undermine ecological
sustainability and exacerbate global
inequalities between rich and poor. As a
truly unique network of dedicated
environmental activists and campaigners,
Friends of the Earth International's
challenge is to work effectively in unity,
given our diversity, and to bring about real
changes that will contribute to a better
world. We will continue to learn from the
past, to face challenges, and to grow from
strength to strength. I am confident that
with all our commitment, passion, energy and
combined numbers we will make a
difference!
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