Mycket går att säga och har sagts om klimatförändringarna och exploateringen av jordens resurser.
I The Nation uttrycker dock Bolivias klimatambassadör, Pablo Erick Solón Romero Oroza, något av det starkaste uttalande gjorts av en minister. Uttalandet angriper det rådande system, globalt sätt, som utarmar vår jord på resurser, skapar enorma miljöförändringar, stärker klyftorna mellan förmögna och fattiga.
President Morales has called for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. Why do you think there’s a need for such a document?
Why, because this problem is about balance – balance between mankind and nature. What we are seeing with climate change is that this balance has been broken. Why, because humans act as if they are the only ones who have rights and treat our Mother Earth like, in the past century, slaves were treated – as persons that don’t have rights, as objects, instruments for exploitation. So if you want to have a balanced relation, humans must recognize that we are not the only one’s that have rights, but also our Mother Earth. We and nature are part of one system and what happens in one part of the system effects the other part.
This way of thinking has been strengthened because of the capitalist system. For the capitalist system everything, nature – even other humans – is considered an object that you can use to obtain a profit. With this system everything can be made into merchandise. So what we are seeing is the consequence of this vision that you can change everything into merchandise, even nature, even your mother – Mother Earth.
Det är en viss skillnad mellan detta uttalande och synen på mänskligheten och hur vår statsminister, Fredrik Reinfeldt uttalar sig om just synen på människan i dagens upplaga av aftonbladet där han försvarar den nya sjukförsäkringen:
Människor kommer i kläm. Det är så att säga nästan oundvikligt i varje samhällsförändring.
Frågan är vilket synsätt vi vill skall råda, för våra normer bestäms till stor del av detta.
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Igår postade jag en serie av foton. Dessa foton visar ett extremt förorenat Kina som inga Köpenhamnsavtal i världen kommer kunna råda bot på. Fotona var tagna av Lu Guang och nedan är en intervju med honom där han delar sina tankar om människorna som lever i dessa förorenade områden och deras tankar.
Intervjun var först publicerad på NetEase och den översatta versionen här.
NetEase: Where did you get the funding for your project?
Lu Guang: They were my savings. I am different from other people, I make 50,0000 and fell it’s enough, other people make 100,000, 1,000,000 still don’t feel enough, and still continue to make more money. But my thinking is different from other people, I wish my life to be simpler, for example yesterday I could have flown back, how much would it have been? 690. How much was it taking the train? 210 yuan for the whole night, for sure I chose the train. Considering my health, I should have taken the plane, but I don’t have that much money. I must save money when I can. For example, other people stayed at hotels that cost 200, 300, 500 (yuan), the hotels I stayed at were all under 100 (yuan).
NetEase: How did you find and choose the locations of your photos?
Lu Guang: The information was all provided by friends.
NetEase: There are many polluted places, how do you choose the order of your visits?
Lu Guang: Continuously travel and constantly work. Every place I went, there were always friends helping me, I gave my phone number to him, he also gave me his. Whenever something happened over there, he would call me, and I would go over there right the way. Of course there were times I couldn’t make it over there.
NetEase: You said you ate and lived with the villagers, what were most of the reactions of the villagers living in polluted villages when talking about pollution?
Lu Guang: Whenever talking about pollution, they would become very talkative.
NetEase: They want to tell you things?
Lu Guang: Yes, including “Hong River flows through here, 20 years ago the river was very nice, there were fishes, we all bathed in the river, and used water to irrigate wheat, but now we cannot do that anymore. And for so many years we have talked about it many times. We reported to the government, but nothing was ever resolved. Therefore we are now numb and don’t want to complain it anymore.” They were very miserable.
NetEase: The places you shot at where you think the pollution was very serious, how did the villagers see the pollution in their lives? Did they feel the pollution was very serious and threatening their lives or (that the polluting industries) driving the local economic development was more important?
Lu Guang: In fact, there is no economic development for them, it only brought them destructions. Back then they had fertile fields. There were many water conservancy facilities built in the 70’s, all were every good, used to irrigate the fields. But now, pollution came and the water could not be used to irrigate the fields anymore. After a long time, now all the water conservancy facilities are wastes. The polluted water has led to contamination of the underground water. All their drinking water is underground water, water in the wells or from the water tower. Water from water tower flows straight to their homes, unlike us, the tap water we drink is already processed. Drinking this kind of water for long time, many people got very ill. I interviewed a village 3-5 kilo-meters away from Hong River village and asked them if there were people with cancer there. They said yes, but only 1-2 in couple years, and very few. However (in Hong River Village), they have a dozen in each year. The difference is obvious from the same district.
NetEase: How did Hong River (region) village head see the water pollution in his own village?
Lu Guang: This is not their problem because it is upstream, a county, a city where people dump sewage and flow to them. What I am talking about is (Hong River region) Zhang Yu Zhuang village. The head of the village was very helpless, they repeatedly reported the issue to the town and county government, but it was never resolved. Even the county could not resolve it because the water is not dumped by them, it was another county, another city that was dumping sewage, they couldn’t do anything.
NetEase: if factories were set up in those areas, the villagers who benefit from it, for example family member works at the factory, what are their attitudes (of pollution)?
Lu Guang: The same, they are like this – happy about the economic development, but against the severe pollution. The best would be to reduce pollution and continuously develop industries. For example village has a lot of empty houses. 100 yuan for each room, rent out 3 rooms is 300 yuan. Some of them also can work at the factories, to them these increase in their income is very good. But pollution to them is, close the door then go to sleep in the room, the next morning their faces are all gray. They know if this keeps up, their lives will not be very long, very soon …
NetEase: How does the county government see the polluting?
Lu Guang: They are already numb, they cannot do anything. So many young people all have escaped and did not want to return. Young people going out to work all did not want to come back, many lived outside.
NetEase: Living in polluted areas, what specific actions reflect these villagers’ environmental awareness?
Lu Guang: The villagers have no way of protecting the environment. They are the victims, drinking contaminated water every day. They have no choice, unlike wealthy people can buy mineral water, they cannot afford it.
NetEase: What do you think the crux of pollution is? What is the root cause?
Lu Guang: The root cause of pollution is (businesses) want to get more profits, business owners want to get more profits, put aside their own moral and destroy environment. They gained more profits, and that’s it.
NetEase: Is it that they don’t have the rights to hold talks equally? The polluter and the people do not have the equal rights to communicate?
Lu Guang: Who do you talk to? They let you talk? Do you know what they see the farmers as? I should bring you to see what kind of people farmers are. I am telling you, they totally look down on the famers, the true poor people. When you go to the front line you will feel it, the local farmers are suffering in poverty. The right to talk is not for them, it is for the rich people. They (the rich) got the right to talk, not the famers.
NetEase: You took so many pictures of pollution, what do you think the best solution for pollution is?
Lu Guang: If China really wants to solve the pollution problem, I personally feel that it does not depend on a few people from Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), nor relying on the public to report. I personally think that it is a matter of law, because in China’s “Environmental Protection Law”, the maximum fine is 500,000 yuan, with no criminal responsibility. For a company with couple tens and hundreds of millions yearly profit, what is 500,000? Go ahead fine me, it’s ok, because the cost of processing sewage is not 500,000, maybe is millions, it’s ok to give you 500,000. Therefore it is useless to only impose a fine. It is necessary to hold criminal responsibility and to develop more strict laws.
As a legal representative, an owner, if strict laws target him, he will certainly care more about his business. There is no need for the EPA and supervision by the public. If companies who were found of dumping illegally or reported by someone of polluting get the prosecution sentencing, no one will dare to do it anymore. Just because our law is weak right now, the fines are no big deals to the companies. They will pay you as much fines as you want.
NetEase: Do you feel that your photographs have impacts (on people)?
Lu Guang: As for the impacts of my photographs, in fact I didn’t feel it when I was shooting them.
NetEase: Social impact.
Lu Guang: Yes, no feeling. This time I did not create the impact, it was the media. When I shot them I followed my own ideas to take the pictures, to do a good job, so that more people know the truth. What you said impact is because netizens are concerned; very concerned about the pollution issue in China, which shows that Chinese people are very concerned. (Key: I wish he know about ChinaHush and see how many people from other countries were more concerned) This is everyone’s life, environmental issues, the earth is everyone’s, is human’s therefore everyone was very concerned.
NetEase: What role do you think W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography played?
Lu Guang: Eugene Smith is a photographer, an American. In the 70’s he took a set of photos on the mist in Japan which changed Japanese people’s view on environmental pollution issues. In the 70’s Japan also had terrible pollution problems. Because of the social impact of this set of photos, they completely changed the Japan’s environmental pollution problems. They carried out this award, I thought maybe this set of my photos were similar to his. As for this award, I think there are 2 points. One, it recognized my work in the past years. Two, this set of photos will attract more people’s attention worldwide.
NetEase: Are you now the first person to know information on the pollution situation in the villages?
Lu Guang: Yes, my information comes very fast, because they will call me, and if I want to know information about a particular place, I can call them to find out everything. But I want to say one thing, actually the pollutions I documented was only a very small part in China. There are many places I did not discover and did not take photos of, therefore I have many work to do. Now what I did was three rivers, Huai River, the Yangtze River and Yellow river. But there are Hai River, Liao River, Songhua River, Pearl River, these four rivers also were heavily polluted, I still did not go there yet. Because the power of one person is limited, time is limited. Maybe my focus of future work will be those.
NetEase: Looking forward to more of your work.
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En kö av bilar som knappt rörde sig framåt på västerbron, var synen som jag mötte när jag cyklade till arbetet idag.
Högst upp på bron tittade jag åt vänster, ovan den kö av bilar jag cyklat förbi, för att mötas av en Essingeled som stod helt still, i tre filer. Det gav en sur smak i munnen och jag ville verkligen i det läget bara stanna och spy, för att sen springa fram till en av bilarna, öppna dörren och fråga varför han sitter ensam i bilen, om han har barn och om han har det, i vilket skick vill han lämna över denna jord till sina barn. Vill han (för det är oftast en man) att nästa generation skall få leva fritt med färre sjukdomar, friskare luft, färre sura sjöar, större djurliv och mindre nerskräpade hav? Om svaret är ja på dessa frågor, ligger vi jävligt risigt till i den planeringen. Just nu har vi ett samhälle som är uppbyggt på att leda världen mot det rakt motsatta hållet. Vi håller på att utarma de ändliga resurser som finns på jorden, som om de var oändliga. I vår stadsplanering är prioritering ett vid anläggandet av en plats, hur vi kan ta oss dit med våra bilar. Samtidigt som jag cyklar mina 10 kilometrar till jobbet, visar studier att hälften av alla som tar bilen till sitt jobb, har mindre än 5 kilometer dit från hemmet.
Men allt hänger ihop.
Vårt ekonomiska system baserar sig på att vi måste konsumera i en konstant ökande takt. I den kris vi befinner oss i är politikernas största problem just nu att människor inte konsumerar och då tar till metoder för att stimulera detta för att få igång denna konsumtion. Under de senaste 30 åren har en förändring skett i hur vi ser på oss själva och vad livet som helhet går ut på. Konsumtion har blivit vårt främsta nöje och livs elixir. Detta märks i bloggar som Blondinbella och Kenza vars syften till stor del går ut på att just visa vad för kläder och accessoarer de bär just denna dag, som leder till att vara en norm för en oerhört stor mängd unga tjejer.
Att vara rätt.
Genom detta omöjliggörs det att bära samma uppsättning kläder två dagar efter varandra eller samma plagg i kombination. Om du inte konstant förnyar dig med nya kläder är du således ingen enligt normen. Din fullständiga identitet är det du bär och köper.
Du är din bil.
Du är ditt hemmabiosystem.
Du är dina nya skor från DNA.
Du är din t-shirt från Acne.
Du är just detta nu, men inte i morgon för då är detta gammalt och redan exponerat, du behöver då vara något nytt.
Detta kommer inte gratis. För inte så länge sedan var vi, om vi ville ha något, tvungna att arbeta för att tjäna ihop pengar, för att sedan kunna gå och köpa det du sparat till. Detta gällde bilar, kläder, glasögon, resor, tv-apparater etc. Detta ledde då inte till en ökning av vår konsumtion och således inte till ökade vinster för företagen och således inte till ökad aktieutdelning till aktieägarna och således inte till en bonus för cheferna… Därför blev det helt plötsligt möjligt att köpa allt detta och en identitet på avbetalning. Inget sparande, inget väntande, inget ifrågasättande om man överhuvudtaget skulle köpa produkten, bara köp och betala senare när ångerveckan passerat.
Hokus pokus, konsumtionen ökade och alla blev glada. Men fortfarande var produkterna ganska dyra, både att tillverka och köpa. Arbetarna på den lilla bruksorten skulle ha löner enligt avtal som facket förhandlat till sig, den lokala handlaren skulle ha sin del, vilket inte gav så mycket utrymme kvar till bonusar och liknandeför chefer och aktieägare, samt att produkten var fortfarande dyr för konsumenten att köpa. Det var då en klurig mellanchef kom på att om de låter människor i tredjevärlden, eller rättare sagt ett företag i tredje världen tillverka dessa produkter, så inte ens eget företag kunde få dåligt rykte om slavkontrakt, skulle tillverkningskostnaderna sjunka enormt. Till och med så pass mycket att det var värt kostnaden för att frakta produkten runt halva jorden med ett oljeförbrännande fartyg.
Och här är vi nu.
Sanningen svider och stinker.
Vi bryr oss mer om att värna och förvalta vår identitet genom nya produkter och attribut än om människors levnadsvillkor. Samtidigt som antalet människor i världen som lever på motsvarande en dollar om dagen ökat med 100 miljoner under det senaste året till ca en miljard människor, sprutar korkade överklassglin skumpa på varandra på stureplan och i Visby. Samtidigt som det dagligen dör 25 000 barn pg. fattigdom, plastikopererar sig andra och uttalar sig om att botox är deras största hobby utan något relevant syfte utom just den fåfängan de har.
Vissa skriker finanskris. Media och de rika skriker att den är över, rädda för att sluta tjäna pengar, rädda för att människor kanske skall öppna ögonen och sluta konsumera, rädda för att inte äga och ha mer än andra.
Den är inte över, krisen har mullrat under våra fötter länge.
Babylon är på väg att falla för just nu finns verkligen inget imorgon.
Det finns inget att lämna över till nästa generation.
Vi har lyckats förstöra det.
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Vi väljer att ensamma stänga in oss i lägenheter som ofta är belägna i områden vilka i sin tur inte i sin utformad för att bjuda in till ett naturligt umgänge eller spontana möten.
