A discussion between post-graduate students living in Oakdene residence and Rhodes vice-chancellor Saleem Badat about the role of academia in global sustainability ranged from evaluating political and economic models, to sharing lifts to PE airport.
A discussion between post-graduate students living in Oakdene residence and Rhodes vice-chancellor Saleem Badat about the role of academia in global sustainability ranged from evaluating political and economic models, to sharing lifts to PE airport.
At the Oakdene residence annual tea, Badat said environmental degradation couldn't be tackled separately from social development challenges.
“There is no other way – not if we wish to leave a world that our children, grandchildren and their children can inhabit without threats of great calamities that will be consequence of our reckless degradation our natural environment,” he said.
He said South Africa, and Africa, had failed in many ways – but had succeeded in becoming the most unequal society on Earth.
Despite attempts post-1994 to bridge the income-distribution gap in South Africa, inequality has deepened in the past 17 years.
“The income of 20 percent of South Africa’s poorest has fallen by 1.7 percent, while 20 percent of the richest people in South Africa take 72.5 percent of the national income,” Badat said.
While the problem of the growing gap between the rich and the poor was not uniquely South African, Badat said, if there were no social grants, starvation would be the second most common cause of death after HIV/Aids, in South Africa.
Asked what Africa could do to emulate the success of the so-called Asian tigers, Badat said African societies were confronted with the challenge of making choices. These included what system of governance they should adopt – authoritarian or democratic.
“In 1960 when Ghana first became independent, it was in the same income-bracket as Korea – but look at them now," Badat said.
"Korea, China and most Asian economies have been growing at alarming rate, while most African economies have been on a downward spiral.”
He pointed out that the Asian tigers were never really democratic, but made the right choices and invested heavily in education and industrial development. The result was resounding success.
Speaking of the conflict between proponents of a freemarket economy as a panacea for the world's economic ills and those in favour of state-driven economic growth, Badat argued for a balance.
"The fall of the Soviet Union did not help the world in addressing such imbalances,” he said.
Throwing a spotlight on the concept of democracy as a world-renowned form of governance, Badat asked, “Does democracy really work, or should the concept be modified where the democratic processes stifle our long-term economic objectives?”
He criticised the role played by what her termed environmental evangelists and noted that the Communist Party of China grew that country's economy to its current position from a position of total control.
However, Badat was quick to point out, “We fought hard for this democracy. I myself would not want to give it up so easily."
Of "environmental evangelists" he asked, "Whose agenda are they exactly pursuing?”
Asked whether as Africans we should move towards militarised form of discipline across all organs of civil society, he said this smacked of reversing the gains made in advancing civil liberties.
What the Oakdene debate did agree on was that sustainable development would be feasible only if we are able to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations.
The debate concluded that it was important to be able to talk about preserving flora and fauna, without turning a blind eye to hunger and unemployment. The view was expressed that Oakdenians, and the large community of Rhodes, could contribute to a clean environment and sustainable development by getting involved in community engagement activities and coordinating plans to manage resources in a cost-effective manner.
The example was made of the fact that each week at Rhodes, several cars a day leave the campus to take people to the airport in Port Elizabeth. If travel plans were coordinated across all university departments, however, one car a day might be sufficient to ferry people to and from the airport. This would save costs and contribute to carbon reduction.
Badat concluded his speech by quoting Nelson Mandala’s biography, Long Walk to Freedom: “The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right to be not oppressed. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning. I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”
