The Circle of Life

The G-8 Summit is meeting soon in Japan and in a recent anouncement by the press, President George W. Bush said something that I completely and totally....agree with. In regards to the upcoming meeting of the world's 8 richest countries the US President said that topics such as oil prices, the environment and an overall declining global economy shall be discussed; however the main topic shall be the current state of Africa. He stated "we will discuss the environment - i care about the environment - but what we need to focus on now is helping Africa, the world's poorest continent". If you know me you know that I am a total advocate for sustainability and helping reduce my, as well as others, carbon footprints. Yet, I agree with Mr. W in that what the world needs to focus on first and foremost is Africa.

I say this because I have recently come to realize that we are, in fact, not in a state of total globalization, despite previous debates and discussions on my behalf.

I submit that we have not reached a point of globalization until the rest of the world helps rehabilitate Africa.

Think about it....the very foundation for our very existence lies in Africa. Scientists have been able to trace the whole of human civilization back to tribes and families in our neglected neighbor. We have NOT come full circle to a state of interconnectedness...no...what we have done is travel as far away from our true 'home' as we possibly could. We have left Africa high and dry...depleated many of its resources...and left it to rot. Think of Africa as the home you grew up in. Then you acheive the means to travel abroad...to college...to work....to live. You travel further and further away from it, still dependent on many resources you gained from it...but you go as far away as you possibly can creating a new life for yourself. There will come a point, if you havent died yet, where you will have no where else to go. We only have one planet (so far) and judging by the current state of things, we aren't treating it very fairly.

This all may not make any sense. What I mean to communicate is that we will not live in a globalized world until we help rebuild our home. We simply cannot tackle issues of climate change and global economy on a nationalistic scale. These are issues we must all come together and fix by making a concerted and cohesive effort. We cannot make that effort until we have Africa with us. We all hear about poverty in Ethiopia, or riots in Rwanada, or political upheaval in Zimbabwe...but what are we doing about it? Not much. Not enough.

That is why I agree with the President. Africa must be dealt with and helped before we tackle the rest. We can still take steps to achieve carbon neutraility along the way but until we pump some life into Africa we simply are not as global as we may want to believe.