Articles are left hanging, perhaps highlighting a problem with no solution, or appealing for people to come together across national frontiers to address global problems, but without proposing a mechanism.
I use these opportunities when possible to leave a comment, send a letter to the editor and/or contact the author and often appeal on the simpol yahoo groups for other Adopters to do the same. The more people who send messages, the higher the profile of SP, the more likely a letter is to be published and the more likely authors will make the missing link to SP in future. The more people who are aware of SP, the more Adopters involved in discussing and voting on policies and the more likely politicians - and in consequence, governments - are to support and implement SP.
I'll write about some of these success stories in the future and also flag up chances to respond to articles as they arise, tagged 'opportunity to comment'. If you come across any other opportunities, please do post them to the yahoo campaign group, set up by simpol (the organisation that promotes SP). See:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simpol/
Here's an article on The Guardian website from European Union Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, entitled: "Globalisation is Good" and my comment under the name spdevcambridge. Please do add your own comment to the article and recommend those on SP. See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/09/globalisation.eu
Peter Mandelson says above: "Rather than worry about a relative decline in their economic weight, or retreat from international engagement, the US and Europe should recognise that in an interdependent world, they have nothing to gain from a stalling of growth in the developing world. Instead they should focus on renewing the global institutions needed to hold this new mix of states together through difficult debates on climate change, energy security and trade."
Certainly we live in an interdependent world. Climate change, where pollution in the industrialised world, impacts on the planet as a whole is perhaps the clearest example. Our leaders are not doing a very good job of tackling it because each country puts its own economic interest first. Bush was blunt in saying he would do nothing to harm the US economy. But his successors are unlikely to be radically different and the UK's Labour Government tried to weaken its commitment to the European carbon trading scheme under pressure from business.
So what hope do we have that the global institutions will be reformed in any sensible way? Not much, I venture, if the debates at the World Trade Organisation, for example, are anything to go by.
Fortunately there are people with vision and proposals for addressing global problems through policies that have been proposed for inclusion in the Simultaneous Policy (SP). Anyone can take part in the discussion, put forward proposals and vote by signing up as an SP Adopter, which is free to do at:
Politicians from all main parties in the UK have signed a pledge to implement SP - the policies developed by we, the people, of the planet - alongside other governments. Simultaneous implementation removes the fear of first mover disadvantage. It also enables a coherent package of polices, where climate change is linked to trade reform is linked to improved regulation of transnational corporations and so on, as decided by Adopters.
SP is not an alternative to lobbying for change through conventional campaigns, but it does enable us to focus on the policies that are necessary not just those that will be tolerated. Join the discussion at:
http://www.simpol.org.uk/forum/
Globalisation is only good if democratic accountability keeps pace.
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