Thursday, August 29, 2002
The new panacea - Public-Private partnerships
Big business is everywhere at the United Nation's World Summit for Sustainable Development. But the effectiveness is still to be determined of the so-called public-private partnerships (that are so enthusiastically endorsed by the Bush administration):
With little progress made toward achieving the goals of eradicating poverty and preserving the environment in the past decade, the United Nations has welcomed corporations -- and their deep pockets -- into the main tent.
``We want business to buy into our basic values'' of promoting human rights and economic growth in an environmentally friendly way, said U.N. spokeswoman Susan Markham. ``You can't make them do things unless you join forces with them.''
...But activists accused Western governments of trying to shift responsibility for helping the world's poor and corporations of trying to ``hijack'' the summit's outcome to water down environmental rules and increase profits.
