we can start putting away our lamps because oriented Non-Governmental Organizations
day will soon be here. In this period with strong (NGOs).
shadows and unclear shapes, we must be
particularly careful in our evaluations of events

and currents.

Around the world today, numerous
communities face an immediate future of
intense violence and social upheaval. The
Congo, East Timor, Israel-Palestine, Kashmir,
the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Tibet
are examples amongst many others. In zones of
chronic tensions, politics characteristically lurch
back and forth from hope to despair to hope to

despair. Peace talks, road maps and new
The United Nations has taken
elections descend into the daily hell of missiles,
unprecedented steps to focus the world’s
armoured vehicles and suicide-martyrs — and
urgent attention on the need to protect nature
the new maps are drawn again.
and to encourage ecologically-sound
development. The UN has held major

environmental conferences such as those of
We see among the shadows a world of
Stockholm (1972), Rio (1992), Johannesburg
base calculations, of power plays, of special
(2002) and the climate conference planned for
interests working for national advantage and
Copenhagen in December 2009.
overlooking global responsibilities. In the

confusion of today’s economic situation when
only short-term profit and consumption
NGOs have responded to these
mattered, we see jobs lost, homes lost, medical
challenges. They work year round to reverse
and educational facilities cut back or closed.
the deterioration of nature’s plant life, water
Through financial misdoings, avarice and
quality, forest cover, mountain ecosystems and
corruption, we are compromising our future
marine resources. They combat atmospheric
and that of our children. We see a world where
pollution, desertification and chemical hazards.
we have reached critical limits on pollution, on
fossil-fuel extraction, on endangered species,

on climate change.
NGOs are active in defending and

promoting human rights, in assisting refugees,
internally displaced persons and migrants, in
To meet these challenges, often the result
running medical, educational and vocational-
of limited visions and short-term political
training institutions, in overcoming patriarchal
calculations, we need a strong, values-based
obstacles to women’s empowerment, in healing
United Nations, and we need ethical and future-
children, and in giving youth a voice in
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