Last weekend Australia had 2020 Summit, when they brought together 1,000 people to think of ideas to make Australia a better place by 2020.
I personally find it very inspiring, that the country, the government call for such an action. For me, coming from environment that everything is pretty much regulated and in Belarus they are back to working on industrial plans more or less in some areas, to see that the government basically asks their people, what do they want their country to be, is a truly inspiring act.
MORE INFO HERE
www.australia2020.gov.au
(and guess what? a couple of Sydney AIESECers were participants of youth part of the summit)
There were facilitators form all over the country, and a thousand people selected via essays or through their vocation, who worked in various groups over 2 days, defining their ambition and ideas for
Environment:
Ideas such as sustainable cities program, digital art, australian republic, government levels roles review were brought up and will be distilled to make up an action plan for the government.
Yes, not all was ideal - new tax or tax review is a funding strategy for most ideas; the summit is seen by opposition as kevinism; not all ideas are captured, and those that are, are generic etc.
But the whole idea that this kind of event and bringing together minds of people can happen in a country is a great one. I think it's a kind of thing that happens when a country at a particular state of development, and as per the pyramid of needs, after security, food and certain standard of living is secured, the next level is self realisation. Can you imagine Russia, or China, or Japan, or Egypt, running this kind of summit?..
This is an advantage of the country with no pressure of tradition (yes, I think there are some good things in not having a long history).
Feels great living in the country and under the government capable of such an initiative. I like Australia more and more :)
I personally find it very inspiring, that the country, the government call for such an action. For me, coming from environment that everything is pretty much regulated and in Belarus they are back to working on industrial plans more or less in some areas, to see that the government basically asks their people, what do they want their country to be, is a truly inspiring act.
MORE INFO HERE
www.australia2020.gov.au
(and guess what? a couple of Sydney AIESECers were participants of youth part of the summit)
There were facilitators form all over the country, and a thousand people selected via essays or through their vocation, who worked in various groups over 2 days, defining their ambition and ideas for
- Productivity
- Economy
- Environment
- Family&Community
- Indigenous
- Creative Australia
- Rural
- Health
- Governance
- Security
"Australia should be the best place in the world to live and do business. This will require urgent action to increase economic capacity through the creation of a truly national, efficient, sustainable and inclusive economy, supported by seamless regulation"
Environment:
"Our aspiration is that by 2020 Australia is the world's leading green and sustainable economy. That we will set time-bound targets and be on track to dramatically decrease our ecological footprint while continuing to grow our economy and improve our quality of life"
Ideas such as sustainable cities program, digital art, australian republic, government levels roles review were brought up and will be distilled to make up an action plan for the government.
Yes, not all was ideal - new tax or tax review is a funding strategy for most ideas; the summit is seen by opposition as kevinism; not all ideas are captured, and those that are, are generic etc.
But the whole idea that this kind of event and bringing together minds of people can happen in a country is a great one. I think it's a kind of thing that happens when a country at a particular state of development, and as per the pyramid of needs, after security, food and certain standard of living is secured, the next level is self realisation. Can you imagine Russia, or China, or Japan, or Egypt, running this kind of summit?..
This is an advantage of the country with no pressure of tradition (yes, I think there are some good things in not having a long history).
Feels great living in the country and under the government capable of such an initiative. I like Australia more and more :)
Labels: australia, inspiration
Hey Sveta,
Guess what? My last post is also about Australia, Governance & Civic Participation, but about Sustainable Sydney 2030.
Reading through your post, 2 questions came to my mind:
- do you see people questioning the role of economic growth or just saying it's needed by default? In our limited planet, we can't think we can grow forever and it seems to me that Australia could lead such a movement, as it has limited population and very high quality of life levels in general
- do you really think a country like Russia, China or (my inclusion) Brazil couldn't run a 2020 Summit? I tend to disagree, because I think many times what's needed is a plan, direction, shared dreams and people walking to the same direction, taking into account their dreams and the limitations of the place (physical, cultural and resource-wise)
Would love to hear your perspective.
Keep enjoying down under. Wait for you in this part of the world.
yeah, i saw your post, great to see you are following the news of sydney :) answering your questions:
- i think any country theoretically can run this summit; speaking of Brazil i actually think it is quite possible, remembering how active people are. My point is, in countries like Russia or China the government highly unlikely (read: wouldn't) ask people what they think the future of their country should be; because public's opinion doesn't really matter much, all is decided behind the closed doors. I agree with you that all such idea needs is plan to make people's dreams reality; I just doubt most countries' leaders have the courage and/or leadership to take such direction;
- economic growth - i think no government would say we don't need more economic growth, as this is seen as the major role of any government, provide better life for people (and better life is widely understood as having more and better quality things and comfort). It would be a revolutionary approach (which we probably need) to take a stand that the country would focus on sustainability ahead of economic growth. I think it would need to be in conjunction with a critical mass of population agreeing to take such course. But even in Australia, which I see as a good example in their attempts now to be more sustainable, so many people value their immediate comfort much more than long term future of the planet. Liberal party supporters, which are almost 50%, many of them said ratifying Kioto protocol would harm AUS economy...
Having said that - we do need that leadership to turn things more sustainable come from somewhere; someone has to take the lead in convincing people to give up their excessive comfort for the future.
But i see it harder in countries such as India or Belarus for example, where we still haven't reached benefits of western economies, to say to people - you don't actually need that economic growth. Everyone would see it very unfair, why we should give up when countries such as AUS and USA are one of biggest pollutants...
May be Al Gore needs to become a mayor in some US city and run it as more focused on sustainability than anything else, and give an example to the world :)