[sustran] "Poll finds little faith in politicians worldwide" - and new mobility hard truths

[EcoPlan, Paris]

Dear Friends of Sustainable Development and Social Justice,
 
Why are our transportation arrangements so patently and egregiously
unsustainable? Why is the entire concept of sustainable development and
social justice so often little more than a parade of pious but at the
end of the day unfelt and unbelieved rhetoric - on the part of those who
should be able to advance the agenda?  Well, think about this?
 
As far as I am concerned, this is the landscape, the sort of grim
reality that we need to get our brains around, accept it as one of the
keys to the challenge, and then deal with it. The bottom line is this:
it will not be through sweet reason and long term proposals that we will
get our cities and our lives on the path to sustainability.  We need to
be near term (like the problems), concrete, forthright and convincing.
We also need to be able to offer an alternative that people can
understand have confident in and want to make happen.
 
Which - I am sure that you already guessed this one - we are working so
hard on the idea of the New Mobility 20/20 Challenge Initiative, which
we very much hope you will get behind. 
 
Stay tuned.  Get involved.  Be a part of the solution.  Let's put
pressure on these guys that they cannot run away from.  We know what we
have to do. Starting today.
 
Eric Britton
Convener, The New Mobility Agenda at http://newmobility.org
<http://newmobility.org/> 
Free video/voice conferencing: Click to http://newmobilitypartners.org
<http://newmobilitypartners.org/>   
 
The Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative at
http://ecoplan.org <http://ecoplan.org/>  
 
The Commons: Increasing the uncomfort zone for hesitant administrators
and politicians; pioneering new concepts for business, entrepreneurs,
activists, community groups, and local government; and through our joint
efforts, energy and personal choices, placing them and ourselves firmly
on the path to a more sustainable and more just society.
 
 
 
 
 
Poll finds little faith in politicians worldwide
By Meg Bortin International Herald Tribune 
Friday, November 19, 2004
 
 <http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?key=PARIS> PARIS Distrust of
political leaders is high across the world, with significant majorities
of people viewing the authorities of their countries as dishonest,
wielding too much power and overly susceptible to influence, according
to a new global opinion survey. 

Among Western Europeans, the poll indicated, Germans were by far the
most critical of their politicians, with 76 percent of those surveyed
viewing political leaders as dishonest, compared with 46 percent for the
region as a whole. In Eastern Europe, however, 90 percent of Poles
surveyed said they viewed politicians as dishonest.

In France, respondents were generally less critical of their politicians
than were respondents elsewhere in Western Europe of theirs, Gallup
International said in an analysis of the results. 

In Britain, respondents felt strongly that their leaders responded to
pressure from "people more powerful than them," perhaps a reflection of
popular resentment of Prime Minister Tony Blair's relations with the
Bush administration.



The "Voice of the People" poll, which surveyed 50,000 people in 60
countries, was conducted by Gallup International from June to August. It
was commissioned by the World Economic Forum in preparation for its
annual meeting of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, which next
convenes from Jan. 26 to 30. 

A spokesman for the forum, Mark Adams, said in a telephone interview
that the poll's results would help set the frame of reference for the
meeting. 

He said the poll's dismal findings on political honesty would have to be
addressed in Davos. 

"When you have a group of world leaders getting together to discuss the
state of the world, it is imperative for them to have an idea of what
the world's people are actually thinking," Adams said. 

Others, however, said that the poll results should be viewed with
caution.

"When you use highly qualitative words, you run a big risk," said a
European policy analyst who asked that his name not be published. "The
word dishonesty doesn't cover the same semantic field in every
language."

Globally political leaders were viewed as dishonest by 63 percent of
those surveyed and as unethical by 52 percent. The view on dishonesty
was highest in Asia (73 percent), Africa (82 percent) and Latin America
(87 percent).

In Britain, where there has been strong opposition to Blair's
cooperation in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, nearly three-quarters of those
surveyed said their political leaders responded to pressure from the
more powerful. This compares with 58 percent in Western Europe overall
and 57 percent worldwide.

France lines up with Western Europe in this regard, but, Gallup said,
"On all other dimensions, French people are far less likely to criticize
their politicians, with French results approximately 10 percentage
points behind the average for Western Europe."

Business leaders fared better than politicians in world perceptions,
according to the survey, with 43 percent globally viewing them as
dishonest and 39 percent as behaving unethically.

Again, Germans were more critical than the norm, with 70 percent
condemning their business leaders as dishonest and 69 percent condemning
them as unethical.

Asians showed relatively more confidence in their business leaders than
did other regions, with about half believing that captains of industry
"respond to pressure from people more powerful than them," compared with
about two-thirds in North America. 

Perceptions of whether the world will be a safer place in the future
varied sharply from region to region, and often had changed since last
year. 



In Western Europe, 55 percent feel the next generation faces a more
perilous future. While high, that figure is 9 percent less than last
year, when opposition to the war in Iraq was perhaps more vivid in
Europe than it is now. 

The most optimistic predictions for the future came from Africa, where
50 percent said the world would be safer in future, compared with 30
percent who said it would be less safe. There was also optimism in
Eastern Europe, with 34 percent expecting safer times for the next
generation, compared with 27 percent who were pessimistic. 

One of the most pessimistic regions surveyed was the Middle East, and
the most pessimistic country was Egypt, where more than seven out of 10
people thought the future looked dim. 

"Globally, women are slightly more pessimistic than men," Gallup said in
its review, "with 46 percent of women saying the world will be a less
safe place for future generations, compared with 43 percent of men." 

Opinions diverged sharply in Europe on the prospects for economic
prosperity. In Western Europe, those expecting harder times number more
than double those expecting greater prosperity; that proportion is
reversed in Eastern Europe, where the number expecting good times is
triple the number predicting a harder economic future.

Pessimism was strongest in Germany, where 74 percent predicted greater
economic problems in future, up from 69 percent last year. Also
pessimistic were respondents in Switzerland (64 percent) and Austria (60
percent), while "North America is completely divided on this issue,"
Gallup said.

Prospects for political stability and economic prosperity will be at the
center of discussions in Davos, where the theme this time will be
"Taking Responsibility for Tough Choices." Adams, the spokesman for the
World Economic Forum, said the meeting would cover "areas of concern
where choices need to be made," from global warming and AIDS to the
Middle East. 

"Change is not likely overnight," he said, adding however that if the
leaders gathering in Davos review the poll results and "see that what
they're doing is not in accord with their people, hopefully it will
slowly have an effect." 

Gallup said the results are statistically representative of the views of
more than 1.2 billion people worldwide.
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