[sustran] Re: WorldTransport Forum TRB session: "Transportation and Logistical Challenges Associated with the Tsunami Disaster"

[Anzir Boodoo]

Eric,
On Thursday, Jan 6, 2005, at 11:21 Europe/London, EcoPlan, Paris wrote:

> I write you with reference to the planned TRB session onSunday, 
> January 9, at8:00 p.mto be given over to “Transportation and 
> Logistical Challenges Associated with the Tsunami Disaster”.  (See 
> http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=4530).
>
> My question is this? Is there anyone in our groups who will be there 
> who might be wiling to report back to us in summary as to how all this 
> goes?  And is there anyone who will be participating and who might be 
> intending to run with some of our ideas on injecting sustainability 
> criteria into the first line of the new rebuilding efforts?  And if 
> so, how might this somehow be achieved at more than the usual level of 
> pure rhetoric (AKA the greenwash syndrome) that all too often is what 
> we have when our important topic comes up, if at all.

Not to mention that we should try to avoid either falling into the trap 
of, or being accused of being culturally imperialist in saying 
solutions need to be sustainable.

For a lot of people, sustainable solutions are seen as the polar 
opposite of technological advancement, and there are elements in the 
discourses of "Appropriate" or "Intermediate" Technology that smack of 
wanting to keep certain parts of the world backwards. This view has to 
be countered, and indeed some of the solutions we can collectively use 
in the rebuilding will be high tech (perhaps with solar energy playing 
a big part), while many will be low tech. It is important to let people 
know that we should be teaching people in those areas the lessons we 
have learnt (if we have learnt anything, that is).
-- 
Anzir Boodoo MRes MILT Aff. IRO
transcience, Leeds Innovation Centre, 103 Clarendon Road, LEEDS LS2 9DF