Re: [sustran] What’s wrong with the UN “Decade of Action for Road Safety” – Part Two

[Morten Lange]

Hi,

I agree that how  FIA   and friends appear in part to steal the global "road 
safety"  scene  is worrying.

Would  it be possible to help e.g.  Nelson Mandela ( + family)  and Desmond 
Tutu  to understand they have been conned ? 

Perhaps with the help of Vandana Shiva ?  She was very clear, at Velo-City 2011  
about the injustice towards Rickshaw operators, and said  bicycles  are to 
transport what organic is to agriculture  



This clip and this article should perhaps go viral.  Maybe only videos "go 
viral",. So if  with someone would blend this with the appropriate text and 
pictures.
   http://soundcloud.com/morten7an/lordrobertsondecadeaction20110511

http://www.rsmpress.co.uk/Roadsafety.pdf
 
 --
Regards / Kvedja
Morten Lange, Reykjavík




________________________________
From: Todd Edelman <edelman at greenidea.eu>
To: Sustran List <Sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>; 
NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, 23 May, 2011 12:37:46
Subject: [sustran] What’s wrong with the UN “Decade of Action for Road Safety” – 
Part Two

/From the Road Danger Reduction Forum in the UK:/*

What’s wrong with the UN “Decade of Action for Road Safety” – Part Two*
http://rdrf.org.uk/2011/05/what’s-wrong-with-the-un-“decade-of-action-for-road-safety”-–-part-two/#more-390


A picture is worth a thousand words, and this one [see link] 
disseminated by the Campaign for Global Road Safety (sic) for the UN 
Decade for Road Safety is a good indicator of what is wrong with it. 
Children in South-East Asia show how the CGRS and others behind this 
initiative think of the basic act of crossing the road: heavily 
supervised by adults; wearing crash helmets; carrying hi-viz signals; 
and even tied to each other. This is exactly not what real road safety 
is about. Let’s look at the origins of the “UN Decade for Road Safety” 
to learn where this nonsense has come from:Of all the organisations 
controlling the global “road safety” programmes, the key player is  the 
FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society, a UK based charity set up 
with a basic donation of $300 million made by the Fédération 
Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the federation of motoring 
organisations and the governing body of world motor sport. This comes 
from FIA’s sale of  the rights to ‘commercial exploitation’ of Formula 
One racing to Bernie Ecclestone and his bankers for about $350million 
plus an undisclosed annual fee. From this fund, itself derived from the 
advertisers in Formula One, comes the funding for WHO  and World Bank 
“road safety” initiatives.  Run with some 1.5 million euros a year for 
administration, the FIA Foundation, as a charity, is a different body 
from the FIA, although its leading members are often the same people. 
Trustees include the former FIA President, Max Mosley, the 
representatives of national motoring organisations, and the Finnish MEP 
and rally driver Ari Vatanen.

An interesting description of how Formula One, the international 
motoring organisations, the motor and associated industries are linked 
to literally drive (through bodies such  as the Campaign for Global Road 
Safety, Global Road Safety Initiative, Global Road Safety Partnership, 
RoadSafe etc.) initiatives such as the UN Decade for Road Safety is by 
Professor Ian Roberts ( Formula One and global road safety, Ian Roberts, 
J R Soc Med 2007;100:360–362 – a shortened version is here).

The UN Decade for Road Safety has been signed up to by the “road safety” 
establishment of bodies like RoSPA, PACTS, BRAKE . We have not. As well 
as getting the wrong end of the stick on safety, it is part of a 
programme promoted by powerful bodies committed to increased dominance 
of road building and motor vehicle use throughout the developing world, 
with all the health and environmental problems that would bring.

We will be describing this programme – and what’s wrong with it – again.

***

Please also see:
http://rdrf.org.uk/2011/05/what’s-wrong-with-the-un-“decade-of-action-for-road-safety”-–-part-one/

http://greenideafactory.blogspot.com/2011/05/decade-of-road-safety-we-are-all-steve.html


-- 

Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory,
a member of the OPENbike team

Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081

edelman at greenidea.eu
www.greenidea.eu
todd at openbike.se
www.openbike.se

Skype: toddedelman

Urbanstr. 45
10967 Berlin
Germany

***

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