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Friends,
It is a privilege to be here at this special day and time - Earth Day, the Spring
Equinox - at this very special place, the Headquarters of the United Nations in
New York, next to the Peace Bell - a poignant reminder of the opening phrase
of the U.N. Charter: "We the Peoples of the United Nations, determined to
save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ..." and of the fact that
we are still so far from achieving the peace promised by the Charter when it
was signed just over fifty years ago.
There is a poignancy too about Earth Day - a day which serves both as
celebration of our commitment to and appreciation of the beauty of the Earth
and the natural world, and as a reminder of the magnitude of the challenges we
face and of the fact that we are still so far from surmounting those
challenges.
We need to use everything we know; we need to use all the tools at our
disposal. We need design and action processes that incorporate ecological
principles; we need to learn - in ways that go beyond how and what we have
learned before - how to translate our ideas and visions into action, how to work
in partnership with others, how to connect our work and creative energy with
the work and creative energy of others who share our concerns and our
commitments.
We need to discover and create new forms of partnership between all those
who have a stake in our survival on Earth - including new forms of partnership
between nature, humanity, and technology. We need to come to terms with and
resolve the conflicts between the natural habitat, our human habitat, and the
habitat where technology lives.
The two most powerful tools we have, and that we need to use, are our minds -
our vision, imagination, creativity and commitment - and what is beginning to
take on the characteristics of a global mind - the remarkable frontier of the
Internet and of the World Wide Web.
The possibility of using this "global mind" didn't exist when Earth Day was
started; at the 1992 Earth Summit, it was still a clumsy and primitive tool
compared to what we have now. Within the space of a very short time, it is
becoming possible to link together - to build partnerships between -
information about the nature of the challenges we face, and about projects,
initiatives and successes. Through the neural pathways of this global mind it is
becoming easier with each passing day to exchange our ideas, visions, projects
and activities with others around the world.
From a vision of how this "global mind" - this online world - can enhance Habitat
II, we have created "Habitat II Online" - H2O - as a framework for
participation in the Istanbul conference, a framework in which we can test and
explore the ways that we can develop and put into practice partnerships
through and with the emerging technologies of information and communication.
This "global mind" offers a framework within which H2O is building and
launching a "Partnership Plan of Action" for Habitat II. This is a process that
lets us go beyond - far beyond - the Habitat Agenda that is being negotiated
by governments; it is a process that will allow all the partners with a stake in
the success of the Habitat II vision - the local governments, the
community-based organizations, the national and international
non-governmental organizations, the private sector, the sources of finance -
banks and charitable foundations - the universities - to build on the Habitat
Agenda with our own commitments.
The Partnership Plan of Action will allow us discover, define and create links
and partnerships based on our vision and our commitments. It will also provide a
space for us to learn about making partnerships work; to learn about processes
of dialogue and facilitation that can help us get beyond obstacles that can arise
from differences in perspective and assumptions.
The Partnership Plan of Action doesn't just offer its partners the opportunity
to focus on issues of human settlements; it provides a new and broader
framework through which people in their local communities can touch - and be
touched by - the United Nations and can come to understand and appreciate
more deeply and directly the vital and indispensable role the United Nations
plays in the world.
As we hold the vision of Earth Day in our hearts and minds today, I invite you
participate in a journey to Istanbul and beyond - a journey of commitment and
creativity, of exploration and discovery, of reflection, vision and action.