Jane Goodall interview
- August 26, 2002
- 4 comments
There’s a blog about the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. They have an interview with Jane Goodall where in response to what she thinks of the summit she says:
It’s horrifying to think of the waste the summit will cause. All these delegates having huge and fancy meals while so many people all around are starving. It just doesn’t make sense. But I have to be here. Kofi Annan put me on his panel advising on sustainable development. So I can’t avoid being here.
I thought this was pretty weak of her and posted my response:
Jane Goodall is NOT a star. If she were really as great a leader as everyone says she is, then she would have had the backbone to protest the hypocrisy of this whole event (which she does mention) by staying away from it. I guarantee you that if she were to protest in this way, she would get the attention of the world. As it is now, she’ll only have the “summit’s biggest names” brown-nosing. I respect her for her support of micro-credit loans and education of women so businesses can start. Those are excellent strategies that work. But she blew it on this one. She has the authority and weight to be able to protest an event like this and not lose support for what she is doing. I think she would actually gain more support.
Michael, I DO have a clue what I’m talking about here. I’m quoting her! She mentions indirectly the hypocrisy of the event by saying “All these delegates having huge and fancy meals while so many people all around are starving. It just doesn’t make sense.” Is that not hypocrisy to you? If not, what is that? An oversight by the catering service?
I’m sure she IS hoping for positive results, I never said she wasn’t or that nothing good will come out of this summit.
How am I insulting Jane Goodall? And how is it shrill? I complimented her, said what she was doing was good. What I said was she could have had a bigger impact by following what her heart and mind are telling her instead of being forced to be somewhere she doesn’t want. How is that being irrational?
And God forbid that someone should EVER find any faults with anything the UN puts together or that Miss Goodall has done! My goodness! What a shrill, ignorant person! You can blindly follow all of the summit or try to see it from my perspective as well. Jane Goodall saw it and spoke out about it. You can’t even do that.
Chris, you have no clue what you’re talking about here. If you were at all familiar with Dr. Goodall’s efforts worldwide, you’d have presented a more balanced opinion; indeed, she never at all discusses the hypocrisy of the Summit itself. I happen to know she’s quite hopeful for positive results emerging from it, and she can help to make it so. Meanwhile, your own shrill and strident insults fall on the deaf ears of anyone even remotely aware of Jane’s impact on people and the environment everywhere. Read her books, know why she’s doing what she has to do in JoBurg, then take a rational and informed position. Rantings like yours serve no purpose other than to affirm the aphorism that ignorance should be painful.