Habib, George & Jabou, Lessons from the Summit for its organisers, the SA and African Governments, african entrepreneurs and members of civic society. Mbeki has declared that on the whole the Summit has been a political and logistical success. The magnitude of the business success will be known after the Jo'burg Summit Corporation finalizes its books. But all indications are that Mr. Moshishi will be laughing all the way to the Bank. May be Habib Ghanim, George and Jabou should consider organising the next major world conference in The Gambia with Pa Modou Gassama in charge of telecommunications while doubling as your interlocutor. He knows his way around town: take it from me. Sidi Sanneh ------------------------------------------------------------------------- © photosa.com 5/9/02 11:43 AM SA has patted itself on the back for hosting the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, declaring it a political and logistical succes and is setting its sights on even bigger events like the World Cup or Olympic Games. "We made an excellent deal," Trade and Industry Minister Alec Irwin said as the 10-day summit closed here Wednesday. "There were of course issues that were politically impossible, for example to expect the EU to change its agricultural policy. Or to get the US and Japan to agree on targets for renewable energy." But, said Erwin, the summit has delivered about 41 new agreements on the environment, among them a far-reaching deal on protecting fishing stocks. "This was the best we could have expected under the circumstances." President Thabo Mbeki said the summit has lived up to the hopes of Africans, for whom development and the environment often amount to "a matter of life and death". And, he added proudly, an African country has proved that it can host such an event and helped to change the negative perception of the continent. "We have shown the world here this week that we have the capacity," enthused his Presidency Minister Essop Pahad at the end of the 10-day event that drew more than 20,000 participants. "It has always been my dream to have SA host the World Cup. Now that dream is becoming a hope. Why not?" Moss Moshishi, the head of the organising company JOWSCO, said all went well though the cost of the summit has still to be counted. "I feel that we achieved what we set out to achieve, in fact we surpassed our own expectations. We will not talk about the cost, but a full audit will be done." Moshishi said the company has set itself a target of giving 30% of the tenders for the summit to people who are discriminated against under apartheid. "We have surpassed this and achieved 48% participation by these groups." Pahad and Moshishi said they will only release figures once every bill has been paid and will not confirm earlier estimates that the summit will cost about R550-million, of which about 80% had been raised in advance. Moshishi said the organisers managed to transport 13,000 people every day, find hotel beds for 30,000 delegates and received only seven complaints from visitors. On top of that, the dreaded traffic jams did not materialise and few delegates became victims of violent crime. But on a political level the summit again proves that countries of the south lack political clout, on both the government and social society levels. "One thing that did come out is the weakness in general of civil society in Africa where urban issues dominate over the poor and people in the countryside," said Welfare and Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya. "Our non-governmental organisations are non-existant in the countryside where the peasants and the poor are. I was struck by the divisions that exist between the NGOs of developing and developed worlds. "There is on overdominance of NGOs from the north. I feel that in the interest of democracy in SA, the government will have to assist NGOs." This would surprise civil society groups in SA who felt that they were deliberately kept away from the summit, relegated to a venue on the other side of Johannesburg and given limited access to the convention centre where government delegates met. No doubt this had something to do with the government's security fears. The authorities were openly and unnecessarily worried that a protest by about 15,000 activists on August 31 might turn violent. "Few of us slept the night before," confessed Moshishi. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This website is the only official website of the Johannesburg World Summit Company and is © 2002 Johannesburg World Summit Company _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~