Rio+20: Our path to self-discovery

The words ‘Rio De Janeiro’ for a film student would bring to mind rushes from the film “City of God”.

The race sequence where one runs for survival, the unfolding of the story in retrospect because we are all a part of a one sided narrative that the main character experiences and only when one looks back in time with the collective vision of the director do we see the connections rather than disjointed events and of course, the sense of self-discovery which overwhelms one and all at the end.

Well, I might not be here to make a film (only history) but all the three points are pretty relevant and run parallel to what I envision, feel and expect out of Rio+20. Indians expect everything to have a hidden meaning and I am no different. On a personal level, I have been running around to make this “moment in history” happen. I mean, after locking up your guilt of the number of carbon footprints you are spending to attend a conference and concentrating only on the excitement one feels on attending a global (UN) event that would affect global governance, policy and “aam aadmi” (ordinary man) alike.

Rio+20 could mean (“could” being the operative word) a concrete framework for a faster transition to a sustainable world or maybe recognizing that monetary elements should take a back seat while abstract elements like happiness should start playing a bigger role such that people start recognizing the threat called “climate change” as real and caring about Mother Earth.

Uh! Uh! There I begin again. It is the young person in me which starts clamouring to seek attention such that people are pushed to think, act (now) and race for our survival.
And trust me, I am not the only one. More than 650 young people who met at the Youth Blast (fancy name for a fancy event at a fancy place with fancy food where everyone carries fancy (i)devices which might get stolen specially because equity, a principle of sustainable development is still nowhere in sight! Hence proved, we need to work harder to bring about the change) tried to do the same.

However, I am being the actor right now and you, my dear reader are just seeing the world through my eyes.

The eyes which ignore the fact that these young people voluntarily worked for months to make this event come to life. The grandness (of course) was added by the government which has to prove that it is capable of hosting such events better than anyone else could. (Ah! The competitive spirit…governments everywhere are alike.) So, the blogger/actor of this film called Rio+20 obviously will only critically see the events in segregation, the director has to step in for a deeper perspective.

A perspective, which cannot be unbiased (unfortunately as “main samay nahi hoon” or I am not time) but will be coloured by the background, environs and events that unfold over the next couple of weeks. A perspective which will become clearer as the observation of the struggle for a sustainable world is made by the stakeholder who will ultimately walk the path of self-discovery.