2.4 Sustainability and culture

So the ecosystem of Earth is threatened, various forms of life have already been extinguished and many people, including children, are dying because of a lack of food and of other economic provisions. And in addition to these life-taking and life threatening facts must also be noted the assaults on social and cultural life and cohesion. The attacks may take various forms in different regions, including:

1. The rapid and sometimes enforced removal or elimination of traditional community life and cultural diversity by the forces of modernization, often too suddenly for viable alternatives to emerge. This is the source of much alienation and loneliness, especially in geographic and social sectors which do not share equitably in the fruits of progress. In other cases, reaction to modernization may provoke a retreat into rigid, offensive and tyrannical forms of fundamentalism and nationalism. Observed in some Islamic countries and in the conservative religio-political movements in the North, such reactions also threaten human rights and life itself.
2. The increasing pressure of monetisation and commercialization is affecting most communities in almost all cultures, but especially in the industrialized west. Where money becomes the final criterion and yardstick, many valuable forms of community and culture are dying, though they may seem to flourish temporarily. The commercialization of the media and different forms of art threatens the real and individual life of any culture. And many forms of caring labor may die out if a culture acts and rewards in terms of money alone; mammonism has its prey.
3. The exclusion of different groups from any form of modern societal cooperation, community, or support, is reaching unheard of dimensions. There is a direct link between social exclusion and the rising "new poverty" in the midst of even very rich societies.
4. Similar exclusion processes on a world scale result in the poorest nations being denied the possibility to participate in decisions on their own economy and society, which others are making for them.

As known from studies of species diversification and the delicate balance of interactions between unlike parts of creation, there is need to preserve certain cultural diversity against cultural homogeneity for the survival and quality of human life. Positive resistance to dislocation, monetization and exclusion requires informed, organized, and thoughtful action with an extended time horizon.

2.5 Sustainability in the post-socialist countries: an illustration

Specific problems connected with a lack of sustainability are evident in the post-socialist countries, still in rapid transformation. Several new events and tendencies can be observed:

1. the changing scale of individual and social values, also in the direction of fundamental Christian values and tradition;
2. changing social relations and the organization and mechanisms of social and economic activity;
3. deep restructuration of the national economies, and resulting impact on:

• hyperinflation
• growing unemployment
• homelessness and lumpenization
• increasing poverty

The problems in this part of the world have specific features and need specific investigations. But the problems shared by all traditional economies undergoing a transition to a modern market economy have common features.  [See preparatory paper: Employment Possibilities in Central and Eastern Europe. András Z. Csanády and András R. Csanády. Also Commodity Relations and the Christian Moral View, András Z. Csanády.]

The commonality of transition problems is rooted in the too-rapid, too-uncritical imitation of patterns from developed market economies without analysis as to the need for, appropriateness of, or impact on the actual situation. When this happens, the market system’s negative features appear in most destructive ways. Transition countries, however, have virtually no mechanisms available to deal with, to avoid, or to compensate such downside features as unemployment, corruption and inflation. In these circumstances, the following are key:

1. transformation processes demand an extremely high degree of moral and social responsibility on the part of internal and external political institutions and the international organizations (like the IMF and the World Bank);
2. existing social organizations must create and develop new ways of cooperating to share their experiences in relation to the need for contributing to accountability, justice and social stability, and to make recommendations to the government and other political institutions;
3. churches and other religious organizations should play a key role in situations where fundamental values are threatened or destroyed.

In this light, cooperation and exchange of experience between societies in transition, the so-called developed countries and the countries of the third world are very important.

2.6 Sustainability and developing country agendas: an illustration

In addition to the concerns shared with other countries, at the national level in developing countries, particularities require specific actions to move toward equity and sustainable development:  [See preparatory paper: Development and Environment: a Perspective on Labour Force Employment and Poverty Eradication, a Viewpoint from Pacific Asia. ZHANG Junzuo.]

1. Extension services need strengthening to ensure that the knowledge of small farmers about local products and conservation techniques can benefit both the choice and development of production and that they have access to appropriate modern technology in attaining food security. This includes access to improved seeds and the participation of farmers themselves in programs designed to test and develop new improved varieties.
2. Improvement in the management, tenure and conservation of natural resources requires betterment of the infrastructure, particularly information and credit facilities.

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