cannabisnews.com: Save the Earth, but What About the Marijuana?





Save the Earth, but What About the Marijuana?
Posted by CN Staff on August 26, 2002 at 14:43:10 PT
By Ray Kennedy in Johannesburg
Source: Times Online UK
Of all the comments about what sustainable development really should mean at the UN earth summit beginning in Johannesburg today, one of the most original came from the Sowetan Sunday World, a leading black newspaper. It devotes a main feature to widespread farming in the Eastern Cape province of ganja — the regional name for marijuana or psychoactive cannabis. The authorities are trying to stamp out the industry, which is worth an estimated £1 billion a year. 
The plant is the main cash crop for many people and the only source of income for whole communities, according to the newspaper. Instead of applying brute force, the authorities should involve the growers in plans to substitute their illicit business for socially acceptable economic activity. “Substituting innocuous hemp for ganja is a more viable and sustainable option,” the newspaper says. The summit, the newspaper adds, will bring enormous benefits to Jozi African — township slang for Johannesburg — through accommodating, feeding, transporting and entertaining thousands of visitors and it urges readers: “Let’s show the guests the best of African hospitality and ensure they have a whale of a time.” The impact that President Mugabe of Zimbabwe will have on the gathering is the main focus of both the Afrikaans-language Rapport and the Johannesburg Sunday Independent. It is generally accepted that he will make a grandstand entrance and use the occasion to lash out again at Britain and the United States no matter what is on the agenda. The Sunday Independent says that Tony Blair, who is scheduled to attend the end of the summit on September 2, is frustrated by the lack of progress shown by South Africa and Nigeria in setting up a dialogue between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and will raise this privately with President Mbeki of South Africa. The mass-circulation Johannesburg Sunday Times said on its front page: “Final bid to save summit from failure.” It was reporting on last-minute talks that began at the Sandton Convention Centre, the main summit venue, on Saturday to try to reach agreement on the United Nations implementation plan for global development. It quoted UN officials saying that failure to resolve outstanding issues would render the summit useless. “So far, what we see is a complete disaster,” one official had said. There has been extensive coverage of the security measures the authorities are imposing, including clearing all the usual hawkers away from the streets around the Sandton Convention Centre. All the long-neglected roads in the area have been repaired, although the potholes quickly reappear a mile or so away. The Sunday Times says that Johannesburg is an apt venue for the summit and describes it as a city at a crossroads, confronted with almost all of the challenges that delegates will deliberate over the next two weeks. “The city was built on all that was wrong with the development patterns of the last century. Today the city offers great hope for developing countries as it grapples with its new role as the Eldorado of refugees, economic migrants and fortune seekers from the world over.” The former President, Nelson Mandela, told the Sunday Times that a niece and two sons of a nephew had died of Aids in the eastern Transkei region. Mr Mandela has actively promoted Aids awareness since stepping down as President in 1999. An estimated 4.7 million South Africans — one in nine — is HIV-positive. The Sunday Times said that Mr Mandela had asked his family if he could make public the names of those who died. “They were not happy about that, so we can’t disclose their identities,” the newspaper reported him as saying. Mr Mandela said he did not know if his relatives had been given anti-Aids drugs. Note: What the papers say in South Africa, from Ray Kennedy in Johannesburg. Source: Times Online (UK)Author: Ray Kennedy in JohannesburgPublished: August 26, 2002Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd.Website: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ Johannesburg Summit 2002 http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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