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Contributions from
the Column
Media
Privatisation and its limits
International charity / The military and humanitarian aid
A world in balance
Improving global governance
02/2006 |
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Global Governance:
No central theme
Global Marshall Plan Initiative (Ed.):
Impulse für eine Welt in Balance
[Impetus for a world in balance].
Hamburg, Global Marshall Plan Foundation 2005, 540 pages,
¤ 15.00, ISBN 3-9809-7232-1
Jacket texts are useful. They inform potential readers on what to expect from a book. “Impulse für eine Welt in Balance” has no jacket text, and any author attempting to write one would certainly fail. There is no central theme, no predominant train of thought running through this collection of essays by 61 authors. The publication is varied and multifaceted, but also as vague and bland as many a church congress.
The book indeed originated from the German Protestant Church Congress held in Hanover in May 2005. Its list of authors is as diverse as it is long. In addition to Angela Merkel and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangaari Maathai and numerous NGO activists from around the world have contributed to the anthology. Yet even the celebrity of some of the names cannot conceal the fact that the book is little more than a new collection of well-known appeals to make the world a fairer and more peaceful place.
Some articles do hit home. Rupert Neudeck, for example, takes issue with Western indifference to the genocide in Rwanda – and the lack of action stemming from that indifference. However, his accurate polemic is likely to be lost amongst the hundreds of pages of platitudes such as: “Globalisation is a phenomenon which affects us all” (Angela Merkel), religious pearls of wisdom, which see globalisation as a divine postscript to the reformation (Prabhu Guptara), and esoteric observations about “the scientific concept of an organic cosmos” (Ervin Laszlo). A few pointed and clearly-structured contributions, such as the text on “Oikocredit and microfinance” by Guillermo Salcedo and “Funding development and global taxation” by Max Arlt, do help to raise readers’ awareness. Such articles are, however, few and far between in a sea of generic development literature.
This book should have become a meaningful self-portrait of the Hamburg-based Global Marshall Plan Initiative, which focuses on finding ways to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The organisation, active in 18 countries, wants Europe to head a worldwide movement for an eco-social Global Marshall Plan. However, its promotional literature, including “Impulse für eine Welt in Balance”, fails to make a compelling case and raises doubts about the strategies the initiative is implementing. It is unlikely that this book will have any sustainable effect.
Carel Mohn
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