GLOBE EDITORIAL
A pathfinder in KenyaTHE NOBEL Peace Prize committee this year stretched beyond the political crises of the day to address two enduring sources of conflict: environmental degradation and oppression of women. Wangari Maathai of Kenya was honored for demonstrating that an educated, forceful woman can effect environmental and social change in a male-dominated society. Maathai, a member of Kenya's Parliament and deputy minister of the environment, was far from powerful when she founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977. The Kenyan population was soaring, and the fertility rate, 8.1 children per woman, was among the highest in the world. Kenyan farmers were hungry for arable land. Maathai wanted them to reverse the deforestation that resulted.
Environmentalism had not been widely embraced in Africa, but Maathai was accustomed to being a pathfinder. She was the first East African woman to earn a PhD, in biology. Had more women been educated, Kenya might have been better able to expand its economy to accommodate its population. And educated women tend to have smaller, healthier families. In the 1980s Maathai ran afoul of two men: President Daniel arap Moi and her husband, who divorced her, saying she was "too educated" and hard to control. Moi may have thought the same when Maathai led a protest that stopped construction of a high-rise office building in a Nairobi park. This victory was one in a series of confrontations with the opposition that forced Moi to call elections in 1992. He won, but Kenya began a process that resulted in the rejection of a Moi stooge in 2002. Maathai was an important force in the peaceful transition to democracy. The Green Belt Movement has resulted in the planting of 25 million trees, but the pressure on the countryside is unabated. Last week, facing criticism from constituents, Maathai said she would risk her parliamentary seat before ending opposition to farming in forests. Kenyans need to heed Maathai's advice and not be tempted by short-term profits at the cost of soil erosion. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South African, a fellow Nobel laureate visiting Boston yesterday, said that the innovative award by the Nobel Committee to Maathai recognizes environmental justice as essential for peace. He pointed to the Darfur region of Sudan, where desertification has sharpened ethnic violence that is provoking a genocide. "People are fighting over grazing rights," he said.
Kenya, despite ethnic antagonisms, is far more peaceful, but economic pressures from a drop in agricultural production would be highly divisive. The environmentalism practiced by Maathai involves conflict avoidance as much as science. She fully deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
|
