Green Ennui

Green Ennui

Is the world suffering from green ennui?

Perhaps. Corporations are trying to go green whether or not it makes sense to the bottom lie (which actually may be good news), melting glaciers are heating up environmental debates, and in all this the United Nations Millennium Goals are holding environmental degradation culpable for the depressing poverty, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Let me play the devil’s advocate here. And here I am borrowing an idea that I recall from talking to Normand Lauzon, head of the SAHEL (The Sub-Saharan Africa) club at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.

Africa’s maladies seem to defy all remedies. Or are these remedies misplaced?

Instead of bemoaning the lack of developmental aid to the continent, focusing on AIDS, rampant poverty, lousy governance and civil strife, can Sub-Saharan Africa be marketed to the world as a region that is investment-worthy in the long run?

Of course, some of the problems above need to be addressed, but there has never been much discussion of how the glass can be looked at as being half-full.