What do you care most about for your next 15 years?
Aussies in other States recently told the Australian Science and Technology Council (ASTEC) that they have four major concerns about Australia's future.
The first concern coming from the ASTEC study is globalisation. We are suddenly trading and interacting with many more countries and nations. The rapid expansion of our playing and working arena is bringing mounting fears that bigger players will tell us what to do, and when and how to do it.
"Big Brother" transnational and interlinked organisations might have the economic power to push us around for their benefit, not ours. Are you worried about this?
The second major concern is the increasing power of information and communication technology over every aspect of our lives. Bill Gates' Microsoft Windows95 recently exploded onto the world market with a multimillion dollar promotional campaign to convince us we could not live without it.
What was not made obvious was the fact that almost all new computers would have Windows95 as their operating system, already installed. Microsoft negotiated, some say bullied, an exclusive ideal with the hardware distributors: put Windows95 in all the computers or you have to charge the consumers extra for another system.
With the cut throat price wars for computers, this is not a real option. So you and I get Windows95 on our new equipment - which most of us need anyway to manage the bigger and better software - or we pay more. What happened to the distributors' right to choose ? And your right to choose in fair competition?
Is Bill Gates actually trying to force us to use his software? Is this so we will be already committed buyers for his next IC&T products and services, like his version of Internet which he undoubtedly will control? Are you concerned about the huge role IC&T plays in our lives? And who controls it?
The third concern for the next 15 years expressed by other Australians is how to achieve environmental sustainability. How do we continue to live a quality lifestyle without killing our natural environment (and eventually killing our quality of life)?
For example, Perth's metro area has been to accommodate cars; cars are major pollution generators, both in their manufacturing and their operation. But how can we have the freedom of whizzing about when and where we want without adding to the risk of destroying our planet?
How can we continue to have lawns and rose gardens while not consuming such huge amounts of fresh water, which is the essence of life and Australia's scarcest natural resource?
How can we have growth industries without raping the soil, fouling the air, destroying our coastlines, annihilating our marine life, changing natural wonders into concrete jungles, etc? Our planet must keep evolving to survive, but how can it change in a balanced way so it will survive in wellbeing for our children's children's children. Are you concerned about environmental sustainability ?
The fourth issue of concern is the control of biotechnology. Bio what? you say. Remember, this is ASTEC asking us what we are concerned about. So sciencie things must get a mention somewhere in the list.
Biotechnology may be stated as the manipulation of living things. We are now able to alter living organisms in very sophisticated ways. We can change the very blueprint of life - the DNA code within our genes.
We can duplicate parts or all of plants and animals through cloning. In fact, we can create super-plants and animals through biogenetic engineering, such as pest resistant petunias, human cell enhanced pork, breed-to-die flies, rectangular tomatoes, and more.
The big worry about biotechnology is not necessarily what it can do, but who is deciding what it should be doing. Where can we hear those difficult questions being asked about ethics, about value-for-society, about long term effects, about actual consequences for the balance of nature, and so on? Nowhere in my everyday scene.
Are you concerned about the uses and potential abuses of biotechnology?
Perthites told ASTEC that while we are generally concerned about these four issues, we in WA are MORE concerned about having the power and the knowledge to control our own future.
The ASTEC team (from Canberra/Sydney) had not heard this from other States. I am neither surprised nor worried by this.
WA is leading this country is so many ways: in the economy, in the cultural sphere, in the social action arena, in responsible consumerism, in environmental awareness, in spiritual development.
Naturally we are leading the country in understanding that if we do not control our own future we will be continued to be bullied by the Eastern States' wishes. Why should we be told what to do by people and organisations that are behind us??
Of course we want to say where we should go. We are in front of the herd. We can see further. We can see wider. We can see what others cannot.
So isn't time we made it quite clear to the old established power bases in Canberra/Sydney/Melbourne that we are no longer prepared to be held back, drained, ignored, and prevented from getting on with our destiny?
And the best way of doing just that is to do just that. Get on with our future the way we want it. Sod the others; let them follow us if they can keep up. Look out world: WA is on the move, up front!
Business Directions 31 August 1995
printer friendly version | Tell a Friend