Myth of Sustainable Development
They told me Our life is no good In the buntus, In the villages, Beyond the cities
Eating like my elders Living like my elders It took me a long time To change the way I live.
But change - I did To develop myself my children To become civilised And modern
My elders They tilled their soil Waited for the moon Listened to the birds Looked for signs In the meadows When to sow what to sow
No slave to money and machines, They lived long and healthy In the mountains and meadows Valleys and creeks With reverence to the sacred land That nurtured their soul That fed their body
My elders were called ignorant Primitive backward So they sent me to school To become modern To become a developed citizen
I changed my food Eating food I no longer know where from Whose farm No-name food no-man’s land
Food Fed by poisons Shaped by machines Smart slick packaging Chemical colorants flavors artificial prolonging the shelf life
This food The techno-food It no longer feeds my soul Only bloats my stomach Sluggish and sick A bundle of dis-ease Dull death eyes Drained of energy
GPs and medical-aid Happy and smiling Making a living pushing pills on perpetually sick
Then came the day When I was sent off to Some big meetings Full of experts and Know-it-all talkers
By the time they finished, I felt cheated and robbed pretending to be the experts All they gave me was The story of my elders.
First they told my people They were backward and primitive They made my generation sick and lost Then they stole the wisdom from my elders Now they sell it back to my people For a price, a big price And call it Sustainable development
Sadly, they can't read the signs They don't follow the moon Nor do they know How to read the weather From the blossom’s on the meadows speaking of rain from the berries on the trees
Tell me how they can sustain This thing called Sustainable development When they know not how to sustain Life When it has never been lived by the experts peddling wisdom with no heart
© Copyleft Nirmala Nair
This poem was an input for a panel discussion on values and personal belief systems required to implement Sustainable development in South Africa + 2 Johannesburg Conference on the 2nd anniversary of WSSD, September 2004
I also had the opportunity to share it at the 10th anniversary ZERI World Congress in Tokyo with an overwhelming response, it seems to trigger some deep memories that we have lost in the pursuit of creating a development industry. The poem has also been web-published in many other sites and translated in many languages including Japanese and Danish.
This poem has featured in many events including
2011, Cop17 side events in Durban: Panel Heart of sustainability
Bandung workshop on Climate of Hope 19 December, 2011 Jakarta, Indonesia
Samdhana Institute workshops, LEAD Jakarta workshops July 2012, Indonesia














