Spellbound in Singapore, Serene Assir looks up to Champions of the Earth Singapore city on 21 April -- and a unique gala is about to take place. Unlike most of its kind, this event will focus not on business but on the environment. Hosted by the Singapore Tourism Board and the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, it is the occasion for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to honour seven environmental activists from a broad range of backgrounds, naming them Champions of the Earth and presenting them with the highest global award in this field -- including trophies made out of recycled material, the thoughtful work of Kenyan sculptor Kioko -- for both commitment and ability to effect progress at policy level. Nor did the occasion go to waste: the seven environmentalists seized the opportunity to express poignant concern about the deteriorating state of the world today and the failure of governments to prioritise the environment. This, indeed, is the logic behind UNEP work: to set an example, and to set standards. Remarkably, the award honours parties who exercise pressure on political and economic establishments to heed environmental responsibility. The award is therefore a political honour; and none of those who receive it are politically ordinary. In fact their courage and determination will demonstrate how commitment to the environment begets political expediency. As it stands, the situation is urgent, with dire consequences not only for humanity's connection with nature but for humanity itself, the water crisis in the Middle East and North Africa exemplifying the kind of conflict involved. UNEP Officer in Charge and Acting Executive Director Shafqat Kakahel explained that the symbiotic relation between environmental and human concerns -- stressed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- was among the subjects of the 2000 UN Conference in New York: "For too long we have been squandering... nature for its capital. If environmental sustainability is not achieved ... the other MDGs" -- poverty reduction, gender equality -- "will not necessarily be achieved either". Kakahel spoke of the "courage and wisdom" of this year's champions, stressing their pursuit of change on the ground -- lobbying to ensure that governments and corporations fulfil their pledges. The gala was accompanied by a conference; and in both instances the debate of economic interests vs environmental concerns predominated. The point was made that centres of power perceive provisions for the environment as costly, preferring a more immediately profitable strategy that wreaks havoc on nature. Yet in a world where non-renewable energy resources are fast running out, this very attitude is likely to make for greater -- human as well as economic -- cost, while renewable energy and an all-round rapprochement with nature will cost less in the long term. The point frequently took on a political tinge. "In a world where the need to pay attention than to the environment is greater than ever," said June Zeitlin, whose United States-based Women's Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) was among the champions, "militarisation is still on the rise". Elsewhere the political connection emerged in the zeal with which activists like the daughter of the late Cuban environmentalist Rosa Maria Simeon Negrin -- honoured posthumously -- are pursuing their cause; the latter has been lobbying fiercely, as if to demonstrate how her mother's struggle lives on. The fight is made all the more difficult by misconceptions inherent in a more and more speed-driven world: other causes are worthier. The importance of the event is that, coming from diverse vantage points as they do, the honourees all transmitted the same message: the absolute need to act now. Others like former Iranian Vice-President Massoumeh Ebtekar supplemented this information with the equally valid point that there are personal rewards to be had in this selfless, philosophical task: "Working for the environment and nature is spiritually uplifting." And the joy of the gala aside, an undertone of pain ran constantly beneath the surface: awareness of the harsh realities of the global situation, after all, did not falter for a moment. This was communicated in the form of warnings about the dangers inherent in capital-centred power. Stressing how Asian governments are increasingly embracing the environmental cause, Singaporean champion Tommy Koh also made "a plea to governments, businesses and civil societies" to avoid repeating the very "mistakes of the West". This is a plea that should be heeded by every society in which, with population growth, the numbers of the poor and the voiceless multiply, while power becomes the property of the ever dwindling few. To borrow Ethiopian award winner Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher's words, working in harmony with nature is necessary not for happiness but for human survival. Singapore, Singapore PERCHED off the coast of Malaysia in the Indian Ocean, Singapore was the ideal location for the second Champion of the Earth award ceremony -- so much so UNEP announced that as of now this tropical paradise of glamour and technology will be its permanent host. UNEP Spokesman Eric Falt called it "the natural place" for the event -- pun intended. Bar one admittedly visible Shell refinery -- according to locals it too is subject to strict environmental measures -- Singapore boasts the cleanest air in the world and its authorities pay exceptional attention to soil and water pollution as well, with a range of policies from a $632 litter fine to an enormous landfill-cum-recreational resort. Efforts took off in the 1970s with efforts to clean up the Singapore River, then a major source of pollution. Facing this well nigh impossible challenge -- it was discovered that river waters were polluted at the source -- a nation-wide campaign involved the public as well as top specialists and the latest technologies. The environment became a national, not a scientific or political priority. The basic problem solved, activists in Singapore have now turned to more demanding issues like preservation, biodiversity and "new water" -- recycling dirty water to render it potable. Indeed amid the heat and high- powered but environmentally friendly air-conditioning, the UNEP may well have found the podium from which to address a world mired in pollution and environmental catastrophe.
