(appeared in Peace News)

Book:                The World Ahead - Our Future in the Making

Authors:            Fredrico Mayor & Jerome Bride

Reviewed by:     Vijay Mehta

Publishers:        Zed Books

Price:               £16.95 paperback


'Expect nothing from the twenty-first century. It is the twenty-first century that expects everything from you'.
 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The above remarks given at a speech to the forum 'vision of the next generation' indicates the huge challenges for the future. Fredrico Mayor and Jerome Binde both worked as directors of UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific & Cutural Organization). Thus they have enough knowledge and expertise to visualise the world ahead. Packed with the latest informations and scientific understanding the book traverses a rich tapestry of crucial issues, threats and choices confronting humanity and proposes a new start on four broad contracts, social, natural, cultural and ethical humanity and proposes a new start on four broad contracts, social, nature, cultural and ethical.  

The new social contract. Look at various areas, which are major challenges, and what measures should be undertaken to rectify them. Population, which reaches 6 billion in 1999, is a time bomb ticking, increasing by 80 million per year. In addition there is the AIDS epidemic which has infected 30 million people worldwide. It is posing tremendous problems for food, security, environmental and natural resources, employment and poverty. However these problems can be overcome by changing lifestyles, educating children and women, promoting equitable growth with the help of scientific technology and encouraging industrial countries to honour their environmental obligations.

Other areas, which need changing are world  poverty and exclusion of poor people from playing a role in the international community.

At the dawn of the 21st century 1.3 billion people live in absolute poverty on less than 1U$D a day. Urgent initiatives in the form of education, providing