A Green Star

A Green star

Harry Vassallo


Wangari Mathai provided the highlight of the European Green Party’s Council in Paris last weekend. As she took the floor, the political became profound in a way which is peculiarly feminine: practical and in perspective. Founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, she has taken Green politics to parliament in her country and has become a global personality simply by planting trees.

Millions of people have planted myriads of trees all over the world; none have sown a seed so fertile. Wangari’s secret has been to engage and empower women to address a practical problem. She went to work giving peasant women her vision and the means to address directly the threat of deforestation. They needed the firewood and were travelling ever further from their homes to collect it as the forest receded.

Unlike many another afforestation project, the people immediately effected were recruited to solve their own problem and the global challenge at the same time. In doing so they became a symbol of the empowerment of African women. Just throwing money at the problem would never have achieved as much. The award of the Nobel Prize to Wangari Mathai was an acknowledgement of her insight and commitment; a recognition of the contribution of every participant in any of her projects.

Today she is a global celebrity and she told us of the contrasts in her life. One day she is talking at a kindergarten involved in one of her projects and the next she is roping in world leaders to contribute towards the financing of similar initiatives all over Africa. She is a bridge between the grassroots and the stratosphere, welcome and at home wherever she happens to be.

We certainly welcomed her in Paris where she could address the leaders and delegates of 34 Green Parties from across the continent as well as the MEPs from the Green group in the European Parliament. We were keen to hear of Africa from an African but she unwittingly spoke about everyone in her reply. Political exclusion is a short cut to power in Africa. Tribal loyalty secures support in exchange for the promise of privilege or advantage over other tribes, a pathological bond between leaders and supporters which defeats democracy and justifies corruption.

Wangari is Kikuyu and was penalized in the recent elections for refusing to contest on a platform based on tribal divisions. That is as Green as it gets, going against the current even when it becomes a torrent. Today her stance in the elections puts her in a position to address the aftermath of internal strife. Her peace tent travels around Kenya to treat the wounds of political violence.

How is this different from the rise of right wing parties in many EU countries, the rifts in Belgium and the lunge towards bipolar politics in Italy? Malta, the quintessence of bipolar stagnation had the bizarre experience in March of having the ghosts of political violence two decades old invoked to panic the fearful, the faithful and the loyal. We belong to tribes other than the Kikuyu, but the promise of protection from the other side, the threat of being exposed to their ravages and the bribe of gaining some advantage over them, work in precisely the same way to defeat any idea of equality and mutual respect, to mainstream the tolerance of corruption despite all the noisy scandals.

Wangari does not despair. She is busier than ever, there is more to do and she is able to bring ever more energies to bear on the challenges before her. She is a Green, necessarily an optimist or, at the very least, a courageous realist: the challenges are enormous; the means to address them often non-existent at the start and Greens just go to work at them.

Just a couple of decades ago there were no Greens elected to office anywhere. In this short time, particularly in Europe, Greens have taken their place at every political level and have continued to punch far above their weight. Their contribution at an EU level has made the union the most advanced economic and political bloc in environmental matters and an acknowledged leader in addressing global issues such as climate change. The scramble of all other political families to appear to be Green is a measure of our success.

We share with them the concerns over the current crises on energy, climate change and certainly that in the financial markets. The difference is that we do not only address the crisis but look beyond it. While others despair, Greens dare to hope, turning problems into opportunities: environmental challenges have become employment creators and the financial crisis can lead to a sane, safe and just employment of global wealth. Wangari Mathai had every reason to feel at home among us.

harry.vassallo@europeangreens.org

Dr Vassallo is a Member of the Committee of the European Green Party