August 10 2011 22:02 (Age: 282 days)
LETTER FROM CHRISTER — For our children - today we are all Norwegian.
As I write this I have just been informed about the shocking tragedy in Norway. While planning to draft an article about the importance of promoting transformation through innovation rather than throwing good resources after poor planning and insufficient technology (a scenario that plagues most cities), I am now focused on why it is essential for our children, and their future, that we employ well-formed holistic strategies that aim to develop a more sustainable and caring world – it’s not just about improving our physical and economic realities, per se, but also about improving the quality of life for all.
Christer Lindstrom
The young people attending the summer camp in Norway talked about their future, hopes and concerns for what the world would be like for them. The subjects they had picked to talk about on this wonderful little island were focused on topics dominated by sustainability, peace, international understanding, cultural exchange and much more. It was about how to be inclusive, open and considerate.
Now, their world has shattered by an individual driven by the opposite ideas - to be exclusive, closed and insensitive - to dictate and dominate. For me, the coming Podcar City Conference will be an opportunity to fully acknowledge why transportation is about so much more than moving people and goods ~ it is also about the remarkable opportunity for future generations to travel without boundary or restriction, to share their ideas and their culture, to explore, learn and meet other from all over the world. And it is the job of us responsible elders to make sure they can do it safely and efficiently.
In fact, I view Sustainable Transportation as a peace project and will dedicate as much energy that is possible to the young people who never got the chance to become what they could have been. In addition, I call on all of you coming to the conference in Stockholm to devote positive energy to them and their families, as well as to those not yet born who are in need of good things to happen on this planet we all call home.
/ Christer
