The Cassandra Awards

I propose a new red carpet, celebrity studded media event: The Cassandra Awards. We could hold it in one of the great world palaces, with world leaders and dignitaries attending with full retinues. It would have real-time world-wide Internet streaming along with all the television and news coverage (blocked by China, of course.) It could capture all the headlines and dominate the airwaves for two or three days at least. Rock stars could have fund-raising concerts for global catastrophes in conjunction with the award ceremonies, and new music, new fashions, and even a new world-wide holiday could highlight the momentous event.

And then we could forget it completely. Because after all, that's what Cassandra is all about.

In the Greek epic, Cassandra was a princess of Troy who had been given the gift of prophesy by the sun-god Apollo. But the gift was also a curse, because no one believed her when she spoke the truth. She saw the fall of Troy, Trojan Horse and all, and urged her countrymen to beware. But they ignored her warnings, and Troy was doomed.

So who will receive our Cassandra Award? Let's make a list.

Al Gore? Absolutely! It was all very fine for the world to present him with a Nobel Prize. But has the world changed its mad rush to melt the polar ice caps or stop clear-cutting the rain forests? Definitely a Cassandra.

How about James Cameron and his amazing movie Avatar? We all long to be ten feet tall and thin as wisps, to leap on the backs of flying lizards and to be intimately linked to the spiritual consciousness of the planet itself. We want to free our Mother Earth from bondage to corporate greed and to heal the ravages of the military-industrial complex. But how many of us have sold our gas-guzzlers and moved into solar-powered tree homes? Cassandra again.

We'll have to include Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Morgan Spurlock, and Food, Inc.'s filmmaker Robert Kenner. Then there is Frances Moore Lappé, and we certainly have to include our first Cassandra, Rachel Carson.

So many names, writing, speaking, persuading and pleading over the course of so many years.

Yes, a few of us have listened. A few farmers manage to produce and sell organic produce. There is a growing supply of ethically raised meat on the market. Alongside the fossil-fuel driven power plants we can feel a trickle of solar power and a breath of wind-power. Cassandra's message has gone forth entirely in vain.

A few have listened, and believed, and made the commitment to change. But will it be enough?