Wednesday, December 16, 2009

RIOT, RESIGNATIONS and FORGES

Its getting crazy in COP15, its been crazy! Thers been daily protests, people dressed like polar bears, dogs, indeginous people, trees...anything you can imagine! they have mostly been very calm and acceptable and some rather sacarstic...
Yesterday, there was adelicious chocolate cake being handed out to delegates, as you can imagine; when i saw it i salivated...i wanted that piece so bad but was badly denied one because it was a CARBON CAKE only for delegates from countries who have had a great share (more than enuf) in emmissions! imagine..how sacarstic is that?! the cake is supposed to remind them of their shameful delightful emmissions, does that make sense?
Since high level delegates are coming in, there has been limited access to NGOs and IGOs basically if you are not from the government or part of, your chances of being in COP15 since yesterday are very thin. you would need a secondary badge to pass through security; yesterday, 7000 badges were given out, today only 1000 and tomorrow will be only 90. obviously the NGOs and IGOs havent taken this lying down, they are very angry and have taken matters into their hands. Apart from protesting outside and almost being killed after police shot tear gasses (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8415307.stm ), they have made fake secondary badges. today instead of the expected 1000 delegates, there are about 10000 delegates! the famous slogan is 'dont make decisions about us without us!'. you can tell from their actions that these people are either very passionate about this issue or very diluded and uninformed (you chose). Not only do their actions make them sick (pneumonia, colds and headaches!) but most importantly delay the negotiations; we spend hours lined outside the Bella center waiting to enter, we miss the plenary, group discussions and other country meetings. i must say, its not only the fault of the demostrators, organization has been very terrible! there is no differentiation between a chief negotiator and an observer! RIDICULOUS! the only way they know how to deal with the situation is to stop movement, which means no going in or outside! The Danes are obsessed with equality!!
With all the commotion outside the Bella center one would think things would be calmer inside...only its the opposite! The president of COP15 has resigned well, diplomatically....there has been a 'change of power as high level delegates move in'! Nations have been anticipating this and as such we have gotten different reasons to this change. some say she was being biased and sidelined the Kyoto Protocol. its only logical to have a neutral and fair leader right? well, these allegations could be true or false, so please dont quote me! the official press statement can be found at ; http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_15/items/5244.php
On the other hand, Botswana delegation is doing well, standing their ground with the Africa group. the debates among the delegation are very informative and are the kind that stimulate further thinking. I cant really blog about the progress yet atleast till its all public informations. the general consensus is that negotiations are going well and we MIGHT be well on our way to an agreement BUT NOT a treaty (Legaly binding!).
Its such an exciting time in the world right now and aparently COP15 is going down in history as one of the most attended events and widely sort out for! Lets hope that it will also go down in history as the most powerful and life changing event in history!
GREEN PEACE people! rememeber that you too have a role to play: walk those short distances, turn off electrical appliances when not in use, keep warm with clothes and use little heating systems if possible and most importantly be HUMAN!

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