A Tale of Grace

posted by Link on Dec 8

The fossil awards presented the second dishonourable mention to an unprecedented trio of Austria, Finland, and Sweden, for their shameful and atrocious actions in the very first day of COP15.  Their claim to dishonour arose from their promotion of a new text, that would allow countries to set their reduction targets against baselines that are projected into the future.  In effect, some countrys could say that by 2020, it will have reduction of 40% on projected 2020 levels…  Who thinks of these things?

Hearing of these fabulous, unbelievable, and completely incomprehensible, reprehensible ideas, one may be excused for asking themselves the very prudent questions: What are these negotiators thinking?  Are they thinking?  Who are these “people” who can do such dastardly things with our future?

And finally… Are they monsters or people?

It’s hard to answer this positively, when you see the state of our Mother Earth, and the state of irresponsibility in the negotiations.  It’s hard to remember that the ones making these outrageous policies are still people, still human like the rest of us.  But the fact is, they are human, just like you and me.  They are exactly the same as the legions who will have to leave their homes to the rising ocean, the ones who will be hungry due to food shortages.  They are exactly the same as the hundreds of millions of people who will die of thirst when the glaciers of the Himalayas are gone.

The Past

Today Arun and I ran into a German based in Australia, who was manning the booth of University of Technology, Sydney, and University of New South Wales.  We had gone to pay our respects to the university that is paying for our accomodation, and we started talking to her about the negotions.  By the by, she mentioned that she had previously been a negotiator for the German delegation, for about 10 years!  Arun didn’t miss the great opportunity to question her about the negotiation inside story.  It was nice to get an idea of the process that goes into these papers, which hold so much doom, and so much promise, for so many people, animals, ecosystems, lives.

What she said was very interesting.  By and large, the negotiating teams are made of a mix of experts, burocrats, and politians.  If there are disagreements within a delegation, the dispute goes up to the higher levels, and whatever is said, is usually final.

During the negotiations, every morning, each delegation has it’s own debreifing, wherein they decide on points to push for the day.  It really is a lot of work for them, too.

Our German-Australian friend being a past negotiator, we found her very frank and engaging, willing to teach us, and very knowledgable.  I asked her specially whether the people doing the negotiations actually cared about the environment.  Arun grilled her on the parlimentary process back home, how their decisions were arrived at, and how they represented their countries.

It seems that, in her experience, all the policy positions are decided by the delegations themselves, not by a parlimentary process back home.  For some years, there are people who really care about the environment, and then negotiations really go forward.  Other times, some people manage to hold things up, or insist on backwards regulations.  It really all depends on the people running the delegation - a very personal manner.  Decision can only be taken when each and every country agrees on the topic at hand.  This requirement for consensus has been the cause of many years of delay, as just one country disagreeing pushes the decision further to the future.  It’s shocking to realize that the individual personalities of the head negotiators have such a heavy influence on our future!

The Present

In my ramblings around the Bella Center (mostly in search of free food), I’ve found that the delegations from Africa are the most approachable.  They are by and large friendly, and talking with them I find that we all have a common, unifying approach, of Climate Justice.  Another feature common among the African delegations seems to be a feeling of frustration, a feeling that the negotiations are largely futile, that the decisions have already been made, and there will be no ground moving legislation coming out of this.

Other delegations that I have run into are Thailand, and Denmark.  Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with the USA delegation, via their breifing session.  Overall, I’ve found that these delegates are reserved at first, and thaw only after a bit of conversation.

The Future

Who are the negotiators of the future?  What would if the youth of today were the negotiators of the future?  Would we have a progressive leadership - OUR leadership, that we wish for today?  Growing from meddlesome and insistent youth would we mature into kind, caring, and responsible “grown-ups”?  Or would we also, like those before us, forget our vision of a beautiful, equitable future, and quarrel and block the future of our own children’s generation?

Our future is in the hands of the negotiators, but it’s up to us to tell them what we want it to look like!  And it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to raise our words and our actions in building a future that is sustainable, equitable, with Climate Justice for All.

posted by Kamala on Dec 6

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Dearest Friends and Family,

We arrived here in ‘Hope’n'haven’ as Copenhagen or really Kobenhavn is known for the UNFCCC COP-15. We traveled with one of the IYCN teammates, Arun, from Bangalore. He has an adorable sister named Shruti, it was nice to be around a brother/sister dynamic….His parents graciously hosted us, eg., our bags, bath, laundry and feeding and watering at their simply beautiful home. I felt Amma would love their house. The living room has a very high ceiling, and faces a beautiful Puja room, which has lovely glass and dark wood doors…the presence of the stately puja room in the central part of the house dominates the atmosphere there.

Our last day in Bangalore was filled with intense rush-around, the usual abolutely mad scene that seems to be a statutory requirement before departures, nor was the final tension-touch lacking, as our taxi, primed to make it in the nick of time, had a flat tire on the freeway….

There we were, pitch dark, changing the tire in the ‘fast lane’ the work lit by the headlamps of cars whizzing by, Aunty Kamala standing behind the car trying to get the oncoming traffic to get out of the lane we were stuck in, Link and the Driver, on the side of the car that the cars had to move around…feeling much stressed for their safety, especially as at one point I saw what appeared to be a huge grey shadow coming towards us, it ended up to be a van without headlamps….yikes…he wasn’t able to see us well, but due to frantic waving, he stopped his van, and we told him what he already knew, that he had NO LIGHTS….

The Driver was adroit, the work progressed, we got to the airport to find out that Rishi’s confident estimate that the weight allowance was 30 kgs, and that of course they would happily throw in Link’s sleeping bag, being intelligent understanding people, was not to be our experience. Arun had shared our glad news with relief, and also overpacked. Thankfully, because Rishi had said this we had a huge duffle bag with which we could then sort out and diminish our loads…we nixed our sleeping bags, Link put on most of his Winter clothes, I relinquished unfortunately, spices, pots, food, laundry detergent, wore the coat, we stuffed pockets with Amma’s speeches, etc. And then, we sent the tonnage out to Arun’s parents and sister who had come to see him off and didn’t realize they would have to haul back a huge bag….

On the barely caught connecting flight from Paris, (its amazing how many miles of jogging one can do between terminals – the airport is like the Louvre – endless) we sat next to Chit from Vietnam, one of 5 delegates from that country, like the Indian delegates, and youth delegates everywhere, her selection and sponsorship initiated by people’s groups – I don’t know of any government that is sponsoring the youth voices. Governments don’t really want to hear the voices of youth, other than in a ‘decorous and well handled way’, with nice prepared kow-towing speeches to power… We have here the youth of all the nations, brilliant, selfless, alert and informed, working to pierce the shells of denial, nay-saying, ambiguity and obfuscation and determination to hold onto power and the status quo by those elected to be leaders, at the very least, stewards of the Trust given to them by that vote.

Youth must and is struggling to make its voice heard…their work is totally selfless, totally dedicated…they struggle cooperatively, the paradigms of personal competition and aggrandisement are not present as they network, network and network to organize, unify and present a clear voice for their lives, for the Earth, for the Unborn. They speak to power that doesn’t have passion for life anymore. To individuals that are ultimately looking towards retirement, those whose time in the Earth garden has been one of blind unreality to their relationship to it.

Youth doesn’t think like this….They aren’t interested to posture. They want to LOVE and live in LOVE, and make a world out of LOVE. Somehow, they got that idea from their mother’s, and haven’t lost it yet. The youth here don’t yet think that war will ever solve anything.

It was amazing to come into Copenhagen, the sky cleared as we came through the clouds and a wind farm was visible. In the middle of the sea harbour was a boat with a huge sail that said, “Change Climate Change”….I understand that it if from Greenpeace. The quiet here, even in the urban areas, is contrastedly noticeable from India.

There is a great energy coalescing here, thousands upon thousands of people are gathering in the hope and prayer that our leaders will stop the denial games, and tackle the real issue: MAN’s GREED HAS TO STOP. ITS NOT A MODEL FOR DEVELOPMENT. The economic models and all the skewed projections that go along with them are denying the only issue on the table: WE HAVE TO STOP DOING ACTIONS COMING FROM GREED, AND DO ONLY ACTIONS FOR THE HIGHEST GOOD OF EVERYTHING HERE – PEOPLE AND NATURE. This includes thought actions.

What we have here is an ethical crisis of the worst magnitude.

We have a sickened, dying Nature all around us, our Great Oceans, filled with garbage, killing millions of birds and all life, with human babies now suffering the toxicity of plastic’s confusing effect upon their hormonal systems, we have huge areas – one right off of Oregon – of Dead Ocean Zones as far as the eye can see. We have more and more carbon in the air, and less and less forests to sequester it, and provide habitats for the absolutely necessary, interdependent Web of Life…We have constant NOISE rattling our brains and bodies every moment of our lives.

The list of what we have lost as human beings is too great to go into here, but not least among them is the soothing and healing silence of dark night. Night is a beautiful thing. Mankind is becoming dead to its value. Our cities are filled with the orange glow of night’s human light. We no longer have NIGHT. The loss of Night effects us more than we can possibly know. All of us wish it were different. We all miss it. Why isn’t that enough?

I’ll ask Link to post some photos of signs about the conf from the airport. Its cold. Its been raining, and the temperature has dipped down since we came. The sun appears to start to rise around 8AM, there is a long dawn, and one hour of day at 11, then a long dusk, and its lights out by 4PM…its a cold country, but the people are not cold, they are refreshing in their kindness and warmth.

Link’s sneakers are wet. My sandals, socks and plastic bag combo isn’t succeeding. I hope to find a used store for shoes.

Laundry doesn’t dry in cold rain.

The laundry and the showers conked for a few days, the team was hardpressed to get ready and out the door by 8 AM…not everyone has made it here yet, not everyone’s luggage has either, but everyone is cooperative and adjusting…

We are meeting lots of people from other environmentally active groups, AWAAZ, Sustain Us, Earth Care, Awaaz Action Factory, CAN, RAN, etc.

One of the Indian team, Deepa Gupta from AU is part of the CLIMATE JUSTICE FAST. (http://www.climatejusticefast.com/)  You will hear more about the Climate Justice Fast in the next few days. This group has the right internal attitude…they are approaching the ordeal as prayer and penance….Before the brightly burning sacrifice, human dross and indifference is melting away world wide to recognize the seriousness of the stupidity that we have collectively allowed and participated in….Penance, is penance.

In Amritapuri, people may think they are seeing Amma, but I tell you truthfully, She is most surely here. And She’s very concerned about the planet. Same with our Anni…..

Loving You,

Aunty Kamala, Anni and Link