To see the article in its context
Rafael Quispe is gearing up for his trip. He packs a small leather bag, puts on his black poncho, an alpaca scarf sporting the rainbow-coloured, chequered Andean indigenous flag and his black hat. "This will be an important gathering, a very important gathering. It is about saving our Mother Earth, about saving nature," he says.
Quispe, an Aymara indigenous leader, is heading for Bolivia's central city of Cochabamba for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, the grassroots alternative to last year's ill-fated UN talks in Copenhagen.
At least 15,000 people from worldwide indigenous movements and civil-society groups, as well as presidents, scientists, activists and observers from 90 governments, are expected to attend what is being called the "Woodstock" of climate change summits.
"According to some analyses, about 80% of the world's pollution comes from developed nations and harms, mostly, developing nations. So we feel we have to do something, we must be heard, we must be compensated," says Quispe, who last December lobbied the case of his community at Copenhagen.
"The COP15 was a total failure, so brother President Evo Morales has decided to call for this climate change conference to do something about it. We the people are the ones that should take the lead on how to tackle the climate crisis," says Quispe.
Even if the Cochabamba meeting will have no bearing on the UN climate talks, the idea is to give a voice to the world's poorest people – those most affected by climate change – and to make governments more aware of their plight.
The main goal is to present draft proposals to the UN climate meeting due to be held in Mexico later this year.
Morales will also use the meeting to announce what could be the world's largest referendum, with up to 2 billion people being asked to vote on ways out of the climate crisis. Bolivia wants to create a UN charter of rights and to draft an action plan to set up an international climate justice tribunal.
"The only way to get climate negotiations back on track, not just for Bolivia or other countries, but for all of life, biodiversity, our Mother Earth, is to put civil society back into the process. The only thing that can save mankind from a [climate] tragedy is the exercise of global democracy," said Bolivia's UN ambassador, Pablo Solon.
"There will be no secret discussions behind closed doors. The debate and the proposals will be led by communities on the frontlines of climate change and by organisations and individuals from civil society dedicated to tackling the climate crisis," he added.
Bolivia is playing an increasingly important role in the climate negotiations by leading attempts to force developed countries to slash their emissions further than they have so far pledged.
It was one of seven countries that refused to sign up to the deal that emerged from Copenhagen, incurring the wrath of Britain and the US, which this month withdrew $3.5m (£2.3m) of climate aid from Bolivia.
Last April, the UN general assembly approved Morales' initiative of launching the International Mother Earth Day every 22 April to protect the rights of the Andean divinity, Pachamama (Mother Earth), and of "all living beings".
"What is behind all this discussion is that we have broken the harmony with Mother Earth, with nature, and because we have broken that harmony we are now suffering the consequences of climate change," said Solon.
In an office plastered with images of Che Guevara, Solon says Bolivia is taking the initiative because of its indigenous constituency. "Things are moving in a bad direction. Governments know it, scientists know it, but things are not changing. I would say this is the only scenario to make a balance between the pressure that at this moment the corporations are putting on governments, versus the pressure that can emerge from civil society."
After the failure of the Copenhagen summit, this new iniative coming from the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, could bring new hopes to the environemental cause. According to some scientific magazine, the agreement from the Copenhagen summit is quite inefficient since it could not reduce to less than 2 degree the global warming. Thus, this conference, a initiative coming from a developping country is a good thing. Indeed, in the Cochabamba meeting has heard the voice of the main victims of the climate change: the poor people. Among the propositions made by this conference there is the good idea of setting of an international climate justice tribunal. However, this conference is not very powerfull comparing to that of Copenhagen. It lacked representation of offical and powerful people to have a real impact on the negociations for the climate change. Indeed, only one other president of State, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela was at the conference. Nevertheless, the text made by the Cochabamba conference will be integrated in the whole text of negociations of the United Nations. Moreover, this conference can make us hope that the countries of ALBA could in the future be a political and diplomatic force to internationaly represent the voice of the poor people.
lundi 26 avril 2010
Volcano disrupts Asia-Pacific flights
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2010/04/17/2003470766
AFP, HONG KONG
Saturday, Apr 17, 2010, Page 10
Airlines across the Asia-Pacific region scrambled to reschedule or cancel flights yesterday after a vast cloud of volcanic ash closed swathes of European airspace.
From Wellington to Tokyo, passengers heading to Europe faced an uncertain wait as the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced the biggest airspace shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Airlines warned the fallout from the eruption could take days to clear, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) canceled the Bangkok-Amsterdam leg of its CI165 and CI166 flights between Taipei and Amsterdam, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) dropped its Taipei-Paris round-trip flights and was scheduled to announce later in the day whether it would also cancel its Taipei-Vienna flights.
Australia’s Qantas Airways said it may not be able to resume flights to London and Frankfurt until tomorrow.
Qantas spokesman David Epstein urged passengers not to head to airports in the hope that flights may resume soon.
“Do not be optimistic about flights tomorrow [Saturday],” he said, adding that it “may take until Sunday unless we hear something better from European authorities.”
Five 24-hour flights leaving Australia for Europe on Thursday were grounded after they stopped for refueling in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok, with passengers booked into hotels.
Air New Zealand canceled flights to and from London, and the company’s international group general manager Ed Sims said travelers faced “a very uncertain situation.”
Japan Airlines canceled nine flights to and from Paris, Amsterdam, London, Milan and Frankfurt, affecting more than 2,000 customers.
All Nippon Airways said it canceled six flights, affecting more than 1,500 people.
Although not visible from the ground, volcanic ash can be highly dangerous to aircraft, clogging up the engines and reducing visibility, experts say.
An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 flights were canceled on Thursday alone as gray ash blew across the north Atlantic.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said it had delayed or canceled a dozen flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. About half the Cathay flights were delayed to today, while the remainder were canceled.
British Airways canceled two flights scheduled to depart Hong Kong last night bound for London’s Heathrow airport.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines canceled one flight last night to Amsterdam from Hong Kong, while German carrier Lufthansa pulled a Frankfurt-bound flight scheduled to leave yesterday afternoon.
Indian airlines Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have all canceled flights to London because of the drifting ash.
Singapore Airlines said it had canceled seven flights to and from Europe, while Malaysia Airlines said its flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris had been disrupted by the eruption.
A scheduled flight to London from Kuala Lumpur was diverted to Frankfurt on Thursday, while two other flights to London and Amsterdam, and one to Paris were delayed until further notice.
Last week, the volcano eruption in Iceland has led to a lot of troubles, especially in the airports. Indeed, the cloud of ash created by the eruption has moved to Europe. As the ash could dammage the planes, the authorities had decided to close many airports in Europe for several days.
In my opinion, this natural event reminds us three main things:
In a first point, the extent of globalisation due to the effect of the momentary stop of the flights in Europe. Millions of passengers couldn't flight back home or doing their business travel. We realize that nowadays many people are travelling by plane allthroughout the world. Besides, products are also travelling by plane, including food or others. For instance, some luxury western restaurants in Asia who import a lot of their food from Europe were very worry and could offer all the dishes that were normally on their menu. Thus, due to globalisation, our networks are so interliked that they became more vulnerable and a domino effect can more easily happen.
In a second point, we can see that the precautionary principle is in our society, more present than ever. The effect of the ashes on the planes was not confirmed but the authorities prefered to close the airports in order to avoid any accidents. This policy reminds us the dealing of the H1N1 crisis, were many countries bought millions and millions of vaccines althought the plague eventually stopped.
The third point is connected to the second point. As government won't assume the responsability of a crash, they prefer to close the airport on the basis of a law principle, the precautionary principle. On the contrary, the companies (especially the air companies and travel agencies) who were losing a great amont of money have made pressure for the reopening of the airport. Therefore, we can see a clash between the economic pressure and the government precautions.
In conclusion, I was in France when the eruption occured and my flight was cancelled and delayed four days later. As I was directly touched by the situation, I realized that sometimes it is good that mother nature reminds us her power. When my flight was cancelled I looked up to watch the sky and contrary to one could think, in this sunny spring day, the sky was more blue than ever. Indeed, the cloud of ash was too high to be seen, and, the most important, there was not any trace of gaz discharge from planes.
AFP, HONG KONG
Saturday, Apr 17, 2010, Page 10
Airlines across the Asia-Pacific region scrambled to reschedule or cancel flights yesterday after a vast cloud of volcanic ash closed swathes of European airspace.
From Wellington to Tokyo, passengers heading to Europe faced an uncertain wait as the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano forced the biggest airspace shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Airlines warned the fallout from the eruption could take days to clear, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) canceled the Bangkok-Amsterdam leg of its CI165 and CI166 flights between Taipei and Amsterdam, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) dropped its Taipei-Paris round-trip flights and was scheduled to announce later in the day whether it would also cancel its Taipei-Vienna flights.
Australia’s Qantas Airways said it may not be able to resume flights to London and Frankfurt until tomorrow.
Qantas spokesman David Epstein urged passengers not to head to airports in the hope that flights may resume soon.
“Do not be optimistic about flights tomorrow [Saturday],” he said, adding that it “may take until Sunday unless we hear something better from European authorities.”
Five 24-hour flights leaving Australia for Europe on Thursday were grounded after they stopped for refueling in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok, with passengers booked into hotels.
Air New Zealand canceled flights to and from London, and the company’s international group general manager Ed Sims said travelers faced “a very uncertain situation.”
Japan Airlines canceled nine flights to and from Paris, Amsterdam, London, Milan and Frankfurt, affecting more than 2,000 customers.
All Nippon Airways said it canceled six flights, affecting more than 1,500 people.
Although not visible from the ground, volcanic ash can be highly dangerous to aircraft, clogging up the engines and reducing visibility, experts say.
An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 flights were canceled on Thursday alone as gray ash blew across the north Atlantic.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said it had delayed or canceled a dozen flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. About half the Cathay flights were delayed to today, while the remainder were canceled.
British Airways canceled two flights scheduled to depart Hong Kong last night bound for London’s Heathrow airport.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines canceled one flight last night to Amsterdam from Hong Kong, while German carrier Lufthansa pulled a Frankfurt-bound flight scheduled to leave yesterday afternoon.
Indian airlines Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have all canceled flights to London because of the drifting ash.
Singapore Airlines said it had canceled seven flights to and from Europe, while Malaysia Airlines said its flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris had been disrupted by the eruption.
A scheduled flight to London from Kuala Lumpur was diverted to Frankfurt on Thursday, while two other flights to London and Amsterdam, and one to Paris were delayed until further notice.
Last week, the volcano eruption in Iceland has led to a lot of troubles, especially in the airports. Indeed, the cloud of ash created by the eruption has moved to Europe. As the ash could dammage the planes, the authorities had decided to close many airports in Europe for several days.
In my opinion, this natural event reminds us three main things:
In a first point, the extent of globalisation due to the effect of the momentary stop of the flights in Europe. Millions of passengers couldn't flight back home or doing their business travel. We realize that nowadays many people are travelling by plane allthroughout the world. Besides, products are also travelling by plane, including food or others. For instance, some luxury western restaurants in Asia who import a lot of their food from Europe were very worry and could offer all the dishes that were normally on their menu. Thus, due to globalisation, our networks are so interliked that they became more vulnerable and a domino effect can more easily happen.
In a second point, we can see that the precautionary principle is in our society, more present than ever. The effect of the ashes on the planes was not confirmed but the authorities prefered to close the airports in order to avoid any accidents. This policy reminds us the dealing of the H1N1 crisis, were many countries bought millions and millions of vaccines althought the plague eventually stopped.
The third point is connected to the second point. As government won't assume the responsability of a crash, they prefer to close the airport on the basis of a law principle, the precautionary principle. On the contrary, the companies (especially the air companies and travel agencies) who were losing a great amont of money have made pressure for the reopening of the airport. Therefore, we can see a clash between the economic pressure and the government precautions.
In conclusion, I was in France when the eruption occured and my flight was cancelled and delayed four days later. As I was directly touched by the situation, I realized that sometimes it is good that mother nature reminds us her power. When my flight was cancelled I looked up to watch the sky and contrary to one could think, in this sunny spring day, the sky was more blue than ever. Indeed, the cloud of ash was too high to be seen, and, the most important, there was not any trace of gaz discharge from planes.
mercredi 14 avril 2010
Russia-Poland thaw grows from tragedy
Russian-Polish relations have often been difficult, but Moscow's dignified handling of the aftermath of the tragic plane crash which killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski has been well received by Poles.
Poles have been somewhat taken aback by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to personally oversee the investigation of the crash which killed all 96 people on board, tearing a hole in the Polish political, military and social elite.
The image of Mr Putin giving his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, a hug amid the debris of the wreckage has been replayed many times on Poland's news channels.
Hours later Mr Putin was back at Smolensk airport, head bowed, as he bade farewell to Mr Kaczynski's coffin before it was flown back to Warsaw.
Newspapers reprinted the text of President Dmitry Medvedev's televised address to Poles and noted Moscow's preparations to accommodate the families of the victims as they arrived in the city to carry out the gruesome task of helping to identify their loved ones.
"It's a paradox but the tragedy in Smolensk is a chance to connect our nations like never before," Marcin Wojciechowski wrote in a column in the leading daily, Gazeta Wyborzca.
"Russia's behaviour after the tragedy in Smolensk totally contradicts the thesis of those who claim that closer relations between Russia and Poland are impossible," he said.
Scar of Katyn
Of course there is still a long way to go down that road. The two governments disagree over issues ranging from energy, foreign policy and historical issues which sometimes date back centuries.
Warsaw poster showing the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria
The memory of Katyn had helped shape Mr Kaczynski's politics
One of those historical issues paved the way for this latest tragedy. President Kaczynski's delegation was on its way to Smolensk to take part in the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre - the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, in the forests of nearby Katyn and elsewhere, in 1940.
That tragedy has divided the nations ever since, particularly as the Soviet Union blamed the massacre on Nazi Germany for 50 years and Poland's post-war communist authorities forbade any discussion on the topic, preventing the families of the victims from finding out anything about the fate of their loved ones.
Mikhail Gorbachev only admitted Soviet responsibility in 1990. President Kaczynski took a tough line towards Russia and its historical responsibilities. Perhaps that is why Moscow did not invite him to take part in the first joint commemoration, held by Mr Putin and Mr Tusk at the Katyn cemetery just three days before the crash.
That event was viewed by many in Poland as a significant step on the road to improved relations that Mr Tusk's government has been pursuing.
A decision was even made that the film Katyn, by Poland's celebrated director Andrzej Wajda, which documents the Soviet lie, should be shown by Russian state TV, not just a peripheral channel.
But Mr Kaczynski was prepared to publicly acknowledge Russia's recent attempts to heal the pain caused by Katyn.
"Katyn has been a painful wound in Polish history and has poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for many decades," Mr Kaczynski wrote in a speech he was to deliver at the anniversary memorial service. "We Poles appreciate Russia's activities in recent years," he wrote.
It is something of a paradox that this latest tragedy to befall the Polish nation may actually prove to help the process of reconciliation between the two nations.
Poland has always been a country which has suffered from tragedies and occupations. For instance, during the History, part of its territory was taken by Russia, Prussia and Austria. But everytime, this thousand-years-old nation has overcome the various obstacles and survived. The air crash last saturday, which caused the death of many military and polical leaders of Poland is a new tragedy for the Poles.
But from this tragedy, we can sense at least one "positive" effect : better relations between Russia and Poland. Indeed, these last days a very famous picture is the hug between Mr Putin And Mr Tusk. Could that demonstrate a relieve in the tense relations between the two countries? This a a great paradox because when the crash occured, the crew was on the way to Smolensk,to celebrate of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, a great topic of division between the two countries for many years. It was operated by the Soviet Secret Police in 1940 that killed 20 000 Poles but Russia only recognised its responsability in 1990. In my opinion, the reconcialiation between Russia and Poland was already discernable for several months, and the crash event could only represent a new step in that road of reconcialiation. However, the reconcialiation can only be made gradually since it remains some trouble spot like the energetic issue.
Poles have been somewhat taken aback by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's decision to personally oversee the investigation of the crash which killed all 96 people on board, tearing a hole in the Polish political, military and social elite.
The image of Mr Putin giving his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, a hug amid the debris of the wreckage has been replayed many times on Poland's news channels.
Hours later Mr Putin was back at Smolensk airport, head bowed, as he bade farewell to Mr Kaczynski's coffin before it was flown back to Warsaw.
Newspapers reprinted the text of President Dmitry Medvedev's televised address to Poles and noted Moscow's preparations to accommodate the families of the victims as they arrived in the city to carry out the gruesome task of helping to identify their loved ones.
"It's a paradox but the tragedy in Smolensk is a chance to connect our nations like never before," Marcin Wojciechowski wrote in a column in the leading daily, Gazeta Wyborzca.
"Russia's behaviour after the tragedy in Smolensk totally contradicts the thesis of those who claim that closer relations between Russia and Poland are impossible," he said.
Scar of Katyn
Of course there is still a long way to go down that road. The two governments disagree over issues ranging from energy, foreign policy and historical issues which sometimes date back centuries.
Warsaw poster showing the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria
The memory of Katyn had helped shape Mr Kaczynski's politics
One of those historical issues paved the way for this latest tragedy. President Kaczynski's delegation was on its way to Smolensk to take part in the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre - the murder of more than 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, in the forests of nearby Katyn and elsewhere, in 1940.
That tragedy has divided the nations ever since, particularly as the Soviet Union blamed the massacre on Nazi Germany for 50 years and Poland's post-war communist authorities forbade any discussion on the topic, preventing the families of the victims from finding out anything about the fate of their loved ones.
Mikhail Gorbachev only admitted Soviet responsibility in 1990. President Kaczynski took a tough line towards Russia and its historical responsibilities. Perhaps that is why Moscow did not invite him to take part in the first joint commemoration, held by Mr Putin and Mr Tusk at the Katyn cemetery just three days before the crash.
That event was viewed by many in Poland as a significant step on the road to improved relations that Mr Tusk's government has been pursuing.
A decision was even made that the film Katyn, by Poland's celebrated director Andrzej Wajda, which documents the Soviet lie, should be shown by Russian state TV, not just a peripheral channel.
But Mr Kaczynski was prepared to publicly acknowledge Russia's recent attempts to heal the pain caused by Katyn.
"Katyn has been a painful wound in Polish history and has poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for many decades," Mr Kaczynski wrote in a speech he was to deliver at the anniversary memorial service. "We Poles appreciate Russia's activities in recent years," he wrote.
It is something of a paradox that this latest tragedy to befall the Polish nation may actually prove to help the process of reconciliation between the two nations.
Poland has always been a country which has suffered from tragedies and occupations. For instance, during the History, part of its territory was taken by Russia, Prussia and Austria. But everytime, this thousand-years-old nation has overcome the various obstacles and survived. The air crash last saturday, which caused the death of many military and polical leaders of Poland is a new tragedy for the Poles.
But from this tragedy, we can sense at least one "positive" effect : better relations between Russia and Poland. Indeed, these last days a very famous picture is the hug between Mr Putin And Mr Tusk. Could that demonstrate a relieve in the tense relations between the two countries? This a a great paradox because when the crash occured, the crew was on the way to Smolensk,to celebrate of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, a great topic of division between the two countries for many years. It was operated by the Soviet Secret Police in 1940 that killed 20 000 Poles but Russia only recognised its responsability in 1990. In my opinion, the reconcialiation between Russia and Poland was already discernable for several months, and the crash event could only represent a new step in that road of reconcialiation. However, the reconcialiation can only be made gradually since it remains some trouble spot like the energetic issue.
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