The COP15 conference is over, the results of the the COP15 are out... Maybe better outcomes and promices will come out next time.
As for me, I am currently in Sweden (just 50 minutes away from Copenhagen). Now when I am looking at the photos of the whole COP experience, I realise how much we have done and accomplished. It seems like we were there for a year working. We have made so many friends in guiding and scouting that have become very close. We've also had a tour in Copenhagen, the generous beautiful city that welcomed us all. (We saw the Citadell Castle, Downtown area, Tower in Ströget street, and ofcourse 'the Little Mermaid' who is still waiting by the sea...)
I want to thank Bernadette, Linden, Kathie, Rebecca for all their hard work and patience! Would also send a warm greeting to all the WAGGGS delegates who were just so awsome all the time!
Also, greetings to the guides, scouts and everyone who has been following me on this blog page. The mission for Climate Rescue is not over... so keep yourself updated on this site. More is yet to come =)
Finally,
Merry Christmas to all - hope you all have a wonderful holiday.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Democratic Kingdom of LaBanana
Today was our last day of the COP15 WAGGGS delegation.
Yesterday all day we stayed at Holmen reviewing the 2 weeks, writing reports, collecting data and business cards and informations. We also had the COP15 speeches projected on the wall infront of us, and the WAGGGS delegates were taking turn in listening and writing notes of what each President says. Unfortunately what seems to be the outcome of the COP15 is not a Legal Binding Agreement but just a promise and a date that the leaders will gather back in the coming months.
We as WAGGGS delegations did very good in lobbying and following reporters and politicians in order to get 'youth, and girls and young women' in particular into the texts and outcome.
Yesterday evening, Rebecca took the plane back to England.
I had also a skype conference with 'selection commitee' meeting with 2 hardworking guys. We chose who were the lucky few to enter the Bella Center today and yesterday.
This is an airplane view ofthe area here. We are shown in almost the middle of the picture, right after the horizontalish river. Christania is the neighbor indipendent state.
Later, we went to CHRISTANIAAAA and had a LOVELY dinner! I had steak, potato, asparagus, bacon aaand GUACAMOLE all in one DELICIOUS plate! I also tasted a bit of Luiza's plate. She had ordered Duck with wild berries! First time I ever try to eat duck =S, but it was good!
In the evening, I heard some lovely party music from the room beside ours. It was the party music that the Scouts for Climate summit had put. They had organized a 'good bye' party. I joined them, was aloot of fun!
There I was also introduced to the Democratic Kingdom of LaBanana.
The story started as such: a scout from Togo asked me where I came from and I said 'Lebanon!'. I think I must have pronounced it a big strangely or I had a delicious licorice candy in my mouth but something went wrong and the scout heard 'La Banana'. And after that, it is all hilarious stories and jokes about that republic. (It even has it's own anthem: Bananas of the world uuuunite! Go banana...) It was great to meet Awadi and all the Scout for Climate people =).
Today was also a long day!
I woke up super early and started to work on my report papers. We also had an evaluation session with Bernadette. Katie and some of the other WAGGGS delegates went to the 'nonformal education meetings' with the scouts of Denmark. They prepared for the scouts activities and fun games! Cool.
Bernadette left at noon time after we had all hugged her good bye in a big 'cinnamon roll hug!' (A new method of hugging someone goodbye- note to self.. teach it to my brownies =))
When everything was over, we had a little walk back to Christania to see how it is like in day light. I loved the place and all it's graffiti!
Tonight, some of the girls are going to the TIVOLI amusment park. I am greatly looking forward to it!
Yesterday all day we stayed at Holmen reviewing the 2 weeks, writing reports, collecting data and business cards and informations. We also had the COP15 speeches projected on the wall infront of us, and the WAGGGS delegates were taking turn in listening and writing notes of what each President says. Unfortunately what seems to be the outcome of the COP15 is not a Legal Binding Agreement but just a promise and a date that the leaders will gather back in the coming months.
We as WAGGGS delegations did very good in lobbying and following reporters and politicians in order to get 'youth, and girls and young women' in particular into the texts and outcome.
Yesterday evening, Rebecca took the plane back to England.
I had also a skype conference with 'selection commitee' meeting with 2 hardworking guys. We chose who were the lucky few to enter the Bella Center today and yesterday.
This is an airplane view ofthe area here. We are shown in almost the middle of the picture, right after the horizontalish river. Christania is the neighbor indipendent state.
Later, we went to CHRISTANIAAAA and had a LOVELY dinner! I had steak, potato, asparagus, bacon aaand GUACAMOLE all in one DELICIOUS plate! I also tasted a bit of Luiza's plate. She had ordered Duck with wild berries! First time I ever try to eat duck =S, but it was good!
In the evening, I heard some lovely party music from the room beside ours. It was the party music that the Scouts for Climate summit had put. They had organized a 'good bye' party. I joined them, was aloot of fun!
There I was also introduced to the Democratic Kingdom of LaBanana.
The story started as such: a scout from Togo asked me where I came from and I said 'Lebanon!'. I think I must have pronounced it a big strangely or I had a delicious licorice candy in my mouth but something went wrong and the scout heard 'La Banana'. And after that, it is all hilarious stories and jokes about that republic. (It even has it's own anthem: Bananas of the world uuuunite! Go banana...) It was great to meet Awadi and all the Scout for Climate people =).
Today was also a long day!
I woke up super early and started to work on my report papers. We also had an evaluation session with Bernadette. Katie and some of the other WAGGGS delegates went to the 'nonformal education meetings' with the scouts of Denmark. They prepared for the scouts activities and fun games! Cool.
Bernadette left at noon time after we had all hugged her good bye in a big 'cinnamon roll hug!' (A new method of hugging someone goodbye- note to self.. teach it to my brownies =))
When everything was over, we had a little walk back to Christania to see how it is like in day light. I loved the place and all it's graffiti!
Tonight, some of the girls are going to the TIVOLI amusment park. I am greatly looking forward to it!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
WHITE!!
Ahhh, today.. such a long day!
We woke up at 6 o'clock in order to arrive early to BC. We were there at 7:45 and still had to stand for half an hour in a long que to enter. After passing through all security, it was just to find a perfect computer spot and start to fix the papers for our Action. I printed the words 'One Voice' in the languages we WAGGGS delegates speak. After that I attended the YOUNGO gender group. We were only 11 WAGGGS delegates at the BC today. All NGOs got only a certain number of extra white cards that they could only use to enter. The percentage given to NGOs in white cards was less than 45 %. Today the BC was relatively empty with respect to the other days. Youth truely make the space more active and lively. There were various actions today in the center, but the groups were few in number.
After the YOUNGO gender meeting, the WAGGGS delegates waited for a certain Mr. Michael and sang to him a 'thank you/good bye' song upon request. He was very grateful and happy for our singing.
After that, we ran quickly to the 'Climate Rescue Station' (it is a huge outside globe in which one can have activities and speeches). We had important guests and sponsors as well as supporters to WAGGGS such as UPS and FAO. Also, Luiza and Gabriella spoke about the projects that they did at home to empower girls and young women with information about climate change and with the ability to cause a change to reverse the effect. After that, we did some charades of some of our activities that we did at home and made the audience guess what we did. That was fun.
After this, we had our Action. The ladies (Luiza, Speedy, Kaya, Myriam, Gaby) and I sang the song 'We are one voice and we are singing...' in a hallway in the BC. We had people stopping by, listening and smiling to our message. We also shouted out the words 'one voice' in each of our languages. Very nice. In fact it was so nice we repeated it twice!
After this action, we attended the WOSM's side event and introduction of their activities. We watched a movie of what the Scout Climate Summit are doing here in Copenhagen. I received a phone call during that meeting from a Lebanese media person working in a local TV station. It was a very interesting chat and it felt good to speak Lebanese again =). During the day, I also met Lebanese reporters and spoke to them about WAGGGS's key messages and beliefs and I also got an interview with NEUN news paper. Great!
(note to self: check out next month's NEUN edition!)
I came home late in the evening and was happy to meet Brian, Speedy and Kaya at the bus station. As we were walking that small bit of road to the Holmen scout center, it started to snow on us and the ground turned more and more into white. IT WAS JUST LOVELY!
After supper, the guys from the Scout Climate Summit, Katie and I went out and had a MAJOR SNOW FIGHT! wohoo! I can look now from the window and notice that the snow is still on the floor (about 5 cm thick!).It's so white and lovely! I made a snow angel =).
Tomorrow Farouk (from Algeria) and Brian (from Kenya) are going back home... eventually we all are. But we will always have those guiding/scouting memories with us with friends from all around the world =).
We woke up at 6 o'clock in order to arrive early to BC. We were there at 7:45 and still had to stand for half an hour in a long que to enter. After passing through all security, it was just to find a perfect computer spot and start to fix the papers for our Action. I printed the words 'One Voice' in the languages we WAGGGS delegates speak. After that I attended the YOUNGO gender group. We were only 11 WAGGGS delegates at the BC today. All NGOs got only a certain number of extra white cards that they could only use to enter. The percentage given to NGOs in white cards was less than 45 %. Today the BC was relatively empty with respect to the other days. Youth truely make the space more active and lively. There were various actions today in the center, but the groups were few in number.
After the YOUNGO gender meeting, the WAGGGS delegates waited for a certain Mr. Michael and sang to him a 'thank you/good bye' song upon request. He was very grateful and happy for our singing.
After that, we ran quickly to the 'Climate Rescue Station' (it is a huge outside globe in which one can have activities and speeches). We had important guests and sponsors as well as supporters to WAGGGS such as UPS and FAO. Also, Luiza and Gabriella spoke about the projects that they did at home to empower girls and young women with information about climate change and with the ability to cause a change to reverse the effect. After that, we did some charades of some of our activities that we did at home and made the audience guess what we did. That was fun.
After this, we had our Action. The ladies (Luiza, Speedy, Kaya, Myriam, Gaby) and I sang the song 'We are one voice and we are singing...' in a hallway in the BC. We had people stopping by, listening and smiling to our message. We also shouted out the words 'one voice' in each of our languages. Very nice. In fact it was so nice we repeated it twice!
After this action, we attended the WOSM's side event and introduction of their activities. We watched a movie of what the Scout Climate Summit are doing here in Copenhagen. I received a phone call during that meeting from a Lebanese media person working in a local TV station. It was a very interesting chat and it felt good to speak Lebanese again =). During the day, I also met Lebanese reporters and spoke to them about WAGGGS's key messages and beliefs and I also got an interview with NEUN news paper. Great!
(note to self: check out next month's NEUN edition!)
I came home late in the evening and was happy to meet Brian, Speedy and Kaya at the bus station. As we were walking that small bit of road to the Holmen scout center, it started to snow on us and the ground turned more and more into white. IT WAS JUST LOVELY!
After supper, the guys from the Scout Climate Summit, Katie and I went out and had a MAJOR SNOW FIGHT! wohoo! I can look now from the window and notice that the snow is still on the floor (about 5 cm thick!).It's so white and lovely! I made a snow angel =).
Tomorrow Farouk (from Algeria) and Brian (from Kenya) are going back home... eventually we all are. But we will always have those guiding/scouting memories with us with friends from all around the world =).
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Al Gore and More!
live updates:
i am writing now while standing in line going into th BC. there are ALOOOOT of people. the metro had to stop one stationn in advance (at Sunby) and we walked to th BC. I AM NOW STANDING IN THIS HUGE LINE, HOLDING BTHE unicef 15 inch laptop trying to type (with one finger). aall the NGOs got a limited re4striction of access cards to enter the center. so not all WAGGGS delegates will be able to enter today!
i am now inside, getting ready for security check......
ok, now i am in the BC and i just got the opportunity to watch Arnold Schatzinegger and Al Gore, but I did not take them since I have a non formal education this after noon with the Danish Scouts...
ok, updates again!! i am watching both of them speak today! got the tickets! wohoo..gogo
later during the day:
it is now 5 pm, Prisca Myriam and I had an interview with an RFI radio reporter. That was a good experience. I also had the chance to meet environment ministry members of Pakistan as well as Emirates.
As for now, I just exited from a speech by Al Gore. He was introduced to stage by the kind words of Yvo de Bore.
(Other than the fact that I was super tired/sleepy and fell asleep twice during the speech), he was a very good public speaker! He started his speech by relating to a personal event that had happened to him earlier this week. He then told a story that an old lady had told him some 20 years ago. And finally concluded the introduction with a joke that made the crowd laugh. As he continued his 1 hour speech, he gave several facts and figures from scientific calculations of what climate change is, how it is affecting the citizens of the Earth and what we should do to solve it.
In the end in his conclusion, Al Gore gave some inspirational words of hope and raised the tone of his voice in enthusiasm for a FAB (Fair Ambitions Binding) agreement soon (if not in COP15, then next year in Mexico!) Cheers and clapps and all of a sudden Al Gore disappeared from the closest door.
Other WAGGGS delegates had also the opportunity to attend Arnold Schwatzinegger (?spelling?) 's speech! I had tickets for that session too, but arrived 10 minutes late for the conference and was not allowed to enter becaue the room was full of people!
I also have a meeting in around an hour with the 'Selection Commitee'.
i am writing now while standing in line going into th BC. there are ALOOOOT of people. the metro had to stop one stationn in advance (at Sunby) and we walked to th BC. I AM NOW STANDING IN THIS HUGE LINE, HOLDING BTHE unicef 15 inch laptop trying to type (with one finger). aall the NGOs got a limited re4striction of access cards to enter the center. so not all WAGGGS delegates will be able to enter today!
i am now inside, getting ready for security check......
ok, now i am in the BC and i just got the opportunity to watch Arnold Schatzinegger and Al Gore, but I did not take them since I have a non formal education this after noon with the Danish Scouts...
ok, updates again!! i am watching both of them speak today! got the tickets! wohoo..gogo
later during the day:
it is now 5 pm, Prisca Myriam and I had an interview with an RFI radio reporter. That was a good experience. I also had the chance to meet environment ministry members of Pakistan as well as Emirates.
As for now, I just exited from a speech by Al Gore. He was introduced to stage by the kind words of Yvo de Bore.
(Other than the fact that I was super tired/sleepy and fell asleep twice during the speech), he was a very good public speaker! He started his speech by relating to a personal event that had happened to him earlier this week. He then told a story that an old lady had told him some 20 years ago. And finally concluded the introduction with a joke that made the crowd laugh. As he continued his 1 hour speech, he gave several facts and figures from scientific calculations of what climate change is, how it is affecting the citizens of the Earth and what we should do to solve it.In the end in his conclusion, Al Gore gave some inspirational words of hope and raised the tone of his voice in enthusiasm for a FAB (Fair Ambitions Binding) agreement soon (if not in COP15, then next year in Mexico!) Cheers and clapps and all of a sudden Al Gore disappeared from the closest door.
Other WAGGGS delegates had also the opportunity to attend Arnold Schwatzinegger (?spelling?) 's speech! I had tickets for that session too, but arrived 10 minutes late for the conference and was not allowed to enter becaue the room was full of people!I also have a meeting in around an hour with the 'Selection Commitee'.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Princesse Benedikte of Denmark!
Today was a very relaxing day. We woke up late after having gone to bed late. Yesterday was the Youth Party! It was alot of fun! The place called 'Vega' was crowded with people. All the rooms on both building floors as well as the dance stage and arena were packed with youth that had been participating in the COP15 through out the week. It was a good way to take off all the stress from last week and refresh oneself for a new start for the coming week! We, WAGGGS team are all relaxed now, slept well and feel very excited about the coming week! GO GO
Today had 2 peak points. One was meeting Princesse Benedikte of Denmark.
She is a very elegant young lady (almost 60 of age) who is the official supporter of the scouts/guides in denmark. She and the Olave Baden Powel Society is also the reason why I and several other of the WAGGGS delegation are able to attend these important events in Copenhagen. A BIG THANKS TO THEM! We had the opportunity to have a little chat with her Royal Highness and I got to know from her that she enjoys Campfire songs alot (she is one of us =D).
The second event today was meeting the Scout for Climate people who came today to Holmen (the scouting place we are staying at) and who will be participating with us in the coming week in the COP15 and other activities. Very interesting, funny, intelligent people. This is what I have seen so far. Can't wait to get to know them more. Kaya, Luiza and I (the Action group) also prepared for the new commers a couple of welcome games. In the end, we celebrated together SANTA LUCIA day! (the 13th of December is the memory of St. Lucia. It is a very popular feast in the nordic countires. And since we have Sara Linea, Emily and I who speak Swedish as well as other guide/scout members, we sang two Lucia songs to the whole group of 60 along with some candle lights. - really nice =) )
As for now, it is time to go to bed. Tomorrow is a start for a new exciting week.
Will post photos and videos when I get the opportunity (soon!)
Today had 2 peak points. One was meeting Princesse Benedikte of Denmark.
She is a very elegant young lady (almost 60 of age) who is the official supporter of the scouts/guides in denmark. She and the Olave Baden Powel Society is also the reason why I and several other of the WAGGGS delegation are able to attend these important events in Copenhagen. A BIG THANKS TO THEM! We had the opportunity to have a little chat with her Royal Highness and I got to know from her that she enjoys Campfire songs alot (she is one of us =D).
The second event today was meeting the Scout for Climate people who came today to Holmen (the scouting place we are staying at) and who will be participating with us in the coming week in the COP15 and other activities. Very interesting, funny, intelligent people. This is what I have seen so far. Can't wait to get to know them more. Kaya, Luiza and I (the Action group) also prepared for the new commers a couple of welcome games. In the end, we celebrated together SANTA LUCIA day! (the 13th of December is the memory of St. Lucia. It is a very popular feast in the nordic countires. And since we have Sara Linea, Emily and I who speak Swedish as well as other guide/scout members, we sang two Lucia songs to the whole group of 60 along with some candle lights. - really nice =) )
As for now, it is time to go to bed. Tomorrow is a start for a new exciting week.
Will post photos and videos when I get the opportunity (soon!)
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Flash Dance!!
check this out!! =)
This is an event planned by the YOUNGO- that all of the youth groups participated in (including WAGGGS). It was alot of fun!
This is called the 'Flash Dance' performed in the Bella Centre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eozcU2f6jow&feature=autofb
We also repeated it several times today during the march!
This is an event planned by the YOUNGO- that all of the youth groups participated in (including WAGGGS). It was alot of fun!
This is called the 'Flash Dance' performed in the Bella Centre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eozcU2f6jow&feature=autofb
We also repeated it several times today during the march!
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