Protest for Climate Change

Check us out singing on stage the song, 'i am one voice and i am singing.. ':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iTr1dy4ge8

Bernadette speaking from Bella Centre about " Youth Voice 17 on Climate Change - for COP15"
:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npfxES2sn3o

Today was the big march and protest for the outcome of the climate summit. Some sources said that there were around 100,000 people. Helicopters were flying above us, and the Bella Center had the event televised.
From what we saw from the middle of the protest, everything was very cheerful and friendly. In the news however one will see differently. I, and the WAGGGS delegation are all safe. We did participate loudly and sang across the way. We also walked beside the 350.org and enjoyed their pinguin costumes and fun ideas of protest. You can youtube about the event ande check out about the different people/organizations taking part in the event.




We felt really glad to walk the whole road from Christiansborg Slotsplads (Parliament Square) all the way to Bella Center! (That is almost 5 metro stops).


Tomorrow we have a very interesting event! WE ARE GOING TO MEET HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, BENEDIKTE, PRINCESS OF DENMARK. cool.

Finally Friday

Today was the last day of the first week at BC. So crowded, and so many people!
It was also a perfect day to do all 'actions'. Youth organizations gathered around and invited other youth groups to join them in a short group gathering protest. This could be done by either shouting out slogans, singing songs, listening to songs. But today there was a special one that most of the youth organizations (if not all) participated in. The Action event was under the title of 'don't freeze the deal' and what happened was the following. Youth were "randomly" walking down the corridor when suddenly some balloons pop and all these young people FREEZE in their grounds! They don't move a muscle for 350 seconds. Now is that a weird seane,or what? The number 350 signifies the need to lower the Carbon parts/million in the atmosphere to 350 (it is now 390 ppm. I participated too in the event, but I can say that my arm hurt me just a bit after going back to normal [I froze as opening my mouth weirdly and pointing at Margaretha in disbelief].




Another action took place concerning the melting of the ice glaciers. Also, throughout the day, many interviews/conferences/side events take place. I attended a little press release about how the small islands near New Zealand are suffering the consequences of climate change. The speaker also share with us a typical dance from her region! Very nice, I must say!
As I was passing randomly in the corridor I bumped into a guy, and instead of just turning around, I decided to smile to him. Well, he turned out to be a know journalist from Norway and decided that he wanted to make an interview with me. Well, yes certainly! I told him all about guiding and WAGGGS and how we are fighting climate change.
Also, I met the head of transportation minister (if I am not mistaken) of Irak. It was quite enjoyable to open a conversation with him and he was eager to learn more about guiding and scouting! Unexpectedly cool!
We also saw some neatly done ice sculptures representing how some nations will disappear if the climate change continues and sea level rises to eliminate the existance of some people.




hmmm, what else did we do today?
Well, it was our patrol's turn to cook dinner to everyone. So, Mirna and I did something very smart. We went to Netto (supermarket) and bought frozen pizzas. Came home, heated the oven and made 2 sallads and VOILA, dinner is served! We also had a cake for desert because it is Petinas Birthday Today! =)
After the evening's debreif, we went out and walked in the lovely streets of Copenhagen. We took the /bus boad/ from the Opera house to the Queen's house and then made a walk in centrum. There was an exhibition on the street of photographs of places from all around the world of "What are the 100 places you MUST VISIT before 2050 incase nothing is done about climate change". Among those 100 photos was a photo of the 'Cedars of God in Lebanon' (wohoo!)
Now, we are back home and it is almost 3 am. Tomorrow we were promiced pankakes for breakfast! yeey!

Some shots of today!

ahh.. sorry for the order of the pictures.. please notice the pictures of this blog date of today from down to up to be put in chronological order of appearance.

This photo was taken on our way back. Danish metro accuracy in timing. Gotto love the Danish technology!! ps: metro trains do not have drivers on either side of the train. everying is computerised.




Posing as a pop star with Mirna. haha! loads of similar photos taken with the other members of the pop team sensation group! =P




Food during the event, among which was a vegitarian sandwich: proudly made out of HUMMUS.. hihi




WAGGGS members then sang as an opening act in the evening youth party at the Radisson hotel. We sang the song 'I am one voice and I am singing... but I am not alone.' And then more and more people joined in, untill we finally sang 'We are 10 million and we are singing.. but we are not alone' It turned out to be great!




Our shared WAGGGS and WOSM stand. The Orange tshirts we worn today by all youth because it was the \youth day\ today! Very exciting activities and actions took palce during this day.


The media taking shots of an action prepared by youth members.(This kind of reminds me of a certain session closure at the Cabana =) )


One of the huge computer rooms:

what a day

this photo was actually taken yesterday, but i thought that i would share it anyway bcause we look soo good wearing our YUNGA t-shirts =)




Today in the morning we had our Side Event, it was quite similar to previous one, and we did just as well as before =). It was sad though that the opening event (ribbon cutting) was postponed to the afternoon, else we would have had more people attending our event because it would have been directly after the ribbon cutting (which includes the attendance of many people and press).

As for me, the day was a very calm one. My patrol had the duty of attending the stand, so I sat there most of my time taking care of the visitors and explaining to them what we do. I had some interesting people passing by, one was a party member from Brazil, and one was an elder lady that told me that she was a guide member when she was young. Yesterday, I met this Indian girl who told me that she would like to joing guiding. So, I asked her where in India do you live? And she said: in Pune! AHA!! I directly sent her a mail to the website of Sangam and started to describe to her where Sangam is on Alandi raod! =)

Lebanese in Blood!

Yesterday at the Bella Centre, I spoke to a guy from an Arabic country and he shared with me a story that I would like to share with you all.
He told me that he loved Lebanon VERY much, and I was glad but just a little surprise for his great passion. So, I asked him why and this is what he told me:
When he was born, his body needed frequent input of blood amount of a special type/blood group. This blood was very important for his survival when he was still a baby and without it he would definitely die. The only person that was there to donate his blood on a daily basis was a Lebanese person.
So his father told him when he grew up that: Although you are Omani (origin from Oman) but your blood is Lebanese! =)

African Delegation Protest

Something that I find interesting that happened yesterday.
Check out: African Delegation Protest at COP15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajTozq7xQWk

Side Event- great job WAGGGS!!

Hello, yesterday our patrol (the Olave Room) had the mission to write the BLOG report for the WAGGGS website.. and this is what we wrote.. so it is kind of review of what we all did yesterday =)









Second day at COP 15: The 8th of December

Our side event
Today our delegation carried out a side-event. Side events are a possibility for the different NGO's present at COP 15 to introduce them selves and tell people what they want to achieve in Copenhagen.
We started with a song in Spanish to attract attention and get people gathering around us. Then we played the game “Gordian Knot” which we used to symbolize climate changes being a very complicated issue. We tried to untangle the knot, which is difficult and involves everyone, just as the climate changes.
In the end of the game all participants where standing in a circle, holding hands, which symbolized unity of the world.

We also did a quiz with the audience. One volunteered to participate in the quiz “Who wants to be a climate change expert?” and won a nice badge from Brazil.

Afterwards we shared stories of what girl guides in Egypt, Bolivia and Madagascar are doing to fight the climate change. And finally we wrote the words “one voice” on our foreheads to show, that we are ten million girl guides in the world, speaking in one voice. We marked some of the audience in this way as well.




Today’s actions
During the day a lot of crazy actions from a variety of NGO’s took place. One of them where the YOUNGO Constituency being on the spot again. This time they made a “bed-in” action to show that we are all in the same bed, and it’s time for politicians to wake up. We experienced today that dressing up is the best way to attract media attention, so maybe that’s something to consider.

In the European Youth Climate Movement we decided today to run a euro-wide action. We want all young Europeans to call their head of state tomorrow at a certain time, to claim that Europe should cut off at least 40% of their emissions (compared to 1990-levels). Right after this we made a video to be put on Youtube. It shows young people saying “cut of at least 40%” in different European languages. Go look for it at Youtube and look for the WAGGGS-scarfs!