Day 3 — COP17, Durban: Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Today was spent at the “People’s Space,” a wonderful gathering of global civil society at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), ideally (and coincidentally) located just a 15-minute walk from the house we are staying in…
I interviewed Edward Munaaba, a member of the Caravan of Hope group that journeyed by bus for two weeks, wending their way through eight countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa), where they were greeted in each place by local people and in many cases, high-ranking local and national government officials who expressed their support. Edward is the eloquent director of an NGO in Tanzania that works with farmers in some very creative ways, in several countries, and we will work with him the future to share ideas and resources.
Later in the day, the People’s Space hosted a session where Caravan of Hope participants gave testimony to Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and currently leading a foundation that is heavily involved in climate change. One of the farmers on the caravan, Charles Okong’o, concluded by saying “We are one. Please save our world. We live on the same planet. When catastrophes come, they know no boundaries, rich people, poor people.” A musician from Zambia told us “If it rains at my house, there is rain at your house. If there is drought at my house, there is drought at your house. So, climate change affects us all.” A man named Thomas summed up: “We’re asking for justice, and Mary, we know it is not that they don’t understand us. The science is clear…. Mary, you have to shout…. We’re not asking for sympathy, we’re asking for justice.” When Mary Robinson spoke, she said “I’ve heard more urgency in this room, than I’ve heard in the big hall [of the COP]. The polluters must pay. The rich countries must pay for this. There is a right to development.”
One more highlight. At a session called “Voices from the Field,” moderated by chair of Friends of the Earth International Nnimmo Bassey, Desmond D’Sa, one of the organizers of the People’s Space and a Durban-based climate activist, exclaimed: “We need to fight [the corporations] and beat them. Because that’s the only language they know.” He said of Obama and South African president Jacob Zuma that they care about money first. “We must believe the giants can fall. And they are falling…. Shell thought they were invincible in Nigeria. And we beat them. We kicked the shit out of them in Durban.”
This is a small sample of the things I heard in the People’s Space today.
John