Tsunami Hits Again

This time in Japan

[Details here]


Related post:

The Tsunami

This time in Japan

[Details here]


Related post:

The Tsunami

IT'S NOBEL TIME... (Recidivus)*

Doris Lessing was on the headlines earlier this year for saying, at the Hay Book Festival, such interesting things as (and they sound as if I am hearing myself...):

- "I have not noticed that women, when they get to be prime ministers are particularly peaceful. (…) On the contrary, some of the worst crimes have been committed by women. (…) We like to think we are motherly and kind and that we are not going to go to war, but it's not true, is it?"

- “What use are men? (…) An haphazard species who always have to be looked after and die much too easy."

- "There's something abrasive in me because I have often made people very cross. (…) But as a writer it is important not to care what other people think and the profession must honour that. (…) We are free... I can say what I think. We are lucky, privileged, so why not make use of it?"

Yesterday and today Lessing came back to the headlines as the 2007 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I was particularly drawn to her writing by her novel ‘The Grass is Singing’ about the relationship between the wife of a white farmer with a black servant in colonial Zimbabwe, where she lived her earlier life. The Nobel Academy described Lessing as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".


Former US Vice-President, Al Gore, was on the headlines earlier this week as the subject of an “inconvenient judgment” by a British High Court judge who branded his Oscar and Emmy award-winning film on climate change, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, something like “not fit for purpose” as didactic material to be used in this country's schools.

The judge stated that the film contains "nine scientific errors, some of which arisen in the context of alarmism and exaggeration” and determined that it must be accompanied by new guidance notes and appropriate scientific caveats to balance what he termed Gore’s “one-sided views”, before it can be shown in UK Schools.

Today Gore came back again to the headlines for sharing this year's Nobel Peace Prize with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to the Nobel judges, “his strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change.”

Gore follows Wangari Maathai (winner in 2004) as the second environmental campaigner to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which is usually reserved for those who bravely oppose war and conflict.

(I can't wait to hear about the Nobel for Economics on Monday...)

*First published 12/10/07

Doris Lessing was on the headlines earlier this year for saying, at the Hay Book Festival, such interesting things as (and they sound as if I am hearing myself...):

- "I have not noticed that women, when they get to be prime ministers are particularly peaceful. (…) On the contrary, some of the worst crimes have been committed by women. (…) We like to think we are motherly and kind and that we are not going to go to war, but it's not true, is it?"

- “What use are men? (…) An haphazard species who always have to be looked after and die much too easy."

- "There's something abrasive in me because I have often made people very cross. (…) But as a writer it is important not to care what other people think and the profession must honour that. (…) We are free... I can say what I think. We are lucky, privileged, so why not make use of it?"

Yesterday and today Lessing came back to the headlines as the 2007 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I was particularly drawn to her writing by her novel ‘The Grass is Singing’ about the relationship between the wife of a white farmer with a black servant in colonial Zimbabwe, where she lived her earlier life. The Nobel Academy described Lessing as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".


Former US Vice-President, Al Gore, was on the headlines earlier this week as the subject of an “inconvenient judgment” by a British High Court judge who branded his Oscar and Emmy award-winning film on climate change, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, something like “not fit for purpose” as didactic material to be used in this country's schools.

The judge stated that the film contains "nine scientific errors, some of which arisen in the context of alarmism and exaggeration” and determined that it must be accompanied by new guidance notes and appropriate scientific caveats to balance what he termed Gore’s “one-sided views”, before it can be shown in UK Schools.

Today Gore came back again to the headlines for sharing this year's Nobel Peace Prize with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to the Nobel judges, “his strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change.”

Gore follows Wangari Maathai (winner in 2004) as the second environmental campaigner to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which is usually reserved for those who bravely oppose war and conflict.

(I can't wait to hear about the Nobel for Economics on Monday...)

*First published 12/10/07

THE TSUNAMI

As the effects of the most recent tsunami are still being felt in some Pacific Islands, I thought of sharing here an abridged version of a report that I wrote on the United Nations International Conference to Review the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA) for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Development States (SIDS)*, which took place a few days after the devastating tsunami that hit significant parts of the world at the tip end of 2004 – described by National Geographic as probably the deadliest tsunami in History – exposing the extreme vulnerability of SIDS to this kind of mother nature’s whims.

The Conference, held in Port Louis, Mauritius, on 10-14 January 2005, was marked at its opening ceremony by a one minute’s silence in memory of the 26th December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims. It was attended by 18 Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Prime Ministers, some 60 Ministers, around 2000 Delegates, Civil Society Representatives and Journalists from 114 countries, and 15 UN or Multilateral Agencies. The Conference’s proceedings were structured in plenary sessions, panel discussions, round tables, contact groups, informal consultations, side events, parallel partnership activities and a high-level segment around the following themes:

Climate Change, Sea-Level Rise and Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol

Environmental Vulnerabilities and Resilience-building

Addressing Emerging Trends and Social Challenges

Role of Culture in Sustainable Development

Special Challenges in Trade and Economic Development

Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the BPoA

Mobilizing Resources for Implementation of the Programme of Action

Building Capacity in SIDS

Final Outcomes and Lessons Learned

 Climate Change, Sea-Level Rise and Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol**

 Preventive Measures to Strengthen Early-Warning Systems

 Special and Differential Treatment and Graduation from LDC Status

 Renewable Energy

 ICT

 Transport

 Fisheries

 HIV/AIDS and Malaria

 Monitoring & Implementation

"We are all inhabitants of the global island. All of us, rich and poor, weak and strong, whether citizens of great power or tiny atoll, are linked in webs of opportunity and vulnerability. We should have known this already, but it has taken a tsunami to press the point home. The question now is whether we will act over the long term, not just in small islands but everywhere, in the same spirit of unity that characterises the current moment."
Kofi Annan

[REPORT HERE]

* SIDS are small island and low-lying coastal countries that share similar sustainable development challenges. At present, forty-three small island developing states and territories (there are 51 SIDS in total) are included in the list used by the UN in monitoring the progress of implementation of the BPoA. These states and territories often work together through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). SIDS in Africa comprise Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Sao Tome & Principe and Seychelles

**The Kyoto Protocol finally entered into force one month after the Mauritius Conference, on 16/02/2005

As the effects of the most recent tsunami are still being felt in some Pacific Islands, I thought of sharing here an abridged version of a report that I wrote on the United Nations International Conference to Review the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA) for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Development States (SIDS)*, which took place a few days after the devastating tsunami that hit significant parts of the world at the tip end of 2004 – described by National Geographic as probably the deadliest tsunami in History – exposing the extreme vulnerability of SIDS to this kind of mother nature’s whims.

The Conference, held in Port Louis, Mauritius, on 10-14 January 2005, was marked at its opening ceremony by a one minute’s silence in memory of the 26th December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims. It was attended by 18 Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Prime Ministers, some 60 Ministers, around 2000 Delegates, Civil Society Representatives and Journalists from 114 countries, and 15 UN or Multilateral Agencies. The Conference’s proceedings were structured in plenary sessions, panel discussions, round tables, contact groups, informal consultations, side events, parallel partnership activities and a high-level segment around the following themes:

Climate Change, Sea-Level Rise and Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol

Environmental Vulnerabilities and Resilience-building

Addressing Emerging Trends and Social Challenges

Role of Culture in Sustainable Development

Special Challenges in Trade and Economic Development

Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the BPoA

Mobilizing Resources for Implementation of the Programme of Action

Building Capacity in SIDS

Final Outcomes and Lessons Learned

 Climate Change, Sea-Level Rise and Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol**

 Preventive Measures to Strengthen Early-Warning Systems

 Special and Differential Treatment and Graduation from LDC Status

 Renewable Energy

 ICT

 Transport

 Fisheries

 HIV/AIDS and Malaria

 Monitoring & Implementation

"We are all inhabitants of the global island. All of us, rich and poor, weak and strong, whether citizens of great power or tiny atoll, are linked in webs of opportunity and vulnerability. We should have known this already, but it has taken a tsunami to press the point home. The question now is whether we will act over the long term, not just in small islands but everywhere, in the same spirit of unity that characterises the current moment."
Kofi Annan

[REPORT HERE]

* SIDS are small island and low-lying coastal countries that share similar sustainable development challenges. At present, forty-three small island developing states and territories (there are 51 SIDS in total) are included in the list used by the UN in monitoring the progress of implementation of the BPoA. These states and territories often work together through the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). SIDS in Africa comprise Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Sao Tome & Principe and Seychelles

**The Kyoto Protocol finally entered into force one month after the Mauritius Conference, on 16/02/2005

LIVE EARTH, OR... WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?

Wembley is up for a big party again today for one of the series of concerts taking place in 8 different countries this weekend to ‘Save the Earth from Global Warming’, courtesy of Mr. Al Gore, all ‘fueled up’ by his recent Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Now, I don’t want to sound as the ‘ever-so-cynical-kill-joy’ about this sort of thing but… if it takes the former US Vice-President dozens of planes to move around the world more than 150 artists, bands, celebrities and respective entourages and equipment, plus all the energy these concerts will consume, all adding to the so-called “global carbon footprints”, to say “an inconvenient truth”, such as “you need to ratify the Kyoto Protocol”, to the current US President, then… I am sorry, this party is not for me!

Wembley is up for a big party again today for one of the series of concerts taking place in 8 different countries this weekend to ‘Save the Earth from Global Warming’, courtesy of Mr. Al Gore, all ‘fueled up’ by his recent Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Now, I don’t want to sound as the ‘ever-so-cynical-kill-joy’ about this sort of thing but… if it takes the former US Vice-President dozens of planes to move around the world more than 150 artists, bands, celebrities and respective entourages and equipment, plus all the energy these concerts will consume, all adding to the so-called “global carbon footprints”, to say “an inconvenient truth”, such as “you need to ratify the Kyoto Protocol”, to the current US President, then… I am sorry, this party is not for me!