Friday 14 Dec 2007
by Woon SG-Thailand
This morning, I walked from the bus stop towards the conference centre, cannot really believe that it is the last day. Suddenly, there was some sort of empty feeling inside. Before I know, I have had such a happy time with these new friends and all the activities we had done together. We work together; we eat together; we play together; we laugh together; we stay up late and feel tired together….for a common goal to urge action against climate change. Some permanent stamps onto the heart are certainly there, at least for me.
The feeling was greatly intensified when listening to the international youth speech in the main plenary. One American, one Canadian, and one Indonesian represented voices of all the youth in this conference.
“…I have a coin here. The flip of this coin represents gambling with our future…Our future is at stake. As climate change accelerates, and your decisions unfold, we will look back at this moment, this conference. History will judge whether you did enough to give us a planet worth living in.
…The climate emergency is our best and possibly last opportunity to create a global consciousness. We are inspired by those of you who taking true leadership, both at home and internationally. We are ashamed of the so-called “leaders” who are delaying action in this UN process and who are actively compromising our future.
…Youth around the world are raising to the challenge…But all this will not be enough without strong action from you. We have put our trust in you. We need a Bali Breakthrough – now…The world is watching, the youth is rising. Join us.”
Such strong statement ended with little voice of a small girl reading out her poem…
“It’s haunting me
A crowd of he’s and she’s
I’m not a hero
I’m not even a big show
Every time I look cameras
as flashing me in the eye.
It would surprise them if they knew
I was only a little girl who is scared
the world will die.”
Wonderful speech inside was followed by another action outside. All the youth gathered with huge banners and flags of countries around the world. Thousands photographers squeezed in to take shots of youth messages and send them out to the world.
Photograph by Woon Pattamon Rungchavalnont
The last day seemed to end early. We wrapped up our booths by 2pm. Everyone now separates to finish up what they have to do; and this is mine to finish. This blog has taken a fair amount of my time here; I sometimes stayed up late having to finish the stories. Sometimes, I feel so tired of it but it has become a part of my life here, my invaluable experience which would like to share with others whom I may not even know. Yet, that fact does not matter because we share the same ideal…the same future. I only hope that the story of SolarGeneration at UNFCCC Bali 2007 will inspire some to join us. It does not matter who you are, what you are good at, or how much you know. We have learnt so much from coming here, attending the events and doing all the activities. What we learnt is not only scientific facts about climate change but what we learnt includes unexplainably a lot more. It is very interesting to listen to ministers discussing the fate of the world, to see how many people are out there trying to save the planet through various means, and most importantly, to know what we are capable of to make a change.
This is an end but is also a beginning. After this conference, we all still have a lot more to do back home…a long path lay before us…
