Dude, whatever happened to this blog? It has been almost a month. Well, there's nothing I can do, lets just say I was trapped in a limbo which I refer to as work. At least for me its limbo cause I do not enjoy any bit of it. Corporate slavery is just blah. But my rest day is too short for whining, so better yet, I WILL WRITE.
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Its already the 14th of November and we are just eleven days away from the biggest gathering of world leaders in recent history and that is the 16th Conference of Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change happening on November 25-December 10, 2010 in Cancun, Mexico.
Yours truly is one of the duly accredited young people who will participate in this meeting as part of the official Philippine delegation. But it was no easy feat and it requires an awful lot of dedication, responsibility, and commitment. Not to mention that we get no funding from the government. The six youth delegates had to fundraise for our airfare, accommodations, sustenance, and what-not in order to send ourselves to Mexico. The truth is, we have not reached our fundraising target just yet. But I am making a petition to the universe that from this day till the 24th of November, monetary provision will be overwhelmingly plenty.
On November 6, a benefit dinner for the Philippine delegation was held through the support of The Cravings Group and Center for Culinary Arts-Manila. It was an intimate gathering of friends, families, fellow environmental activists and supporters of the Philippine delegation.
Cravings provided us with really good food and the guests enjoyed it. And more than just being a fundraising dinner, we thought of inviting keynote speakers who will enlighten those who are present why such conferences are important. Moreover, they explained why the participation of young people should not be undervalued.
The first speaker was Arch. Christopher dela Cruz, an advocate of sustainable building and founder of the Philippine Green Building Council which is an alliance of business and industry leaders from both the private and public sectors that promotes sustainable building practices to the property industry.
The second speaker was Commissioner Naderev Sano from the Philippine Climate Change Commission. I have known Commissioner Sano for quite sometime now. He is the father of one of my students before when I was still a student-teacher in a progressive preschool in Quezon City. He used to be the Director of WWF-Philippines. He also helped us with our endorsement as official youth delegates. He talked about the dismal failure of COP 15 in Copenhagen last year and how we can change the story this year, bearing in mind that young people can contribute significantly in the climate negotiations.
As a finale, Uli Oposa, brother of one of the delegates Anna Oposa, delivered a standup comedy routine and it was utterly mental. It was a different kind of standup comedy, not like what most Filipinos know about (no) thanks to Vice Ganda.
And now, we have the official Philippine youth delegation to the 16th Conference of Parties--Karl Molina, Vivienne Zerrudo, Kester Yu, Esperanza Garcia, Anna Oposa, and Desiree Llanos Dee with Commissioner Yeb Sano.
Ipakita sa buong mundo kung ano ang tunay na Pilipino: isang magiting na lahi na dapat ipagpunyagi!
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*The Philippine delegation is still looking for sponsors who will help us reach our fundraising target. You may contact Karl Molina, Director for Finance and Fundraising at +63 916 605 8512 or at karlmolina.philycm@hotmail.com.
*Upon our return, we are offering our sponsors a financial report of our expenses and a full report of activities during the conference. We will also be holding informative, comprehensive, and action-oriented capacity building workshops on solid-waste management and climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for our sponsors.
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