Update from the frontline (by Lina Li)

11.31 am Bella Center NGO Booth

The COP today started on time at 10am. The "excellencies" have been giving speeches one by one. I am a bit "tired" somehow of hearing the fancy words again and again, so I walked out of the TV place. I shouldn't have left my coat at the cloak room, because it is getting cold here in the Bella Centre. The whole NGO booth area is as bleak as an abandoned village,deadly quiet. All the side events inside Bella Centre are cancelled too, because most of the audience are normally NGO representatives. Today, only 300 NGO people with the yellow badge are allowed to enter the Bella Centre.

Here's something I've noted down from the high level element:

"We are given by history this opportunitiy to react, to act for our children and grandchildern and those to come, to act on the planet itself.

People from around the world will judge us as individuals , for what we say, what we do and fail to do.

We developed world hold historical reponsibility, but if developing countries don't act now, more than half of the growth of GHG from now till 2050 wil be from emerging developing countries and it wil result in more than 2 degree .

This is a grand bargin between past and future, between developed and deevloping countries.

The common abmition is 450ppm,

It is the legal responsibilities of all parties.

A 6 year old Gracy wrote to me "how old ar you? you need to listen to us- make strong deal coz it's about our future." The children all ove the world are watching us. History will judge."

- Mr. Kevin M. Rudd Australia Prime Minister,

For all of us and all our hildern, there is no greater national interest than the future of the planet.

- Mr. Gordon Brown, UK PM

I hope they are serious and sincere...we will see when the real negotionas resume...

NGO, are we the lowest of the low? (by Xixi Sun)

NGO, are we the lowest of the low?

By Xixi Sun

Wednesday afternoon 3.30pm. Bella Centre. Outside Plenary Tycho Brahe.

Everyone was waiting to get back in. 20 minutes ago we were told that we had to all leave the plenary for a security check before the high-level segment starts again. I have double-checked with the security if NGO passes are allowed to get back in and they said YES. I was the very few (if not the only one) among our delegation team that has a NGO pass for the plenary and I wanted to be at least be in there to represent China youth.

It turned out that we were fooled. “No NGOs are allowed into the plenary!” As the government delegates lined up in front of the door, the NGOs were stopped and turned away.

I do not remember if the same official has given me the different messages. He might have consulted with senior officials and got the latest update on security information, which was NO NGOs whatsoever (instead of limited number of NGOs in plenary). At the same time I was told that the Bella Centre was closed to NGOs now even if they have secondary passes. Before I got some time to figure out what was going on, I got another update from outside Bella Centre – the climate protesters today have been put down by police force using pepper spray. When I saw the pictures of people holding banners and flags, falling into mud on the ground, shouting silently, my feelings were hard to describe. The president of Venezuela, H.E. Hugo Chavez Frias, has said in the high level element this morning that the young people out there on the street should have our respect. They were protesting on the streets, some of whom were arrested by police.

The future belongs to the young generation, who has been marching in rain, in snow, in front of military troops, just to have their voices heard. I am one of them. We are them. But as young people, as NGO, we are not being treated in a fair way. The UNFCCC wants to keep all NGOs out of Bella Centre for Thursday and Friday, and after long negotiation it has been pushed to 300 tickets for NGOs. They are depriving our right to observe the historical moment which will determine our life in 2020, 2030 and 2050. They have silenced us in the Bella Centre by keeping us out. For the past week in Bella Centre, I felt that this is probably the only international event that I did not have to get information through media. We hope that the youth back at home can gain our insights from the youth’s prospective instead of the media alone, but now we can no longer do it.

To conclude, I strongly feel that we as NGOs and young people have been pushed around, and our voice to push for a fair, ambitious and legally-binding deal in COP15 has not been taken by the decision-makers. I admit that in the capitalist world, we cannot possibly have the same amount of power as the other stakeholders, such as the businesses, because we do not have the money and we cannot provide immediate interests and benefits for making relevant moves. But we will not give up. Our colleagues are still peacefully sitting in and waiting for a FAB (fair, ambitious and legally-binding) deal. It might take considerable amount of time. But we can be bothered to sit here all this time for the real deal, because we do not want to spend the rest of our life facing devastating consequences of climate change when it is too late to fix things.

Red Flag Up, off the peak of today's demonstration (by Yiting Wang)

Just follow my pictures of my day today. It was supposed to be the last day NG

Os can get into Bella Center. I was to enter around 1 o'clock to atten an side event on women as agent of change. I knew something would be going on outside Bella around noonish, somthing big and heavy. I went anyway, despite that my colleague who I was taking the secondary pass from, called me not to as she was almost pushed into the river outside the entrance in the demonstration crowd. Why not come? Despite the heavy snow, if the world is burning, I am burning with it.

At metro station, the sign said "demonstration is ongoing." The train did not stop at Bella Center anymore. I had to walk one more stop.

A Beijing based film producers was shooting a documentary about China's role in climate change. He was following two folks from the National Reform and Development Committee. He just included me all along in his filming asking me to talk about my state of mind--why I am here in Copenhagen, why I am going to the Bella Center knowing the fact there is a demonstration, etc.It was my first time jumble along in front a video camera. I spoke very fast, in bad English. I was cold and hungry.

NGOs outside Bella Center shot at the Middle East folks to go back home and quite oil. I don't know if they are the solution. But people were angry.

There was drumming behind the the politi cars, the whole road was blocked.

Standing quietly, cold and hungry, I waited outside the entrance for almost an hour. The police had not let single one NGO in. I was about to leave and the English film maker called me to wait for him for a few more filming and questions.

Meanwhile, I took pictures of a group of vegan/vegetarian advocates. They have been here everyday since the start of the conference, morning to evening. They handle out flax bags that say go veggie and videos of all sorts of celebrities talking about when they went veg-- and scientists like James Hanson on why.
Despite the TV screen, they are a quiet group, composing mostly of Asian women, sometimes dressed in animal customs. I decided to include them in my blog today, as in violence and chaos, they offered us peace and elevation.

Well I had to mention them.

This also spoke to me as my frustration of not being able to have much vegetarian meal choice during my days here has reached to a point of intolerance. Within Bella Center, the only veggie choice is salad (sometimes they provide cheese which I dont like) and ocasionally you have cold egg or humus sandwich. In Burger King, only one veggie burger with only veggie in it, no protein. In a Chinese restaurant takeout, they only have veggie fried spring roll as your veggie option. No protein. And I have not seen tofu anywhere. Yes cheese, but usually with meat. I am not a pure vegetarian; I eat fish. I'd have left with cheese and very expensive nuts here as my alternative. I was told you got understand this is northern Europe.

I am for one time, proud of where I am in the U.S., when we are provided with many vegetarian options (regardless the heavy marketing of soil products led by the soil plantation industry). Meanwhile meat consumption is soaring in China, reaching 53 gram per day in 2005. Yet it is small compared to 70-130 g/day in developed countries. But China is by far the largest meat producer in the world (China Daily). Folks at home are all rather concerned about me not eating meat rather than limited fish. I find it hard to prove to them my energetic and clear-head (or maybe despite my forgetfulness of personal belongings) spirit and healthy happy being.

The last battle of NGO

The 16^th. It was supposed to be the last day NGOs can get into Bella Center. Under what appeared to be the dead calm, a new round of demonstration and battle cry was undergoing.

I was able to get into Bella Center rather smoothly in the morning. It was much more organized and cleaned up. I was waiting for the broadcasting of the negotiation meeting in front of the monitor, but the “meeting is about to begin” sign had not been updated in an hour. I then decided to get out to record the final campaign of the China Youth Delegation.

I walked out of Bella Center, following a group of young people shouting “Reclaim the Power” and surrounded by cameras and journalists. Our campaign team was already broken up in the crowd and could not proceed.

We were supposed to have our “wish tree” campaign, inviting people to write up their climate wishes and put it up on the tree. Obviously, people can no longer be satisfied with this type of mild and even poetic way of expressing. The angry crowd converged in turbulent floods, their voices louder than the overhead helicopter: “reclaim the power”, “climate justice.” The three Deaths in blue, red and yellow were waving in freezing wind, coupled with the ever-heavier snow.

The crowd was marching toward the police; the anger seemed to be out of control. I found myself jammed in the middle while filming my surroundings. The crowd had come face to face with the police.

The police was pushing us backward, and yet I found no way to retreat. Someone shout “Don’t push anymore. We are going back!” Yet more people became even angrier, crying “You don’t have the right to do so!”, “This is the same for democracy.” I panicked, as 3 or 4 meters right behind me there was a pond. If the police was to push further, I was going to fall. Although I got used to the face-to-face jostle in the subway in Beijing during peak hours, I was rather fearful, not knowing if the out-of-control crowd would seduce any further moves from the police.

As I was afraid, the police started to spread paper. Some people fell. First aid folks appeared out of nowhere with water and cleaning spread. The white foam was running down from their eyes.

I was finally freed up. I retreated with people surrounding me along the bank of the pond. Most of the people were young and there were quite a few middle- and old-aged folks. Some started drumming and dancing. Some even put down a draft boat on the pond outside Bella Center, attempting to take over the center. Yet they were already in a dead lock by the police.

Smoke was coming out of two stacks in the far away place. The helicopter was hovering overhead. The police had started arresting people. Any spark could lead to the fire.

RECLAIM POWER.

If equipped with their own army, the crowd might have taken over Bella Center and stood in front of the defeated negotiators and heads of the states.

Wind storm had frozen me up. Bella Center no longer let in NGOs. I left the guard zone under the police’s instruction. I bought a hot chocolate, and walked to one more stop away from Bella Center. Police cars kept on driving toward there. One COP 15 bus drove by; it said on the bus:

RAISE YOUR VOICE.