John F. Kennedy once observed that “our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man.”

Kenneth Nana Amoateng
AYICC West African Coordinator
Abibimman Foundation
Ghana National Youth Coalition on Climate Change (GNYCCC)
Energy crossroads-Ghana
GCAP/MDGs-Ghana
Torch-Ghana
IDAY-GHANA
P.O.BOX BT 1 Tema
Flat 1/A 74 Site 3
(OPP T.DC),Commmunit 1
Tema-Ghana/African
E-Mail: amoatengken@yahoo.com
Tel# 233-22-213918
Mob# 2332-244023651
skype:kenneth.nana.amoateng
I’m on assignment to my generation.

A belated very great thank you for your personal stories from my ” old” town of Copenhagen.
It’s all been said before me,the personal stories are he most powerful.
I have two, almost full, buckets by my side.
Still…here’s to the future.
A Transition future…with joy guides by our side
Danielle

Thanks Ben!

I had a go at summarising COP15 that turned into a rant about the infinite-growth-on-a-finite-planet paradigm – it’s at:

http://www.geologywales.co.uk/storms/copenhagen.htm

Until we collectively accept the finite nature of natural resources we are going to struggle with such conferences.

Cheers – John

Yesterday I and two colleagues (from OneWorld UK) were excluded from the Bella Centre as the NGO numbers there were slashed, so we made our way to the KlimaForum to continue our ‘broadcast from a suitcase’. If only I’d had time to find you Ben, we could have beamed your thoughts around the world live. We witnesses the most moving moments of the fortnight at the Candlelit Vigil in the adjacent ØKSNEHALLEN where Bill McKibben, reps from the gloriously energetic Youth Climate Movement and one of the Climate fasters spoke movingly and we all sang in unison (footage to follow). The contrast with the Bella Centre was deep, but there were moments at the heart of the talks where civil society made its voice heard loud and clear to the mass of well-heeled delegates, notably the sit-in in the foyer by Friends of the Earth when they were unexpectedly excluded on Wednesday, the walk-out by Indigenous Rights Group http://bit.ly/6zhprf on the same day and the sit-in by the Youth Climate Movement http://bit.ly/8jXJ46. We interviewed Andy Atkins about the exclusion in the foyer & he reflected some of the anger surrounding the heavy handed approach of the Danish police, as did Naomi Klein in her Guardian piece ‘Copenhagen’s policing by design’ http://bit.ly/8dSA7P and Temujen Gunawardena on the Reclaim Power party at Christiania http://bit.ly/4KhtKJ

The organisation of the conference has in many ways been poor, with people who travelled from around the world suddenly excluded – yesterday the thriving NGO hall from where we broadcast was like a ghost village and the queues have at times been ludicrous http://bit.ly/86Gv1i. Keeping us in good spirits were the Avaaz team (mostly excluded on Wednesday also!) with their ‘Fossil of the Day’ awards, which we film & show each day. We are gradually uploading all the key interviews on the OneWorld TV slot of YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/oneworldtv where you can find fantastic interviews with President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives – http://bit.ly/5zhZDi (what an incredible speaker!), Andy Atkins http://bit.ly/6PHlD5, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! http://bit.ly/5xJdoi, Taukiei Kitala from Official Tuvulu Delegation – http://bit.ly/5LFXL9, Christina Ora, a youth delegate from the Solomon Islands – http://bit.ly/5Wc5BN & even our very own ‘Lord Tosser’ – http://bit.ly/79o6Rp ….., plus snippets such as Sarkozy and Merkel arriving – http://bit.ly/6sIgnX, an exclusive chat with Yvo yesterday http://bit.ly/5bcUQx and John Prescott’s views (I chatted with him about our shared hometown of Rotherham before his appearance on the Stupid Show) here – http://bit.ly/5ilZaG.

We have been broadcasting daily since the start of the talks, from 2pm – 7.30pm each day, then facilitating the Stupid Show from 8pm til 9pm, and consequently are all pretty exhausted, plus infected by the ‘Cop Cough’ but it has been exhilerating and fascinating too. The two-suitcase broadcast from a reclaimed trolley camping just inside the entrance can be seen here – http://twitpic.com/t6ncu (my ’station’ on the right) & here – http://twitpic.com/t1rbr, more pics on http://twitpic.com/photos/OneClimate & http://twitpic.com/photos/KatyDuke. We are still broadcasting live on http://www.oneclimate.net, so catch the final throes as optimism swings to pessimism & back again…….

We do need as many reasons as possible why we want transition and having global stories of how climate change is hitting countries in the frontline is useful. Now I don’t mean this in some hard hearted and rationalist way (these stories make me deeply shameful of our wasteful society)but it is we in the west that must change and any convincing argument in favour of this must be pounced upon.

That gave a great insight into Copenhagen and has brought a few tears to my eyes! Following on from Steph’s post, perhaps it is time to tell it like it is, a new title in the transition series, of personal accounts of how cc is affecting peoples lives. I know the whole marketing side of tt is to give people inspiring ideas and hope, but its only when i read real stories like those above that i can properly appreciate the luxury i live in, and the expense to other communities caused by my lifestyle.

thanks again for being there and telling me about it

chris (formerly transition town exmouth)

I know this worldview transition is troublesome, and its my hope is that the UK centered Transition Movement gets beyond the festish of a porochial localism and embraces a global democracy with a world social economy program.

the real Transition Movement is the Via Campesina and Friends of the Earth alliance.. that alliance has over a hundred million members

the real Transition Movement *based in the Global South* have a political program, its explicitly anti-capitalist and socialist.. they resist through real struggle the neo-liberal program so that they can create resilience

they dont leave politicians alone, they directly confront them

my focus on Permaculture TV has been to focus on the real Transition Movement, and pioneers of permaculture in the global south..

although affluent middle class Northeners flocked to the Transition Towns session, I didnt see many from the global south

if Transition Towns Totnes can evolve to function in the real, majority world such as Africa or the South Bronx, then it has the right to call itself the Transition Movement

cheers