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September 20, 2005
A feeling of hope!
Well, itÂ’s Monday morning 19th September and here I am sitting in a press conference in Arabic in Beirut's marina. Not your average Monday morning for a small town British girl and mostly European crew.
My Arabic is unfortunately non existent, but I picked up the odd word like "Kyoto", climate change" etc etc
Besides, it was an eventful press conference with a minor microphone catastrophe (it worked again once we used the solar panels instead of mains, hmmm, the moral of the story is clear) a class load of high school students arriving to see the exhibition and a few moments where I thought the wind would completely sweep the tent away!
After the event, I asked Wael our energetic energy campaigner in Lebanon for an update. It seems we have a campaign victory here.
On the panel were Dr Anhar Hijazi, the director of sustainable development at ESCWA (a regional UN body-www.escwa.org.lb); Mr Wahid El Baba, the president of the Lebanese Solar Energy Society and Mr Ahmad Reslan, representative of the Ministry of Energy and water resources. However Dr Berj Hatjian, Director General of the Ministry of Environment, was maybe the most significant guest for Greenpeace. Greenpeace normally comes up against Dr Hatjian in a different relationship and it was very unusual for the team to sit down and discuss how they can work together on renewable energy. He brought with him an entourage of energy consultants who were all jumping up and down out of their chairs adding bits enthusiastically.
And here comes the victory bit....
Dr Hijazi announced, right there in front of all the media cameras, that renewable energy will be included in the new energy law. Hooray!
This is a really significant step for Lebanon and Greenpeace have agreed on further follow up meetings to move this forward. Dr Hatjian was concerned that it was bad for Greenpeace to be sitting here with him, but wael was quick to point out that we were happy to start out on a positive note - but we wont be sitting back with our feet up if they do not deliver on their promises! Dr Hatjian - you have been warned!!
The really positive and progressive feeling at the press conference was interrupted only by the wailing of many police sirens and news of another bomb in the city. A harsh reminder of some of the realities here. I think though the overall the feeling I will carry with me from Beirut is a feeling of hope for the future and a sense of new beginnings. That, and a few extra kilos due to all the excessive eating I seem to have done.
For the crew and boat life on the Anna, Heiner our skipper and his partner Christiane left yesterday for a well-deserved rest, Daniel the new captain arrived. Leo is ill but recovering and tomorrow we move on again.
Donna Mattfield
Posted by Hussein at September 20, 2005 12:52 PM