“World on Fire”
Sunday 2 Dec 2007
by Razceljan SG-Philippines
6:25 A.M. – it’s when my alarm clock rings each morning. It’s the usual time my roommate, Chris Miller of Greenpeace USA, also wakes up and do the morning rituals.
After breakfast, we took the bus to the Bali International Convention Center for the registration. I got the same I.D. photo I’ve had two years ago – the only difference is my new curly hair. The GP volunteers came as well ready to install the giant surprise for the opening of the UN conference the tomorrow. We were about to leave for Kuta Beach when an unexpected hindrance spoiled the plan for installation. The artists assigned to install the giant object were not allowed to go inside the conference center because they were not registered, so a decision was made – a selection of registered participant will do the installation. It included Augustin (SG-France), Christian, Agnes, Agus, Mala, and myself.
Photograph by Woon Pattamon Rungchavalnont
Right outside the fence were the Indonesian artists who coached us how to install the world’s biggest thermometer as I’ve known so far in history. We placed the effigy of the planet Earth right in front of the flagpoles fronting the conference center. After installing the scaffoldings beside the globe, we started to work on putting on top the thermometer with no progress. We just have to ask the expert to do it. So Christian asked the UN Security personnel to allow one of the artists to help us, which resulted well. I entered the inside of the globe to fix the connecting poles. On the other hand, Agnes was trying to engage with the photojournalists to somehow keep the surprise a little more for the BIG surprise the next day. But still, there were a number of the paparazzi zooming in from afar with their extended camera eye.
Our shadows were right under us when we finally installed the thermometer right on top of the globe and covered it with black cloth, but we were asked to move it a little bit on the side for it not steal the scene in the area – it would undeniably become an icon for the rest of the period.
Photograph by Razcel Jan Luiz Salvarita
I joined the Indonesian team back to Kuta Beach where the Solar Festival was ‘getting hotter’ as sundry of bands from reggae to ska, to punk rock, to discoteque set the mood of the celebration. The bands helped promote the campaign for a clean energy future and for Kyoto to “just do it!”
We all went home with bits of sand sticking on our legs; our skin in darker shade; our sea-sprayed shirts; and our tired physical being, yet with untiring spirit to make our presence felt in the crucial period of the Kyoto negotiation.
The day caught me in Sarah Mclachlan’s song “World on Fire”:
We part the veil on our killer sun
Stray from the straight line on this short run
The more we take, the less we become
The fortune of one that means less for some