Friday, April 08, 2011

THE LONGEST DAY

How long does it take to draft an agenda?

5 minutes like in the YS days when agendas were plucked off the air?

An hour maybe after going over the minutes of the previous meeting like what we do in KOOL NE and KKPMPC and what not?

Longer, like a week perhaps, including the prescribed duration of sending out notices for more stiff meetings?

For the 192 parties of the UNFCCC, it may take more than that. Like maybe the whole session of the AWG-LCA opening plenary.

Which spilled over the next day after the eruption of clashing opinions adjourned the plenary. And then the next day and day after that next day and so on for the whole 5 days. Suddenly, negotiators were caught in an unexpected downpour of free time and a whirlwind of almost nothing to do.


For his seemingly inept faculties in preventing such acrimonious and drawn-out agenda building process, I award the AWG-LCA chair a plate of Hotel De' Moc 's bland lunch pasta.


On the other hand, I give a plate of sweet Asian breakfast noodles to the distinguished lady from Venezuela whose interventions I await like an onion crop waiting for a good price in my province of Nueva Ecija, and whose fire and brimstone tirades at you-know-who provided much needed relief to an otherwise frustrating exercise of diplomatic tact and niceties.


There will be no noodles though for ECO who published rumors (in their own words) about the Philippines being a blocker in the agenda drafting process when it was in fact merely raising a legitimate procedural question. Who told them that anyway?

FOOTNOTE: That's me in the top photo listening to UNFCCC Negotiations 101 from veteran diplomat and legendary Philippines negotiator Bernarditas Mueller (left) during the Thai Royal Government's reception ceremonies for the delegates to the Bangkok Climate Talks. Photo taken by Usec Fred Serrano, processing by me.

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