[Urbanstudy] Conspiracy Theories, Linguistic Politics & Tech Inefficiency Hijacked Day 3 @Climate Talks

[Kabir Khan]

Conspiracy Theories, Linguistic Politics & Tech Inefficiency Hijacked Day 3
@Climate Talks
<http://whatswiththeclimate.org/2014/12/05/conspiracy-theories-linguistic-politics-tech-inefficiency-hijacked-day-3-climate-talks/>


*Dispatches from COP 20, Lima.*

Another day passed at COP 20 Lima, is the best expression to inform the
readers about what happened on the last day (3rd December). Science is
recommending urgent action, but there seems to be no urgency in the talks.
The negotiations are taking place in English, better say “English with
overflowing jargons” which is not the first language of most of the
delegates present. As a result clarity is sought on almost every phrase
mentioned in the text. All this is justified and helps in democratizing the
process, but it is a painfully slow process and progress is being made at
snail’s pace. I’m following the discussion on the draft decision text
<http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2014/adp2/eng/12drafttext.pdf> of
“Advancing the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP)”. Last day in the
session dedicated to ADP, countries had cat fights in very diplomatic still
unkind language.

To fasten the conversation on ADP, Co-chair of the session, Kishan Kumar
Singh, proposed to start with general reflection of countries that are
called parties on draft text
<http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2014/adp2/eng/12drafttext.pdf>. Their
thoughts in the form of interventions can be gathered at the same time
through email and placed on website for everyone to access. The chair with
the support of secretariat can later incorporate those inputs, synthesize
and place it on wider screen for longer detailed discussions. This was
considered undemocratic by many countries. Nigerian delegate with “newest
version of Apple Laptop” on his table registered his protest against the
proposition in high pitch, by saying that he and others are not very
tech-friendly, and will prefer the text on the bigger screen to begin with.
To me, that act seem to be nothing more than a delaying tactic as they can
see the draft text on their laptop screen and avail the interventions  from
the UNFCCC website <http://www.unfccc.int/>, and reserve and share their
thoughts by notifying the chair. Too much to ask for from those who own Mac
devises?!

(Continued here...)
<http://whatswiththeclimate.org/2014/12/05/conspiracy-theories-linguistic-politics-tech-inefficiency-hijacked-day-3-climate-talks/>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Regards

कबीर/کبیر

Phone:00-91-96-63-427-315
Email: kabir.postbox at gmail.com
Follow me on:
Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/KaafirMasiha>, blog
<http://maleccha.wordpress.com/> & Twitter <https://twitter.com/Maleccha>
http://www.hasirudala.in
==============================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup_mail.sarai.net/attachments/20141205/40c8ce33/attachment.html>