Sunday, January 10, 2016

Sayra Flores writes



THE LAST TIME

Right now, I feel like this might be the last time,
The last time I can stand and speak out over through
Raising my hand for the dream of Liberty, my mouth open

Did you see the French police pick them up and carry them out

Out of Cop 21 UN Climate Talks because they held a camera?

Four police carried one who said, “I'm just here trying to learn”

One who came to find out about climate change, about what he could do,

And he was carried out by force, like a flying angel, bound and held

AND REMOVED. 

A French journalist, on the inside of this expo where the largest number
of world leaders gathered that have ever met up at one place at one time,

said, “I haven't seen this in my life, this suppression of liberties.
A voice of dissent is raised, and They stop him from speaking”!

The Indians, the natives, the indigenous are outside, not allowed in,
They are on kayaks in the river, gathering, speaking out, holding signs,
But the negotiations are inside, behind closed doors, too complicated for us
On the inside----a commercial fair, a corporate expo, Engie and Coca-Cola
Are not interested in opening up your mind, in solutions for our world
Smooth and slick and quiet, now the police hold up wall panels to block
journalists and visitors from taking pictures, Don't see, don't hear, don't ask!

This is why I say thanks for letting me speak because it can happen
so quickly, that this may be my last opportunity to question, to reach out
For the solution that ALL inhabitants of this world wait for at the edge,
Right at the curb before a step into the street where we may never cross.
 Climate change protests

1 comment:

  1. COP 21 (the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Paris from 30 November to 12 December 2015, two weeks after a series of terrorist attacks in central Paris. The conference was attended by representatives from 194 countries -- including 147 heads of state or heads of government, making it the biggest gathering of world leaders outside the UN -- plus around 50,000 others including bureaucrats, non-governmental organization (NGO) workers, activists, and journalists. Security was tightened accordingly, with 30,000 police officers and 285 security checkpoints deployed across France. It was the 21st annual session of the COP and resulted in the Paris Agreement, the first binding, universal declaration on climate goals. Each ratifying country is required to set a target for reducing carbon emission, but the amount is voluntary, and there is no mechanism to force any country to set a target by a specific date and no enforcement measure if the target is not met. Around the world, 600,000 people took part in demonstrations in favor of a strong agreement. In the wake of the earlier terrorist attacks Paris had banned all public gatherings but allowed thousands to demonstrate on 12 December, and many illegal protests were also held, demonstrations in Paris, including a violent clash on 29 November. The NGO Avaaz called for pairs of shoes to be displayed at the place de la Republique as part of a symbolic peaceful rally on behalf of silenced protesters. Avaaz was founded in 2007 (by Res Publica and MoveOn.org, an American non-profit progressive public policy advocacy group, to promotes activism on climate change, human and animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. The organization operates in 15 languages and claims over forty million members in 194 countries, and "The Guardian" newspaper in the United Kingdom called it "the globe's largest and most powerful online activist network."

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