Why are the negotiations like dancing the cha-cha?
Posted on 10. Jun, 2009 by deepagupta in Adopt a Negotiator, Anecdote, Delegation meeting
You take one step forward and one step back, and although you feel that there is a lot of movement you haven’t really gone anywhere.
In the past few days I’ve spoken to many delegates. From Thailand, Swaziland, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Zambia and the list goes on. And as I ask them about how they feel the negotiations are going, they all sigh and shake their head. Frustration is in the air as we hit midway of the second week.
The negotiations aren’t moving forward. People are feeling irritated. And I too am questioning what I am doing here.
Delegates, especially from the developing nations are once again feeling fed up with the continual talking, and insertion of more meetings. The Philippines delegate recently mentioned that despite her being away for a couple of years, the countries were discussing the same things. Every day people rush around, are running late and are stressed out. And as the negotiations “ramp up” more media arrives every day, reporting on the movement and noise as nothing moves forward.
Did you know they’ve inserted yet another two meetings in Bonn and Barcelona before Copenhagen?
I sometimes wonder if we’ll ever get to the deal we need. Most delegates tell me not to expect the “perfect” treaty. Which is the nice way of saying don’t expect it to be strong. However do say that they feel we will strengthen it after the Copenhagen treaty will be signed.
I guess what this is teaching me is at the end of the day, we need to pressure our governments and decision makers on the ground back in our Capitals. We need to push our movements and prove that the public, their constituencies, care about the issue. It is also teaching me not to rely on our governments, and to be ready to accept that they may come out with a crap deal and we’ll have to “stuff” them and create the world that we want to anyway.
We need to be the change to create the change.