Missing your delegation? There are others around!

Posted on 06. Oct, 2010 by estrelitadelmar in russia

This is not a serious post.

This is to second my Indian colleague and also to dedicate this text to my other colleague of Italian origin.

So…

“Dearest Andrea,

– this is a belated birthday gift for you: today I write about the Italian delegation.

You may ask me why… and I will have to tell you that this is because today is the day when other delegations appealed to me. Literally! And it just so happens that the Italians have managed (well, let’s be honest – they always do, somehow) to reach out to me most of all.

I confess: I had lunch with them today.

And yes, I know: I said I would have lunch with the Russian delegation.

But believe me – this does not make me a liar… or, worse, a betrayer.

Seriously, it just so happened: they liked my flowery suit that – yes, I will confess this one as well – was covering my Tracker T-Shirt specifically for the purpose not to raise some questioning eyebrows of the delegation, albeit the Russian one.

But, again, believe me – I tried my best: I tweeted, updated Skype and now am blogging about you not being there, but the Italians (being definitely there a prolonged time and) having lunch (well, with me).

So in a sense I am trying to make up for the above by blogging tonight for you; it might save you tonight’s worth of work…

I am deeply sorry.

With my highest regard, sincerely yours, etc etc”.

So, what did I talk about with the Italians?

We discussed this morning’s (somewhat tedious) AWG-KP session, various delegations and their delegates, where best to dine Italian Pizza in Moscow, what Nepal sweets are available in the Arancina cafe in Notting Hill near Portobello Road, where in Tianjin the coffee is least horrid (never mind the over-expensive price) and finally even how to use proxy websites to avoid the Great Chinese (Fire-)Wall for using Facebook, for example. And the head of Italian delegation promised to post an update (“See, dearest Andrea, he’s being so nice – he will also post for you!”). We ate together all courses, and thus sat for quite a while, or two…

But to be honest – again – today I’ve met not just the Italian delegation…

In the above morning’s meeting I had plenty of time to assess the unusual appearance of a somewhat elderly (and that’s by comparison to other’s) representative of Lichtenstein, next to an almost-teenage-looking Japanese representative (how did he get in, being that young?).

Stumbling out of another (closed) meeting, a Paraguay delegate suddenly stopped and spoke up to me: “May I tell you something? You’ve got beautiful, beautiful, beau-ti-ful eyes!” (mind you, I’m quoting!) And he was gone, with laughter.

I’ve seen the Austrians discuss their reception party (as EU officially hosts a reception tonight for delegation members) in the ladies’ room…

So yeah, I suppose I enjoy my participation here. It doesn’t matter if your ID colour is red or not; at the end of the day we are all just human – remember that.

P.s. And just to make it related to the reason of me being at UN FCCC in Tianjin:

Russia has been represented in this morning’s session of AWG-KP by M. Gitarsky and in AWG-LCA by O. Shamanov (but more on this in the next one). The trouble is – you never really see them anywhere; while Gitarsky estimated last night 8 people of the delegation, the UN FCCC protocol officially lists 6 attendees, and Shamanov later today in the Agenda 3 meeting stated it’s actually 4. I personally – in that meeting – have counted 3…

Whichever way, I did not get my promised lunch (see above & previous post). Nor do I – still – know the exact number.

However, I have – when no longer being able to wait as the evening session was getting late – blocked Mr. Gitarsky’s way for an inquiry of meeting. Guess what? Half an hour later we went out to old town for a tet-a-tet dinner… to discuss Russia’s AWG-KP agenda!

P.p.s. Sadly, I did not (yet?) meet any of the Chinese delegation.

But I have met some Chinese men, first thing at both breakfast AND lunch, who make a living off their NGO activities as renewable energy IT and laws coordination between China and USA, or China and UK… I even mentioned my astonishment in twitter. How was I to know that within minutes I would get about a third of my existing followers (or half? still counting…) from the green energy production field?..

Tags: Adopt a Negotiator, Tianjin, UNFCCC