COP15… you know other meetings have failed. Many meetings end up only with a weak unbinding declaration. What i did experience at COP15 was something else… there is something more than that happening… if you are like me and questioning the effectiveness of global governance mechanisms, the documentary trailer below may interest you immensely.
Konichiwa!
Nee-ha!
San-baino!
Privet!
Salaam Allay-coom!
Guten Tag!
Hello!
In Kyoto on Friday, i got to meet the real deal…a real silk road merchant. Enter stage left, Mr Yamaguchi aged 103. He is the best silk kimono and obi maker in Japan… did i mention he was 103! Born in 1904, there is no cuppa deep enough to hear all he has seen and experienced. My friend Andreina and i got to spend a whole hour with the old champion.
Over a cup of fine green tea, he layed out his exquisite silk wears (like a true textile maker) and nimbly got up to show us around his workshop, his kimono reference books, postcards, and his photo with Lady Di and Prince Chuck. As it turns out, the old gentleman and his wife had travelled quite a lot of the silk road, including a hair-raising bus ride from Islamabad to Kabul in the 1970’s!
Upon asking the secret of his long and healthy life, he told us, home grown food and a religious belief. So there you have it: eat well and believe in something great. I would also presume being surrounded by family and being engaged physically and mentally helped. Here he is today still working his loom, a skill handed down when he was 12.
Well, all this old age stuff has made me start thinking about whether i would make it that far. My bodhisattvas, what will life be like in 2079?? Have you actually thought about it and whether you would make it to be a Yamaguchi??
I guess the biggest thing that comes to mind is the weather, and this crazy higgledy piggledy global warming, that is today, fast changing the world as we know it. Its all so crazy and confusing. I feel quite lost, apathetic and disempowered about what I am suppose to be doing.
To find a handbar, I recently read a little book called “The Global Warming survival handbook”. It was a good read and helped me find a roadmap. Its for this reason, and I have decided to adopt 5 of their achievable pledges. I’m going to call them my “Yamaguchi pledge”.
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1. Adopting a glacier . I am now adopting the Akkem glacier at the base of Mt Beluka in Russia. I will regularly monitor and try to publish its recession or progression to document & track the real effects of the global warming.
2 Saying no to disposable cups, plastic bags and water bottles – i now carry with me a travel mug, a cloth bag and a water bottle to reduce my landfill and carbon footprint
3. Having a 5 minute shower (its going to be hard but i am going to turn off the water when i wash and condition my hair, soap up and brush my teeth for that matter)
4.Putting on a sweater on when its cold or turning the air conditioning down 2 degrees… not a hard one but saves a heap of electricity and $.
5. Walk, ride my bike or catch local transport everywhere (it worked for thousands of miles across the silk road so why not now, besides this it will help me stay fitter and nimbler when I’m a Yamaguchi)
Its the first step for me, a public one to say the least but i have to do something. My apathy towards the future of this beautiful world of ours is disgusting, and i cannot live with it any longer. I can only hope my Yamaguchi pledge resonates with you. Please have a green tea with me at 103!!
To find your own Yamaguchi pledge, click here
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| By N2H | |||||||