Filed under: Deep Green, Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values, Life at work, Philippines | Tags: birthday, Direct Action, Earth Day 2010, greenpeacebuzz, love
Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.
22 April 2010: Earth Day
It is almost midnight.
Earth Day is only minutes away from being over. Another day, has passed and like in so many things that are subject to time, this day now becomes part of my memories and are now recorded as a chapter in my life.
I am more than glad that this remembrance of Earth Day was done with the celebration of the life of a dear person with whom I count myself fortunate to have as a friend .
Perhaps it is safe to say that in as far as speaking about Earth Day and the need to uphold the urgent struggle of safeguarding the environment, the celebration of Earth Day and the work for those in the environmental movement must always be reflected in the context of love for life –and I am not talking here about token sentimentally about Mother Nature, nor am I simply being a bleeding heart for the cute and cuddly animals, nor am I romanticizing my love for the outdoors –far from it!
While it is true that the aforementioned things are part of the things that bear weight in my decision to commit myself to my work with Greenpeace, a larger part of me recognizes the resolute urgency of taking action for the environment lies in the love that can be found in life that is shared in relationships –relationships that can be found in that of parents, grandparents, children, siblings, relatives friends, comrades, kindred spirits and lovers.
Filed under: Defending our Oceans, Greenpeace Core Values | Tags: human rights, japan, Junichi, tokyo 2, Toru, Whaling
An update from Sarah Burton, Deputy Program Director currently in Aomori, Japan on the first day of the trial.
It was Valentine’s night, and sure there was candle-light but it wasn’t a cozy tete-a-tete. Far from it. There was a bitingly cold wind as we stood vigil holding candles which read “ Justice” while we stood by an ice-sculpture in a square in the Japanese town of Aomori on the eve of the start of the trial of Junichi and Toru.
Filed under: Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values, Life at work, Philippines | Tags: Activism, Cancer Warriors Foundation, Facebook, greenpeacebuzz, Step Juan, Tomas Leonor, volunteerism
The 7x9 feet three panel mural painted by the University of the Philippines Artists’ Circle Fraternity to commemorate the 20th anniversary of SV Rainbow Warrior’s bombing.
To the dismay of my colleagues here in the Philippine office I am licensed to surf the web and even log on to this pesky website called Facebook –and come to think of it is indeed really interesting what you can find over there, as a few minutes ago I was able to come across Greenpeace International’s profile picture on their page and seeing it again (although technically I see it everyday as it is one of the first things that will always greet me as I enter the office) reminded me of the my first assignments when I started to become a part of Greenpeace, fulltime, not to mention one of the first people that I’ve been glad to call a comrade in the cause who is none other than —Tomas Leonor.
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Filed under: Defending our Oceans, Greenpeace Core Values, Stop climate change, Volunteers | Tags: Activism, c2c, Copenhagen, non-violence, Red Carpet 4, Sea Shepherd, Whaling
Coverage in Spain and European free dailies continued yesterday on the campaign to release the four red-carpet activists in Copenhagen. Spanish news documented the condition of Juan Lopez de Uralde in prison as “thinner than usual”, with a quote from Kumi Naidoo referring to conditions as “harsh and disproportionate”. Reports described a cell with only a mattress and security camera.
Filed under: Demand Peace and Disarmament, End the nuclear age, Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values, Life at work | Tags: Amchtka, Greenpeace Canada, History, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell
From Making Waves
Amchitka is the rock concert that launched Greenpeace. It’s also the concert that launched a ship: the Phyllis McCormack, which sailed out into the first Greenpeace action protesting US nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands.
Filed under: Greenpeace Core Values | Tags: Canada, peace, Tarsands, The Dalai Lama
From Making Waves
This week, the Dalai Lama visited Calgary, Alberta, Canada and spoke about the problems the world is facing today. Thousands gathered to hear the spiritual leader’s compassionate message and opinion about issues such as military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“The destruction of your neighbour is destruction of yourself,” he said. “The concept of war is out of date.”
While on the topic of destruction, when asked about Alberta’s oilsands, the spiritual leader said, in a choice between “destruction of environment or losing money, then we have to choose losing money.”
His words of wisdom ring so true.
Filed under: Greenpeace Core Values, Stop climate change | Tags: Climate Change, Gandhi, India, non-violence, peace
From Making Waves
One of our Communications Managers, Prajna Khanna, writes:
With the simple act of making salt, Gandhi concluded one of the most successful Non violent protests in History – the Salt march. He mobilised millions with his vision of a free state, symbolized by the freedom to make salt – the essence of Indian food. The United Nations marks the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth today as International day of Non Violence. And Greenpeace marks it with 22 activists in Svalbard – near the top of the world — by blocking a shipment of coal..
Gandhi’s non-violent protests were part of the struggle to gain India its independence from foreign rule. Greenpeace’s vision is for the future of the Earth. I grew up to the sounds of “vaishove janto” (Gandhi’s favourite hymn) with a Gandhian scholar as a mother and a grandfather who lived and breathed the principles of the Mahatma in every aspect of his life. My natural instinct was to steer far away from any means of livelihood that would have a mention of Gandhi or Nonviolence.
Filed under: Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values, Life at work | Tags: Greenpeace History, Rex Weyler, Tar Sands
From Making Waves
Rex Weyler is a big picture guy. He was an ecologist back in the 70s when he hooked up with the rag-tag bunch of hippies that was Greenpeace then, and he’s an ecologist still. He’s a believer in the mind bomb — those events and messages that get you right between the eyes and wake you up to a whole new way of thinking. And right now, he’s walking around with a big-picture message about ecology that nobody wants to hear, but somebody has to say: global warming is just a symptom, a warning sign, the blinking dashboard light that indicates we’ve overshot the carrying capacity of our planet.
Rex has been over here in Amsterdam for the last few days, and I’ve been lucky enough to hear him speak twice now. He’s one of the greatest story tellers in an organization full of great story tellers, and a wealth of institutional history and perspective. I managed to capture his speech to our staff meeting on Friday on my iPhone and cut it into two videos.
Filed under: Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values | Tags: Cory Aquino, Edsa People Power, greenpeacebuzz, nonviolence, PBA09p6qr521, Philippines, President Corazon Aquino
President Corazon Aquino (image from fjsanchez.wordpress.com)
I was planning to write this at the time when I first heard that President Corazon (or President ‘Cory’ for most of us) Aquino has passed away. But it seems that words to express my sentiments are somehow hard to come by…
…By this time countless articles, blog posts, documentaries and other likewise tributes that are far better than this post have been published, exhibited, broadcasted and put up online.
However I think for the most part as part of an organization that upholds nonviolence as a philosophy and strategy for environmental and social change, President Cory in a way stands hand-in-hand with the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King as a stalwart for the application of the principle of non-violent direct action here in the Philippines especially in her pivotal role in the peaceful uprising that has become known in history as the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.
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Filed under: Greenpeace, Greenpeace Core Values, Life at work | Tags: Activism, Cyberactivism, greenpeacebuzz, new media, Online activism, PBA093qrnnp4, Philippines
Whether you're a lover or a fighter, a computer geek or an artist - we need you! Just like hundreds of people before you, your actions will make a difference.
For the past two days I’ve spent most of my time here in Jakarta talking about my work, and as I prepared to do the training module for New Media that we usually give to new Greenpeace staff I decided to write it down in the form of a letter which I thought would also be cool if it is published in this blog as a handy reference to people who are interested with how Greenpeace work online.
So here it goes…
Greenpeace Southeast Asia 