Brazilian fractals

by Maria Alejandra Escalante “I also take it as granted that every created thing, and consequently the created monad also, is subject to change, and indeed that this change is continual in each one. Gottfried Leibniz    Listening to political conversations about the past, the present and the future of Rio+20 has been a daily ingredient of my life since I first jumped into the...

Reactions to the People’s Summit

  By Anna Odell  After my first week in Rio, which I spent almost entirely cooped up in buildings, I was ready for a change of scenery. After spending just three days at the PrepComm in Riocentro with UN delegates and negotiators made me crave the sunlight and some fresh air. I was looking forward to feeling some sand beneath my toes and to finding some inspiration at People’s...

If I were a delegate….

by Maria Alejandra Escalante If I were a delegate at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, I would not be the kind of delegate I saw at the negotiations on Sustainable Consumption and Production, Water and Climate Change during Prepcom III. I would not be like them because they induce morbidity, disengagement, lethargy and utter silence. A silence that betrays the people these delegates...

¿Qué hace Colombia en Rio+20?: intenta producir un resultado tangible

by Maria Alejandra Escalante No recuerdo la última vez que Colombia, como delegación representativa, tuvo un papel significativo en algún encuentro de negociaciones intergubernamentales en la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU). Colombia, país denominado como en `vía de desarrollo` (en muchos aspectos un término cierto dadas las condiciones de vida de la mayoría de la población),...

Tweeting, Blogging, Shouting, Learning

By Mariana Calderon Recently, in an online conversation about expectations for Rio+20, and the point of it all, Nathan Thanki was informed that “nothing of any worth” would happen at the conference in June. Entirety of the conversation, arguments and responses aside, I was struck by a simple truth in Nathan’s reply: “We’re students, and so place value in learning.” We are students....