Archive for the 'Global Solidarity' Category

Lights Out for One Hour Tonight

March 29, 2008

Tonight, from 8:00 to 9:00, lights will go out in many places in the Philippines. It is our participation in Earth Hour, a global event that seeks to create awareness on climate change.
I copied this backgrounder from the WWF Earth Hour site:
“On March 31 2007, for one hour, Sydney made a powerful statement about the [...]

Learning about Superman in Lao PDR

February 26, 2008

Last night, I attended the opening of the Lao-German House where the offices of all the German agencies working in Lao PDR will relocate. Appropriately there were two buffets - one with German sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad and salted bread, and one with Laotian dishes, including a lot of sticky rice. I went to the Laotian buffet, and [...]

Waking up with Sao Paolo

January 25, 2008

On this last day in Sao Paolo, I decided to take an early breakfast and walk slowly through the city. One of my favorite activities when in a foreign city, if circumstances allow it, is to “get lost” walking through its streets and alleys.
You get a different view and feel of a place if you [...]

GCE in Motion

January 24, 2008

Yanti Muchtar of E-net for Justice (Indonesia) has kindly offered me her laptop. “Do you want to check your e-mail?” she asked. Of course I grabbed at the chance, and also post another blog.
We are in the final day of the GCE World Assembly, and the morning session is placing quite a demand on the [...]

Thinking of Einstein in Sao Paolo

January 24, 2008

Up to yesterday, my body clock has not adjusted to the 10-hour difference between Sao Paolo and Quezon City. I woke up every hour, and after 5 am, couldn´t go back to sleep. I decided I might as well do some kalimasada. Last night, I went up to my room to wash up before going [...]

Reunions in Sao Paolo

January 23, 2008

The KLM flight from Amsterdam was delayed for an hour, but we landed safely in Sao Paolo. The immigration lines were very long, however, and that meant another hour of waiting. But once through, our luggage were waiting, and the Brazilian hosts of the GCE World Assembly efficiently brought us to the Novotel. A quick [...]

Sao Paolo Revisited

January 20, 2008

This is a short post before flying off to Sao Paolo, Brazil tomorrow. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is holding its World Assembly, and I am a delegate, representing E-net which is the member network from the Philippines.
For a while I was ambivalent about going. It must be a sign of getting older. Instead [...]

Campaigning Inside and Outside

December 10, 2007

At the Asia-Pacific conference of GCE members in Phnom Penh, the speeches of Kailash Satyarthi the president of GCE offered useful perspectives on advocacy work by civil society organizations or CSOs.
In 1990 at Jomtien, Thailand, where the first Declaration on Education for All, or EFA, was signed by governments, he said that there was no [...]

100 voices against poverty

October 17, 2007

I ran to the PAL check-in counter 40 minutes before flight time. Too late, I was told. The counter closed at 45 minutes before; the flight is overbooked. Some conference is happening in Cebu. The next two flights were also fully booked.
What about the wait list? I was told I could take a chance as [...]

Between honesty and hope

October 10, 2007

Today Bong Mendoza sent me an article about Burma written by Cynthia Boaz. The title is the main message: Resistance, not repression, is the real story from Burma.
Bong and I were invited early this year to a conference in Oxford about “people power.” Unfortunately, I didn’t make it; there was not enough time to get [...]