If we only have love ... Skielik is jy vry

The COP17 CHALLENGE…

On the 28th of November 2011 leaders, activists, artists, politicians and people from around the world will get together in Durban at the next Climate Summit to discuss and negotiate climate issues affecting all of us. One would think every country in the world would already have a target for becoming carbon neutral... unfortunately only a few do.

Past Climate Summits have failed to deliver on the mandate to save the planet and to green the future. But the unexpected progress last year in Cancún, Mexico raised expectations that South Africa could provide the rainbow the world needs.


Can we really afford to deny this crucial human rights issue? Can we even afford to not call to account those willing to wreck the planet for their own selfish agendas? Can we afford not to make our voice heard?  
Can you afford not to...?  

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever does" -Margaret Meade 

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." -Mohandas Gandhi 

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." -Anne Frank 

Karin Hougaard ...

If we only have love
With our arms open wide
Then the young and the old
Will stand at our side
If we only have love
Love that's falling like rain
Then the parched desert earth
Will grow green again

There are no foreign lands
If we only have love
We will never bow down
We'll be tall as the pines
Neither heroes nor clowns

"Nations will rise and fall, but equality remains the ideal.  The universal aim is to achieve respect for the entire human race, not just for the dominant few."
-Carlos P. Romulo 

"I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
-Edward Everett 

"All human beings, whatever their cultural or historical background, suffer when they are intimidated, imprisoned or tortured . . . We must, therefore, insist on a global consensus, not only on the need to respect human rights worldwide, but also on the definition of these rights . . . for it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and they have an equal right to achieve that."
-The Dalai Lama 


Freedom to live in a sustainable world... - Philippe Elan

- French artist singing in Afrikaans! Reaching new horizons...

"The world will get the outcome in Durban it is ready for," according to South Africa's savvy lead negotiator, Alf Wills.

Joanne Yawitch, one of South Africa's main negotiators, told the Mail & Guardian that the key is to build relationships before the conference to engage civil society. 

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace." -Franklin D. Roosevelt  

The Istart2 project is ideally positioned to enhance and incorporate all diverse people, organizations and other participants in a unified goal. South Africa has the expertise and the responsibility to rise to this challenge.

Creating a sustainable world is a deep moral and human rights issue… the most urgent and critical challenge to our humanity. We have the knowledge. Let our hearts not fail us to make a change at COP17. Our collective sustainability depends on it… 


If other people can start...  can iSTART2? Click your support here. 

A new future awaits….

This Picture

What's wrong with this Picture

I hold an image of the ashtray girl
Of cigarette burns on my chest
I wrote a poem that described her world
And put our friendship to the test
And late at night
Whilst on all fours
She used to watch me kiss the floor

What's wrong with this picture?
What's wrong with this picture?

 A Bill of Rights? A Bill of Responsibility?

…A Bill of Sustainability…

Responsibility

by Charles Osgood

There was a most important job that needed to be done,
And no reason not to do it, there was absolutely none.
But in vital matters such as this, the thing you have to ask
Is who exactly will it be who'll carry out the task?

“Artistic originality is a culture's vital wellspring of renewal.  Lit from within by a unique and transforming vision, deeply original new music, poetry, theater,film and visual art re-imagine life from the inside out.  New forms and new expression offer new ways of understanding our world and ourselves, of envisioning a future” -  Steven Winn

Anybody could have told you that everybody knew
That this was something somebody would surely have to do.
Nobody was unwilling; anybody had the ability.
But nobody believed that it was their responsibility.

All art speaks in signs and symbols.  No one can explain how it happens that the artist can waken to life in us the existence that he has seen and lives through.  No artistic speech is the adequate expression of what it represents; its vital force comes from what is unspoken in it. -  Albert Schweitzer

It seemed to be a job that anybody could have done,
If anybody thought he was supposed to be the one.
But since everybody recognised that anybody could,
Everybody took for granted that somebody would.

Where words fail, music speaks.  Hans Andersen

But nobody told anybody that we are aware of,
That he would be in charge of seeing it was taken care of.
And nobody took it on himself to follow through,
And do what everybody thought that somebody would do.

[The artist] is like a pump; he has inside him a great pipe that reaches down into the entrails of things, the deepest layers.  He sucks up what was lying there below, dim and unnoticed, and brings it in great jets to the sunlight.  Gustave Flaubert

When what everybody needed so did not get done at all,
Everybody was complaining that somebody dropped the ball.
Anybody then could see it was an awful crying shame,
And everybody looked around for somebody to blame.

The artist…is the voice of the people. - Alice Walker

Nearly everybody is looking for something brave to do.  I don't know why people shouldn't write poetry.  That's brave. -  Robert Frost

Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body. - Martha Graham

Somebody should have done the job
And Everybody should have,
But in the end Nobody did
What Anybody could have.

Farewell the ashtray girl
Forbidden snowflake
Beware this troubled world
Watch out for earthquakes
Goodbye to open shores
To broken semaphore
You know we miss her
We miss her picture

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS 

PICTURE ?

Placebo...

I have a dream ... We all stand together

The King's Speech

"I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the challenges of a sustainable world today and tomorrow, I still have a dream... It is a dream deeply rooted in the South African Rainbow dream...

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while

                                                                                                    - Abba

 
I have a dream that one day this world will rise up and live out the true meaning of a rainbow world: "A world where the truth is self-evident: that all diverse people imagine a new future and a sustainable world together."

" We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans both black and white will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world " – Nelson Mandela

I have a dream that one day in the misty streets of Amsterdam the sons of former Muslims and the sons of former Christians will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the World, a world sweltering with the heat of war, sweltering with the heat of climate change, will be transformed into an oasis of sustainability and peace.

King Edward VIII: Sorry, I've been terribly busy.
King George VI : Doing what?
King Edward VIII : Kinging.
( From The King's Speech")

I have a dream that the son of the son of my son will one day live in a world where he will not be affected by the greed of politicians, religious and business leaders, but by the actions of the character of leaders who create a sustainable world.

Lionel Logue: [as George "Berty" is lighting up a cigarette] Please don't do that.
King George VI : I'm sorry?
Lionel Logue : I believe sucking smoke into your lungs will kill you.
King George VI : My physicians say it relaxes the throat.
Lionel Logue : They're idiots.
King George VI : They've all been knighted.
Lionel Logue : Makes it official then.
( From: The King's Speech)

“It is clear that good corporate governance makes good sense. The name of the game for a company in the 21st Century will be conform while it performs.“ - Mervyn King (Chairman: King Report)

I have a dream today.


I have a dream that one day, all over the World, with its vicious extremists, with its leaders having their lips dripping with the words of division and denial; one day right here in the World, little Christian boys and girls will be able to join hands with little Muslim, Atheist, Agnostic and Hindu boys and girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every village shall have water, every town and city shall have energy, the polluted places will be made clean, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of a united Universe shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that we go back into the World with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to build together, to struggle together, to green together, to stand up for a sustainable world together, knowing that we will save this earth..

“To set aside one’s prejudices, one’s present needs, and one’s own self interest in making a decision as a director for a company is an intellectual exercise that takes constant practice. In short, intellectual honesty is a journey and not a destination.” – Dr Mervyn King (Chairman: King Report)

This will be the day when all the children of the World will be able to sing with a new meaning, "We all stand together."


 
And if the South African Rainbow nation is to be a great example this must become true. So let sustainability sing from the prodigious mountaintops of Israel. Let sustainability sing from the mighty deserts of Egypt. Let sustainability sing from the diverse geography of Turkey, from the frightening waters of the Gulf of Mexiko!

" I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses. " – Nelson Mandela

Cos in my African Dream
There's a new tomorrow
My African dream
Is a dream that we can follow

- Vicky Sampson

Let sustainability sing from the snowcapped Mountains of New Zealand!

Let sustainability sing from the curvaceous land of Libya! Let it sing from Japan...

But not only that; let sustainability sing from Australia to China, from the Philippines to Zimbabwe!

Let sustainability sing from Macha Picchu Mountain of Peru!

Let sustainability sing from every iceberg in the Arctic. From every country, let sustainability sing a song together.

Win or lose, sink or swim,
one thing is certain, we'll never give in.
Side by side, hand in hand,
we all stand together.

And when this happens, when we allow a sustainable world, when we let it sing from every village and every town, from every city and every country, we will be able to speed up that day when all the children, abled and disabled, black men and white men, Jews and Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of Martin Luther King: "I have a dream..."

Lionel Logue: Do you know any jokes?
King George VI : ...Timing isn't my strong suit.
(From: The King's Speech)