FLOP15: Project Survived

The Dutch segment of Project Survival NL has been back on 'familiar' soil for several days now, without actually having seen the soil. The Netherlands has been covered with a beautiful white blanket ever since the Copenhagen Express arrived in Utrecht last Sunday. The snow had pretty chaotic effects on all Dutch trains and busses but also on European air traffic, so we hope all our African friends have been able to get home safely. We know that some had to endure some extra hours of waiting due to delayed and cancelled flights.

We hope they are home, also to dive back into their normal lives so they can try to forget the debacle which played itself out in Copenhagen. The world can do absolutely nothing with the flimsy agreement which has been optimistically named the Copenhagen Accord. The text fails to include any hard figures and leaves so much wiggle space that even the largest dinosaurs such as the US will have no problem continuing on their old route. The insignificance of the text is further demonstrated by the introductory words: the Conference of Parties 'notes' the text, which says nothing more than that its existence is recognized... Two years of preparation wasted!

Although the disappointment in the world leaders and politics as a whole was large within our project group we made the best of it and had some great final days! We had an excellent Eritrean dinner on Friday with nearly the entire group. A small piece of Africa was a welcome change after some weeks of European winter: "Finally, real food!" We took over the restaurant with our laughter, running around, conversations by the heater, speeches and the various clapping games which closed off the evening and along with it a very successful project! To really finish everything off we danced the night away between Copenhagens highschool students. After making some final arrangements the next day we had a last get together which resulted in one big photosession and some final speeches. Final conclusion: everybody was very happy and satisfied with the project and we had two great weeks together.

So, where we would like to rename COP15 to FLOP15, I think we can also rename the project: Project Successful.

Claude, Ebrima, Ezilon, Hubert, Mangaliso, Mahawa, Margaret, Matias, Matildah: THANK YOU!!

Roy