Youth Climate Leadership: Lets Also Mind the Sharks

A couple of weeks back, I was in Singapore's United World College of South East Asia, listening to a roomful of young men and women talking passionately about climate change. As they spoke, a sharp, almost painful, thought struck my mind: "are we serious about transformative leadership here, or, is this just another ritualistic act?"

Now, why did I think of this? A little background might help. 

The youths I heard were from the ASEAN member states (If you didn't know already, these are Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar) and they were here to take part in ASEAN Power Shift 2015 - a 3-day  training workshop on climate change and the  upcoming Paris Climate Conference (COP 21).

Youths at ASEAN Power Shift 2015. Photo credit: Young NTUC

It was a pretty diverse group:: some were graduate students in a university while others were still in junior high schools. Some already had a lot of knowledge about climate change and erratic weather, while others only had a faint idea of what it might be. And, as I found out later, only about half of  them lived in cities, with 24x7 internet access while  the other half lived in the provinces with little or no access to digital connectivity. 

Yet here they were - bound by a common thread: concern for a fast degrading environment in their respective countries and a strong wish to set it right. 

Saluting Suu - the harbinger of change

The last time I visited Myanmar, everyone said, "when Suu Kyi comes, things will change. You come back then." Today that change is about to happen. But before I plan another visit, let me salute the lady behind the change

Its late evening in most of Asia and midnight in some parts. But, one country is already witnessing the breaking of a unique dawn, one that is going to stay on for days to come. Its Myanmar (Burma).

What is unique of this dawn? First, its the dawn of democracy that has come after a long, dark night of armed rule. Secondly, this dawn has been made possible by a woman. The name's Aung San Suu Kyi. She, of a frail frame but of iron will. She, who is the voice of dissidence. She, who is persistence, resistance and inspiration reincarnated.

We all know of her story: born in Burma, married and settled in the UK, she returned to Burma to lead the country and, in the 1990 general election, steered her party to a landslide victory. But the anti-democracy Junta government put her under house arrest where she would stay for almost 15 years. She didn't meet her family for over a decade and when in 1999 her husband died, she couldn't be there even to pay a final visit. Awards after awards flowed in, including the Nobel peace prize, but Suu Kyi couldn't step out of her home to receive them. No other leader I know, except Nelson Mandela of course, has undergone such tragedies and difficulties, just for the sake of democracy and love for the country.

However,  no amount of evil, suppression and isolation could take away her will or her ability to lead Burma towards democracy. And this Sunday(1st April) , when Burma had its general election again, Suu Kyi, freed by the Junta government earlier, was there, as its emerging, beloved leader again.

***

I visited Burma in 2008, just when the country was hit by its worst natural disaster till date: a cyclone.

Climate Change: Don't Shoot The Messenger!

Last evening I wrote a piece on how changing climate is affecting tea production in India’s Assam. Soon after, I was pulled up by a scientist for being ‘unscientific’, ‘sensational’, ‘fuelling a controversy’ etc, etc. At the end, he had a strong diktat: don’t link climate change directly to the decline of any crop production, including tea.

Interestingly, the effects of climate change in tea gardens is not breaking news. In October 2009 Heather Stewart and Nick Mathiason of The Guardian, reported on the effects of climate change in four countries tea and coffee producing countries – Kenya, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua. The report, based a research by Fairtrade drinks producer Cafédirect, said that “Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of small-scale tea and coffee farmers in some of the world's poorest countries.”