2015-07-20
Silvia Lozeva
I was last in New Zealand around 13 years ago; yet, the vivid memories of lush green North Island and unique wildlife, especially birds and marine mammals were very much alive. These were the very reasons that I quickly turned from a newly graduated economist to an environmentalist — to the point where I cast my very first formal political vote for the New Zealand Greens.
This time, I arrived in Wellington in the capacity of a Western Australian observer for the Asia-Pacific Greens Federation Congress and I could not imagine a better place for such a truly historical gathering. The memories of places rushed through as soon as the Air New Zealand flight made a rough landing in windy Wellington.
The one-hour bus journey of route 91 during sunset brought me to Lower Hutt, where a driver was waiting for me to take me to the Silverstream retreat: a beautiful and tranquil place with all the facilities that a conference could possibly need, even a big welcoming fireplace. After quickly checking at the Stonewall cottage, I quickly joined the rest in the main hall near the fireplace to meet the Japanese Greens and enjoy a glass of New Zealand wine. The place was warm and full with buzz and excitement.
All of us, nearly 135 delegates and observers from 12 different countries, had a busy schedule with short breaks in between. The highlight of the program was the passing of the brand new Asia-Pacific Greens Federation Constitution after a full day of working through proposed changes of the 7th draft. This was only more evidence of the ability of all countries to work together.
According to Steve Vertovec, director at Max-Planck Institute in Germany, sustainability is not measured by how much we recycle or offset carbon footprints, rather it is manifested by the ability to get along with each other, which lies at the heart of everything else, from investing in renewable energy to public transport and humane migration and refugee policies. Nowhere else was this more evident than in the ability of all countries to work together towards a shared goal.
Another highlight for me was the workshop on nuclear energy, facilitated by Senator Scott Ludlam, where delegates from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Mongolia presented. We ended up with a picture of the Asia-Pacific plans to explore for uranium in Australia, build a number of new nuclear plants in Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan and finally, bury the nuclear waste in Mongolia with free passage offered by Russia. A bleak picture, but very passionately presented.
During the congress dinner, I talked to a former member of New Zealand parliament and other New Zealand Greens, who have successfully started a working group with a focus on diversity — this is exactly what I needed for our new culturally diverse group in Western Australia.
Last, but not least, this was an opportunity for me personally to meet for the first time the Australian Greens from the Eastern states and particularly those on the Global Issues Group and on the international Development Committee.
After the congress officially ended, many of the participants moved to the Waterloo accommodation near Wellington train station. This simply meant that the congress continued for the next 24 hours, but in a slightly different way. Somehow I gathered with some of the young Greens from Japan, Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Indonesia and we went on to explore late-night Wellington. This proved to be the most hilarious, fun and bonding time I have had on an event like this: walk through Oriental Bay, the civic square to Te Papa museum. We even convinced the Oriental Bay security of the danger of climate change, despite our hyper state.
The culmination of the night was probably Mohamed's infamous phrase: “I cannot smile” while posing for a photo standing at the tip of a diving point over the bay.
The next morning a group of 25 of us visited the beautiful Beehive: Wellington Parliament's executive wing and the Parliamentary precinct. Keli Yen kindly organised a tour of the government building and the historical library, built in the late 1880s and organised a lunch with a Greens MP Stefan Browning — a spokesperson for food safety and food security.
The post-congress group still stuck together until it was time for many to leave. I left to the airport with the two Mongolians, where I said a final goodbye. However, the congress was not over yet — there were four more participants who boarded the plane to Sydney.
A true highlight of the post-congress was having the Namiho Mtsumoto, a co-leader of Greens Japan stay with me for 2-3 days in Perth. It happened that the Cockburn-based program “Travel Smart” has become so popular that it has gained international attention and even made it to Japan. So, Namiho was here to do some research and I was delighted to show her around the Greens offices in Fremantle and Perth. We even managed to meet the director of Hyogo Cultural Centre, where she was also from.
As outcomes of the Congress, there were ideas to link with the Indonesian Greens, Mongolian and Japanese Greens though internships in Western Australia and look forward to the East Asian Conference in Mongolia from 10-16th August 2015.
The Asia Pacific Greens Federation is meeting once every five years.