7

Hello Friends,
today I am really exhausted! After our companero Brookman brought us yesterday to a boat station, we went from there together with 2 Germans (the first I met so far, woohooo) by boat, of course, trough crocodile water to Bako National Park. Completely wasted from the evening before (which was quite long as our 2 guides from the Longhouse-trip went out with us) we wandered around a bit in the park and sweated a lot because of the incredible humid air surrounding us. We enjoyed 2 beaches and took approximately 10000 photos of an amazing sunset over the southern chinese sea. From 8 to 10 pm we joined a so-called night walk through the rainforest. This was really exciting and several shivers ran down my back seeing snakes and spiders and other nice insects.
Today we got up early and went for a 6 kilometer loop walk which ended in a 13 kilometer run of the spanish and german engines with croatian luggage ;) We ended up at a gigantic beach that we had all for ourselves. Unfortunately I cannot upload pictures yet, but I promise they will come soon!
Packed with all these nice experiences (and funny ones as we ran out of money...) and losing a little piece of our hearts to this amazing place, we took a boat and bus to go back "home" to our hostel in Kuching.
Tomorrow, the team splits into Luka and me going via Sibu to Miri and Victor who heads to Mount Kinabalu.
I hope you're all well and I have to admit that I am really looking forwards to the european climate as today was just too much sweating...
Love,
Anna (finally with a tan in her face, weeheee!)

6

Hi Friends,

the last 3 days were probably the weirdest days in my life! After a 7.5 hours trip from Kuching to Betong (which is only around 180km distance!!) we arrived at a totally non-touristic place close to Betong in a so-called Longhouse (see here for information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhouse#Borneo_longhouse) where the relatives of one of our guides live. After having some delicious cashew nuts, papaya slices and loads of coffee we went to a longhouse not far away to take part in a funeral.
Around 200 people from different longhouses came together. We were the only white guests taking part in a funeral at that longhouse ever, so everybody came to see us and we were offered loads of food (such as for example very sticky rice in a piece of bambo) rice wine, beers and other spirits. After being in one apartment for a while, we were asked to move to the next one, and to the next family, where the procedure of eating and drinking continued. In total we were in 3 apartments and then in the main entrance hall in front of all apartments. Fortunately, I found out how to decline drinking more and more (very, very strong) rice wine and beers in a friendly way (just by drinking water all the time!)- our hosts didn't accept a "no, thanks". One family invited us to stay over at their place, so we had a very short night in a room with 10 other people (including 2 babys in hangmats) and at 6 o' clock in the morning we had to leave together with the other guests who cannot stay for another 2 days (what you have to do if you stay longer than that).
After some coffees in Betong we headed to a very isolated longhouse in the middle of the jungle to see our other guide's uncle there. He told us stories about the Iban people, we went for a ride on his boat and swimming in the river and in the afternoon he took us to the jungle close to his longhouse where we cut a palm tree to get some vegetables for the dinner. Stanley and his wife cooked for us, arranged beds for us and were amazing hosts.
Today in the morning we left to go to see a massive artificial lake that was built to win electricity. More than 10.000 Iban people who lived in the area had to move as their communities were flooded. More dams and artificial lakes are planned and our friends from Sahabat Alam (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) are campaigning against this. Maybe we can find a way how YFoEE can help as the corporations who built these dams are european or get money from european banks...
Tomorrow, we are going to Bako to see some animals in the night and add another 1000 pictures to the existing 1000000 ones ;)

Love,
Anna

5

Hey Friends,
I am sorry for not posting anything for the last week. BGM was extremely busy and I had no access to a laptop as everybody was using theirs.... :)
The BGM was super interesting and I have met so many inspiring people and heard so many good stories from all over the world that I will share with you when I am back. I encourage you all to read Luka and my report that we will write as soon as possible.
Some of the YFoEE people might know that there is sustainability schools taking place in the African, Asian and south American region and I had an informal meeting with some of the organizers from all the different regions and I promised to make sure that some European YFoEs will participate in one of the next sustainability schools- maybe even already in November in Uganda (there is a chance that FoEI has funding for one of us...) Anyway, to learn more about the different sustainability schools, the participants of the informal meeting committed themselves to stay in touch and I hope that one day we can take part in a sustainability school somewhere (maybe in Europe?).

The "official" part of this blog ends here, but I will put some news from Borneo (where me, Luka and Victor -Amigos de la Tierra Espana- are since yesterday) here on the blog. Tomorrow we are heading to the jungle, so don't expect a new post in the next 3 days but therefor a hopefully very exciting one afterwards! :)

Love,
Fluxy

4

Thai Temple

Monkey in the Penang Botanical Garden

Little Monkey in the Botanical Garten (before his grandfather started to show me his teeth...)

In a Chinese Temple

Just Married!

Hi Friends,
as you can see, we got to see a bit of Penang- the city the conference is taking place in. On Sunday we moved from Pulau Jerejak to Penang for the Bi-Annual General Meeting of Friends of the Earth International. After checking-in to the new hotel, six of us went on a tour with a taxi-driver who showed us the highlights of the city. From various Thai temples we went to the botanical garden (where some monkeys showed me their teeth), Chinese temples and "Little India".
Yesterday, regional meetings took place. Luka and I joined the FoE Europe meeting and discussions around the "STAP" and "MDS" and other papers and positions. After intensive meetings, we had a nice indian dinner close to the hotel.
At the moment, I am in a conference room, together with 47 representatives from member groups from all of over the world, where the BGM just started with several welcome adresses, the adoption of the agenda, election of ombutspeople, the approval of the agenda of the last BGM ( which took place in 2008 in Honduras) and the approval of reports (of the Executive Committee, the Chair, the International Secretariat etc.) is going on right now.

I just want to end this post with Friends of the Earth International's vision of the world:

"Our vision is of a peaceful and sustainable based on societies living in harmony with nature. We envision a society of interdependent people living in dignity, wholeness and fulfillment where equity and human and peoples' rights are realized.

This will be a society built upon peoples' sovereignty and participation. It will be founded on social, economic, gender and environmental justice and free from all forms of domination and exploitation such as neo-liberalism, corporate globalization, neo-colonialism and militarism."

Love,
Fluxy

3

Ferry landing to Pulau Jerejak

View to Penang Island

Theiva facilitating

Waiting area at ferry landing

Deddy giving a presentation on REDD projects and the struggle (indigenous) communities in Malaysia face as a consequence

Hello Friends,
finally I managed to upload some impressions from here! Yesterday was a very interesting day under the title: "Ecological Equity. Sharing our Stories. Reclaiming our Rights." There were several sessions called "Community Sharing: Stories of Right. Stories of Might." I was able to listen to attend some of the sessions and was really impressed by the stories of community members from developing countries throughout the world.
I want to share the information Tijah Yok Chopil (indigenous community member) gave us with you, to give you an impression on what problems we are talking about:
The Orang Asli are the indigenous people in Malaysia. They face severe problems today: for example forests where Orang Asli communities live in are logged for oil palm plantations to be installed there (both an ecological and a human desaster). Orang Asli are not seen as Malaysians and various rights, such as the right to traditional territories, the right to practise their culture, to decide the type of development they desire, the right to access natural resources (not even on recognized territories!) are not recognized by the Malaysian government.
Tijah is fighting for a better future for Orang Asli. She could have been arrested for traveling to this conference here (as Orang Asli, she is not allowed to come to another state). Nevertheless she took the risk and came. Her work is bearing the first fruits: this year, the first mass protests for justice took place.
At this moment I am sitting in a conference room where a discussion on sustainable palm oil. Palm oil is in more and more products we european can buy. Especially in the meat production soy is used to feed animals. The meat production is emitting more greenhouse gases then the entire transport sector! So we should really eat less meat.
I need to leave for a group photo shoot...
Hope you have a nice veggie day!
Love,
Fluxy

2

Hello Friends,
me and my luggage have finally arrived in Malaysia, wooohoo! After a very long journey from Frankfurt via Doha (where me and other passengers had to run to manage to be on the last call for the boarding of our connection flight due to a 1 hour delay) and Kuala Lumpur by plane and ferry I arrived this early afternoon (at time for lunch, ahah) in the incredibly overwhelmingly beautiful island of Pulau Jerejak. This is a small island covered all over with rainforest located very close to the Penang island. Here, the Friends of the Earth International Conference on Forests, Biodiversity, Communities and Indigenous peoples is taking place at a resort.
After taking a shower (it's hot and the air is very humid) and an afternoon nap I was ready to discover a bit the island, saw monkeys and a big lizard (Mama, du haettest deine Freude gehabt!).
Tomorrow the conference will start- there is going to be workshops on various issues around the title of the conference... More on this later...
There is a couple of young people from the network here and I am already looking forwards to exchange with them what other Young Friends of the Earth Initiatives are going around in the world and what they are campaigning on etc. ... Everybody here is very happy to see that young people are also present and I was welcomed very warmly by members of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (FoE Malaysia).
I am trying to find a USB-cable to upload some pictures that you get an impression how it is here and make this blog a bit more interesting!
More news coming soon, I hope you are all doing well back at home and I am looking forwards to hear from you!
Love,
Fluxy

1

Bernbeuren, 9.10.10

Hier nun also mein erstes Blog-Eintrag. Es freut mich, dass Du ihn liest. In 3 Tagen geht's los nach Malaysia :)
Da dies mein erstes eigenes Blog ist, wäre ich für Tipps sehr dankbar!
Alle folgenden Einträge werden wahrscheinlich auf englisch sein, da ich vor allem über meine Tätigkeit auf dem Bi-Annual General Meeting von Friends of the Earth berichte...
Alles Liebe,
Fluxy