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INLSA<\/p>\n
Raphael<\/p>\n
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Leanne Jansen <\/p>\n
leanne.jansen@inl.co.za<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n WITH her eyes closed and palm on her chest, Malawian farmer Agnes Raphael recalled the misery of having to abandon her education while still in primary school. <\/p>\n As evidenced by her swollen ankles, the 40-year-old travelled by bus for seven days to reach Durban in time for the 17th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17), which she hopes will ensure that her daughter does not also leave school early. <\/p>\n Should her yield of Irish potatoes continue to dwindle \u2013 owing to what she believes to be climate change-induced drought \u2013 she will be unable to pay the 45 000 Malawian kwacha (R2 345) school fees each term. <\/p>\n As part of a Pan African Climate Justice Alliance initiative, Raphael, along with 200 other farmers, pastoralists, artists and activists from nine African countries, has made the trip to publicise the plight (and demands) of the continent to the international community. <\/p>\n Raphael, who also has four boys, said: \u201cI plant crops, but there is no rain. There is not much to sell\u2026 If my girl can be educated, I will have been a good mother. I left school in the primary phase. I don\u2019t want any one of my children to leave school.\u201d <\/p>\n Raphael has taken to watering her potatoes from a nearby pond, and the family eats meat one day a week. One kilogram of potato sold earns her 500 kwacha, and one bag \u2013 which she indicates is as tall as she is \u2013 5 000 kwacha. <\/p>\n The Trans African Climate Caravan of Hope departed from Burundi on November 9, snaking through Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana; finally reaching Durban early on Saturday. <\/p>\n Though most aboard the buses had to forego decent sleep for up to three days, their chanting during their official welcome at the University of KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s Howard campus was spirited. <\/p>\n \u201cWhy, why, why? Africa is a victim. Now, now, now. Climate justice now,\u201d<\/em> was the refrain, accompanied by the frenzied waving of national flags. <\/p>\n UKZN is the site of COP17\u2019s \u201cPeople\u2019s Space\u201d, where national and international civil society groups are gathering. <\/p>\n Nnimmo Bassey, the head of Friends of the Earth International, who addressed Raphael and her fellow travellers, said that drought and flooding were two clear manifestations of climate change in Africa. <\/p>\n \u201cThe role of the travellers, he said, was to share their stories, to inform policy makers, and to allow ordinary people to be part of the climate justice movement. <\/p>\n Bassey said an 85 percent reduction in emissions, greater funding from industrialised countries and an international climate tribunal to punish ecocide would be among Africa\u2019s demands at the climate talks. <\/p>\n \u201cIndustrialised nations should cut emissions by a minimum of 50 percent to 85 percent. That would make an impact against runaway global warming. Emissions should be cut at source. Some negotiators instead come here and push for funding for adaptation and mitigation,\u201d said Bassey. <\/p>\n \u201cThe architecture of the finance process does not need negotiating \u2013 a debt is being owed to Africa for something we did not cause. The industrialised world should devote at least one percent of their military budgets or 6 percent of their GDP (to this). <\/p>\n \u201cThe other key demand should be an international climate tribunal. A new crime needs to be recognised in the global system, ecocide \u2013 the destruction of the environment, so that climate criminals can be held to account.\u201d <\/p>\n Raphael\u2019s message to the heads of state who will convene at the Durban ICC is: \u201cPolluters must pay and they must stick to the Kyoto Protocol policies.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA Raphael Leanne Jansen leanne.jansen@inl.co.za WITH her eyes closed and palm on her chest, Malawian farmer Agnes Raphael recalled the misery of having to abandon her education while still in primary school. As evidenced by her swollen ankles, the 40-year-old travelled by bus for seven days to reach Durban in time for the 17th Conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-5743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}