Statement 3: We are Strangers

Each day Question Time hold a summit somewhere in Copenhagen- in cafes, street corners, domestic apartments, and train stations – after which a new statement of intent is produced towards an alternative declaration of the way forward on climate change.

Summit Date: 10 December 2009
Attending: David Berridge, Rachel Lois Clapham, Alex Eisenberg, Neil Bennun, Christian Skovbjerg Jensen,
Location: Bang and Jensen Cafe
Minute Taker: Alex Eisenberg

We meet. (In a café and we buy coffee and I get a coffee and a water).

We sit round this table.

And [0.1] we talk.

We will ALWAYS make changes to the questions that we will ask people. (L said to me that what she likes about what we are doing is that it’s about the PROCESS)

We will attempt to explore what it means to be a STRANGER in this place. (Feeling comfortable taking the metro [M] and the train [S] around the city, despite almost getting fined for accidentally not buying a ticket. Feeling comfortable finding my way back to where we are staying – but still this feeling of being stranger or do you just call it being a tourist?)

We (who are strangers) will place ourselves in RELATION to other strangers.

AND [0.2]

We will find out what happens when two strangers meet.(FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/2; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/3; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/4; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/5; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/6; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/7; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/8; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/9; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/10; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/11; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/12; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/13)

We recognise that FEAR might be present.

IF [0.1]

We acknowledge that there is a PARTICULAR NORDIC SENSIBILITY. (Sitting on the train (S) and realise that we had accidentally not bought a ticket. Discuss the possibilities – there are quite a few. Notice the ticket inspectors coming down the carriage and decide to be honest. Tell the ticket inspector that you have been buying tickets for all your other journeys but that you had just run onto the train without one. Be told that you are going to be fined 750 Kroner (£90approx). Plead. Be asked if you are ‘with the conference’. Answer that YOU ARE. Leave the train without paying the fine.)

THEN [0.1]

We acknowledge that the Danes are HOSPITABLE. (This guy called Henrick has this empy flat in one of the smart districts of the city. We meet him there are 2pm. He shows us round in about 5 minutes. The flat is totally empty. We take the flat.)

AND [0.3]

We will move beyond the borders of hospitality through empowering VOICES. Through asking questions from the (in)side, attempting a way in(to).[Agenda item 5]
(FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/2; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/3; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/4; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/5; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/6; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/7; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/8; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/9; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/10; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/11; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/12; FCCC/KP/CMP/2009/13)

And someone asks:

What is the NEED?

What is the FUNCTION?

What is the ROLE?

OF ALL THIS…