9.20.07 kulturnatib

Greenpeace Cebu

Greenpeace is one of the most visible environmental organizations internationally. They have become synonymous with direct actions, as they call it, that are designed to confront the issues as much as make it to the front pages of newspapers and the prime time news on TV.

They are known for huge banners that are unfurled over the facade of buildings, often without the building owner's permission or knowledge, and other prominent structures by their activists in harnesses and rappel ropes. Or their small, zippy zodiac boats that skim along the waves to harass - as much as this is possible, given the David and Goliath proportions of these encounters -- Japanese, Norwegian or Russian whaling ships.

In short, Greenpeace is one environmental organization that is extremely media-savvy. They have learned to harness the power of media for their cause.

It is no wonder that they were one of the main partners for the Live Earth : SOS Concert for a Climate in Crisis. This global event last July 7 (070707) was tailor made for the media with simultaneous concerts in key cities worldwide bannered by some of the global music industry's top acts and personalities.

Here, the local version of this event – one of the biggest among those that were officially accredited by the Live Earth organizing group, -- Greenpeace SEA (Southeast Asia) was also one of the main event partners.

One of the biggest enviro-cultural events to have happened in Cebu in recent memory, this event, though,clearly riding on the momentum of its global counterpart, was organized by a disparate group who did not belong to any single organization, but who realized that 'we had to do our share.'

Even while the event, that turned out to be successful by most measures, was still on-going, the question occurred to many of those in the organizing group: What should happen next?

When Greenpeace SEA (Southeast Asia) inquired about holding an exploratory meeting for organizing a Local Group, weeks after the event, the next step had apparently presented itself to some of those in the organizing group who lobbied for the inclusion of Greenpeace SEA’s Simple Lang Campaign in the event program and facilitated the invitation and participation of a Greenpeace SEA representative in the event.

That exploratory meeting became a confirmatory one. About a dozen people signed up to be the core group members of the Greenpeace Local Group Cebu, or simply Greenpeace Cebu.

“Some of us have been volunteers for some of Greenpeace’s earlier campaigns. It's about time that this gets organized more formally,” says Gelena Asis, Greenpeace Cebu Assistant Coordinator.

Tomorrow (September 21) Greenpeace Cebu will be launched at the Outpost restaurant, Veteran's Drive, Lahug, starting from 8pm onwards.

Kicking or pedaling-off this launch will be a bike-a-cade – in lieu of a motorcade – at 7pm. Spearheaded by the Bike4U Foundation, this fun ride will wind its way through the city's main streets from the IT park down to Plaza Independencia then back up to the Outpost restaurant.

An hour-long program that will include the relaunching of the Simple Lang campaign, the introduction of Greenpeace and a briefing by some city and provincial officials on their respective environmental programs and projects will be the main focus of the evening.

After this, the bands, who were also involved with the 070707 concert will take over.

The first projects of the group will be related to the Simple Lang Campaign. A recent radio appearance by Greenpeace Cebu over Mom's Radio (88.3 FM) led to an invitation to present the campaign to a community group where the radio station has continuing projects.

Along this same line, a proposal to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), the national radio-TV industry organization to involve particularly the radio stations in this educational campaign is being mulled.