A popular #Yoruba adage goes “ti a ba fun were loko, odo ara e lo ma roko si.” I’ll replace “were” with “agbe”, it translates as “when you give a farmer a hoe, he digs the ridges between his own legs.” Not because he is selfish, how else would he use the hoe?
As I follow the unfoldings at #COP28 in UAE and engage with diverse actors in the Expo City Pavilion, I see people (especially communicators and media personnel) as farmers with their respective hoes. I am aware that we all have our biases and our narratives in many ways, will always align with our worldviews. It’s like carbon emissions; we can’t hide it, as much as we try!
It becomes an extra responsibility for communicators and media professionals to be extra mindful of how we interpret and convey what unfolds during COP28 – of course through our worldview.
Keeping in mind the obvious imbalance in the representations (of media, negotiators and delegates), it is expected that some voices and arguments become more prominent, almost shaping the entire event. To you (and me) as farmers with our respective hoes, what good is it to jump on some COP28 narratives because they are popular?
#Ethnography #COP28 #Negotiation #Media #Communication #Power #ClimateChange