“Autumn in New York
Why does it seem so inviting?
…Glittering crowds and shimmering clouds
And canyons of steel
They’re making me feel
I’m home…”
[AUTUMN IN NEW YORK]
On an unseasonably warm October afternoon, I’m heading uptown to the Waldorf Astoria to meet Dorjee Sun when he calls me to tell me he’s in Chelsea. Coincidentally, so am I, so I pay off my cab driver and follow Dorjee’s directions to a design studio somewhere in the west 
twenties. It’s where his friend, Stephanie, works sometimes and Dorjee is using it as a base today. He does that a lot – adopts convenient spaces to work - given that he doesn’t have a permanent office in the USA.
In the design co-op’s boardroom/storeroom full of fabric samples and tile fragments, I shoot a short interview with Dorjee in which he describes the events of the last week. He’s just arrived from the west coast, where he had a series of successful meetings. He’s particularly happy with the relationships he is developing with some major universities, but still feels nervous that the Aceh forest protection scheme doesn’t yet have any serious investors. He needs to get some runs on the board – soon - in order to motivate slow-moving governments and NGOs to create 
change in a hurry. The longer they take, the more Indonesian forest is lost. 300 football fields an hour. He’s hoping that his meeting with Paul Wolfowitz this afternoon is going to offer up a few suggestions about how to hurry governments along.
We take a taxi uptown and get caught in horrible traffic.
Dorjee is trying to ring Mr Wolfowitz in order to connect at Peacock Alley, the small restaurant in the Waldorf Astoria. His phone is dying. He borrows my phone and is on both at once. His phone dies. He transfers his SIM to my phone and sings “So unimpressed, but so in awe…” while dialling Mr Wolfowitz’s number and bitching 
about the traffic.
Dorjee speculates that although Mr Wolfowitz is presently out of favour with the media, his involvement with avoided deforestation and forest protection might be an opportunity for a comeback akin to John Travolta’s performance in Pulp Fiction.
The Waldorf Astoria is a grand hotel. Peacock Alley, the restaurant, is a dimly-lit wood-panelled corridor off the main thoroughfare through the centre of the hotel.
Paul Wolfowitz and his female friend had a table in a discreet area on the concealed side of the bar, where Dorjee and I joined them. I was able to shoot the beginning of their lunch meeting before the “privileged information” part of the discussion arose and I had to switch off.
Mr Wolfowitz is rather knowledgeable on the subject of carbon trading, possibly due to his son’s involvement in the industry. He also loves Indonesia – he was a former US ambassador to the country – and speaks Bahasa. It’s possible that he will join Dorjee’s party in Bali for COP13 in December, providing advice and geopolitical-level contacts to the project.
Mr Wolfowitz is in town for the Clinton Global Initiative, taking place at the Sheraton a few blocks across town. Among others, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Tony Blair had presented at the conference that week, mostly on the subject of poverty alleviation.
During the course of his late lunch with Dorjee, Mr Wolfowitz suggests that we join him afterwards when he returns to the event’s closing-day hobnobbing in the foyer of the Sheraton, where he can introduce Dorjee to a few interesting players from the business sector. Having taken him up on the offer, we walk several blocks west, passing Rockefeller Plaza and Radio City Music Hall, in the region of which we bump into a man – an attorney - who thanks Mr Wolfowitz for the kind letter he wrote in support of his client. After a brief, friendly exchange we carry on up the street and Mr Wolfowitz mentions that the man we’d just run into was Scooter Libby’s lawyer.
The foyer of the Sheraton is decorated with special displays for the Clinton Global Initiative. There are banners around and little displays of globes created by children, who, based on the observations presented with the globes, seem to have a better idea of what the world’s priorities should be than most of the assembled dignitaries. Delegates mingle in a thronging foyer abuzz with conversation; many of them are wearing traditional dress from their home countries.
Mr Wolfowitz introduces Dorjee to a number of contacts, one of whom is a cute young German venture capitalist. He’s a pretty rock-and-roll kinda guy and he spontaneously invites Dorjee along to the official closing dinner party because he unexpectedly has a spare ticket. I couldn’t get into it to shoot but I find out from Dorjee the following day that it was actually deadly boring and not a good networking opportunity, so they blew the joint and went to a party held by the Kangol hat people instead. He met a few enviro-friendly celebrities.
Dorjee tells me all about it while we’re in the café of FAO Schwartz, the toy store, preparing for the afternoon’s appointments. He is in cheerful spirits as we wait for his meeting with a hip Madison Avenue hedge fund. He jokes with the waitress about the heart-attack inducing quantity of mini marshmallows erupting from his mug of hot chocolate.
When we arrive at the hedge-fund’s building and clear their security screening, we wait in a glamorous all-white boardroom overlooking Central Park. Dorjee tells me that despite having been to NYC many times, he’s never been to the Park. I point out Wollman Rink (still closed in the warm weather), Trump Tower, and Essex House; we observe the leering gargoyles on a nearby gothic skyscraper. The hedge fund guys are taking a while clearing my permissions to shoot the meeting. Dorjee entertains himself by singing Modest Mouse songs, (“I backed my car into a cop car the other day…”) and Jose Gonzalez’s ‘Heartbeats’.
The meeting ends up being quite successful. I like it because Dorjee has given a clear and interesting explanation of what avoided deforestation and carbon trading are and how they work, which could be very useful for the documentary. As for Dorjee’s conservation plan, the hedge fund guys seem to “get it”. As Dorjee leaves the one who pulls the strings says, “I’m sure we can put something together…” (meaning they could mobilise some money to invest in the project) which is uplifting.
Since he’s never been there, I take Dorjee across Fifth Avenue into the Park. He’s talking on his phone, arranging more meetings. They’re with money people and I’m not going to be able to shoot them, so we’ll part ways soon. For once, Dorjee’s schedule offers him a short break, and I suggest that he takes a moment to rest here and enjoy this amazing location. Unusually, he agrees, and by the duck-filled ponds he finds a sunlit patch of verdant grass on which to sleep. With his head on his briefcase and the sunshine glinting on the toes of his polished shoes, Dorjee – at last - takes a nap.
EPILOGUE:
A week later, Dorjee phones me from San Diego to fill me in on what’s been happening since he returned to the west coast. He’s signed on some important academic institutions (including MIT, CAL IT 2 and the Scripps Oceanography Institute) who are prepared to defend the hard science behind his carbon-trading conservation scheme. This added scientific credibility should really help to bring serious investors online. And Dorjee’s just connected with the first one – an individual who has contributed substantial funds which will cashflow the next element of the project’s development. Dorjee seems thrilled.
The next time I hear from him, it’s by text message at 3am.
All Dorjee’s message says is:
“I love Vegas!!!!!”
By Felicity Blake
8th October 2007
Recent Comments