Meeting opens with technical hiccups

Meeting opens with technical hiccups

The fourth session of the preparatory committee meeting on
sustainable development kicked off on Monday, with around 2,000
delegates from 140 countries gathered at the Bali International
Convention Center in Nusa Dua resort complex (photo above).

Over 6,000 delegates are expected to attend the meeting but
most will arrive within the week to attend the ministerial
meeting from June 5 through June 7.

The meeting is being attended by not only government
representatives, but also from non-governmental organizations,
the business community, and other civil society groups.

This is the last meeting ahead of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August, and is
expected to result in a series of action plans that could be
implemented by the United Nations member countries.

The meeting in Bali was not free of hiccups, with broken
microphones and other disturbances with the sound system.

In the modest opening ceremony, the meeting's chairman Emil
Salim was seen laughing several times when some of the delegates
had to move around the conference room to find microphones that
were working.

"I think everybody should check whether the microphones are
working or not," Emil said, while laughing.

Chaos ensued at the media center, when the television sets
provided for journalists did not produce any sound.

Journalists then had to run across the huge complex to reach
the conference room only to find that the opening statement by
Indonesian State Minister for Environment Nabiel Makarim was
almost over.

While journalists were unable to get complete statements
during the opening session, they got unexpected access to the
closed door meeting as the sound leaked into the media center.
The sound system apparently was not working properly.

"How could this happen, somebody has to turn this thing down,"
one of the UN officials said while moving about the media center.

The disturbances surely created headaches for the Indonesian
committee. "This should not happen again tomorrow," said one of
the staff.

Despite all the technical flaws, the meeting is still expected
to yield results for the betterment of the people and the planet.
-- JP