so... you've travelled thousands of kilometres to participate in a world summit in the attempt to hold faceless bureaucrats accountable to the plight of the environment and communities, and you're treated like the scum on the rim of the bathtub. you have to go in a different entrance from the delegates - one that is not protected from the rain. You cannot go into rooms, or into the secret back-room negotiations where all the real work happens. you're treated as undesirable by the security who fall over themselves to accomodate a government delegate, and the computer banks are 'FOR DELEGATES ONLY'.

today epitimised the nature of the meeting. you see, because the heads of government (that's HOGs to some... remind you of animal farm by george orwell...?) are arriving tomorrow, the number of NGOs allowed in are limited. so this morning we queued to get passes. the first queue ended in numbers being assigned for a second queue which then waited for 2 hours for the third queue which assigned passes to the lucky few who could commit a number of hours on a sunday morning to queue. sound like fun? far from it. however, what is worse, is the poor people who queued to no avail, because there'll be a stage where the answer will be 'no, there are no passes left. you will not be allowed in.'