Today was the day we decided to confront the WTO delegates directly, and remind them of the need to ‘Stop Toxic Trade’! Once the boat with the projector equipment was in place, the two other boats somehow managed to swing into position around it as photographers lined up on the prow, waiting for the big image to magically appear!

Unfortunately, Greenpeace is not the only one with experience in lighting – the Hong Kong police boat managed to hit our boat with a spotlight so strong that the image we were attempting to project turned into a shadow of itself, if you’ll pardon the expression :-)

That was the point at which the fall-back plan was launched; while journalists were still adjusting shutter speeds, an inflatable zipped by, with our activists holding up a large yellow banner with the same message on it – Stop Toxics Trade!

As I saw the banner sail past in full glory, I thought to myself, “Hmmm, an inflatable and a banner… It may be an old Greenpeace trick, but damn! It still works!!”

Edward Chan

On the inside, it was an entertaining day too! Some developing countries started to stand up for themselves in the Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations that we have been droning on about. The fact that it caused a stir in the convention centre when a few developing countries spoke of the need to take development seriously, is a sign of how developed countries have dominated the negotiations so far.

WTO Secretary General Lamy is often praised for being open to civil society. Well, not today. At the very last minute, he cancelled his appearance at a handing over of some 30,000 petitions demanding that countries, farmers and consumers be granted the right to decide what to grow and eat.

The US has attacked Europe restrictions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at the WTO. There is a real danger that the WTO will rule against Europe in early 2006 and claim the right to force-feed genetically modified organisms to the world. The decision may have already been taken. But the WTO has postponed making its decision on this dispute public until 2006, presumably to avoid the negative publicity that is bound to follow.

Lamy may have been missing, but famous activists Vandana Shiva and Jose Bove were in attendance, joining representatives of the many organizations, including Greenpeace, supporting the Bite Back demands.
Lamy’s Deputy, Alejandro Jara, is clearly no gifted actor like Lamy. He was visibly uncomfortable responding to our demands and escaped at the earliest opportunity.

Personally, it felt strange for me to be there and represent Greenpeace. Because when I helped start the bite back campaign, I was still working for Friends of the Earth. But here I was, now a Greenpeacer, holding my first banner at the Hong Kong ministerial – and it didn’t even say Greenpeace on it!

Luckily, I was able to rush straight from the petition handover to our ‘Stop toxic waste’ beaming. And there I was, on a boat and in the thick of the action – the only true way to be Greenpeace!

Daniel Mittler