The first day of the meeting

Today is the first day of the WTO ministerial meeting here in Cancun. It is also the first day we have menacing clouds in the sky, evidence of the hurricane offshore.

Overly dramatic, I suppose, with the pathetic fallacy, but I had to use it because the clouds are so dramatic. And the change in the town from the previous week is also quite dramatic.

For one thing, the police presence is even more intense. We were stopped and asked for our badges three times on the walk to the office, with one cursory search of my bag en route. When we got to the office, we found police with ladders climbing on our roof, and the roofs of neighbouring buildings. President Fox of Mexico is coming in a few hours for the opening of the meeting, so security is tightening.

Many of us are leaving for the opening delegation meeting in a few minutes, which promises to be interesting.