Asia Times: Unctad X: Pie in the face and pie in the sky



	February 16, 2000	atimes.com

Editorials

Unctad X: Pie in the face and pie in the sky

Had it not been for the enterprising activity of an American NGO delegate and the comical relief it provided, the Bangkok Unctad session might simply fade away as a result of hopeless boredom. Happily, even outgoing IMF chief Michel Camdessus, the target of an in-your-face cream pie, seems to have thought so. It gave him a few lively opening lines to an otherwise indistinguished speech and he didn't press charges.

Otherwise, the conference - by now the standard for such UN-sponsored gab-fests - is distinguished mainly by what it hasn't done and by who isn't attending. It has not restarted the WTO talks - on ice since the Seattle NGO rampages - as advertised. It has not provided any ideas to speak of on new global financial arrangements. It is attended by only one G7 head of state, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. The US sent a few minor officials representing USAID - to aid whom or what we don't know.

The fun and games are taking place outside the conference center. The Thai Unctad hosts estimate that overpaid and overperked UN officials, their spouses, and members of national delegations will spend some one billion baht (US$27 million) during their Bangkok sojourn. So, let's see: 3,000 delegates and perhaps another 2,000 spouses and companions will spend well over US$5,000 each or double Thailand's annual income per capita on shopping sprees, food, and, of course, Bangkok's well-known nightlife. Incidentally, for bar girls - though it will up their usually meager income - it isn't all fun. Police, anxious to forestall terrorist acts and prevent other incidents involving delegates, meticulously checked ID cards, enforced normally relaxed closing hours, and generally upped their presence in Bangkok's night districts, putting a chill on business as usual. And unable to find any bona fide terrorists, police arrested a hapless American long-time Thailand resident for harboring Burmese refugees - no, not the types that recently got themselves wiped out by special forces after taking over an up-country hospital, but individuals being trained to be able to lead a more useful life than languishing in refugee camps.

This type of conference and unconscionable waste of taxpayer money should stop once and for all. Indeed, it's not in the least clear to us why organizations like Unctad or Escap and what have you continue to exist at all except as sinecures for officals from certain developing nations we shall refrain from naming.

Well, yes, and as an afterthought, we shall mention that some Southeast Asian leaders who attended the conference - Singapore's Goh Chok Tong, Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, the Philippines' Joseph Estrada, and the host country's Chuan Leekpai - presented some lackluster talk and observations on globalization, new financial architectures and so on, and the IMF boss suggested that the G7 meeting every other year or so be expanded to a G30 confab to take into account the economic concerns of nations other than the world's richest. But it's our fearless prediction that nothing much will come of any of that - which is all to the better. Who needs more architectures to be administered by more overpaid bureaucrats and, God forbid, another large bi-annual conference complete with frequent flyer miles, five-star hotel accommodation, Mercedes limousines and other such niceties - except, of course, host countries' merchants of whatever stripe.