The Commonwealth Conversation

Hello from a very wet Port of Spain. The streets of Trinidad seem to be overflowing with both rain and VIPs. With delegates pouring in for the start of the Business Forum today and the Foreign Ministers meeting starting tomorrow, the army of helpers that the Trinidadian Government has gathered finally have something to do. The two huge cruise ships are also in port, adding a couple of thousand hotel rooms and conferencing suites to a town that is about to go into shutdown.

 

Someone asked whether the locals have fled. I dont think so, but I do get the sign that most are waiting anxiously to see what value they will get for the money spent on this extravaganza (another question asked yesterday). I suspect that all the effort, money and disruption will be worth it for Trinidadians if the Summit raises their country’s profile on the world stage, and/or achieves some sort of landmark deal.

 

Meanwhile, the RCS team has been getting ready for the launch of our emerging findings on Thursday. We had a very lively pre-launch of our report (to be called “Common What?”) at the People’s Forum this evening and a press conference scheduled for tomorrow. There has already been considerable interest, sparked in part by a rather curious piece in the Australian papers today.