When hospitality makes up for glitches

By C. Rammanohar Reddy

The Qataris have pulled out all stops to make the WTO meeting a success. Numerous young volunteers, security officers and senior officials are always there to help participants. But that has not prevented delegates, NGOs and journalists - especially from the West - from complaining about something or the other in Doha and the convention centre - that the accommodation is not good enough, the transport unreliable, the food inedible and telecom services poor. Glitches there are quite a few, but the enthusiasm of the Qataris can hardly be faulted. And the comparison in facilities and hospitality could not be starker with the arrangements in Seattle during the 1999 WTO conference, when participants used to find it difficult to even find a glass of water. That there is enough of at the conference centre in this tiny desert country.

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Why Doha? NGOs claim the WTO chose Doha because its remote location and strict visa procedures would keep out the protesters. The truth is different. Qatar made its offer in September 1999, before Seattle. In spite of its reservations, it retained its application after the demonstrations. And while the WTO tried hard to get a more ``westernised'' country to host the 2001 meeting (Chile and Switzerland were sounded out but they declined), nobody wanted to risk facing the anti-globalisation protesters. And that left Doha as the only candidate. Of course, it did mean that a shortage of hotel rooms and that NGO participation would be restricted. While the number of NGOs registered for Doha is the same as in Seattle - around 350 - a shortage of rooms in Doha has meant only one participant from each NGO has been given a visa. That is why there are fewer NGO activists here in Doha.

The conference is being held in the Sheraton of Doha. That means journalists, used to freebies, had to initially pay five star prices for a sandwich and a coffee. It took the public intervention of an Indian journalist for no less than the vice- chairman of the organising committee to point out that a hospitality tent was providing (free) snacks... It took yet another intervention from the same reporter to have the hours of the hospitality tent extended. But a new problem has arisen. The biggest users of the facility are government delegates and Qatari officials.

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``Thank you for an instructive briefing. We have been falling off to sleep in press conferences of the E.U. and the U.S.,'' said a U.S. reporter yesterday at a scintillating meeting with the Brazilian delegation where the impact of the WTO agreement on patents on drug prices was laid bare. Unfortunately, there are few such developing country press conferences. Until this evening this was true of the Indian team as well, which was happy to meet Indian reporters and uncomfortable about large room meetings. But there was a sea-change this evening when Mr. Murasoli Maran held an informal press conference overlooking the sea and had close to 100 journalists hear him answer all questions with aplomb.

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Fewer representatives from registered NGOs, the location of Qatar and its visa procedures have reduced the colour that usually marks the parallel events in all global conferences.

But the NGOs that are here are doing their best with wittily worded flyers and press releases. And the position of the usual villains - the U.S. and the E.U. - provides them enough fodder. The best of November 10: ``Emperor Zoellick has no clothes!'' Circulated by an NGO, this is a reference to the U.S. Congress refusing earlier this week to vote on giving President Bush wide- ranging trade negotiating powers and passing a resolution tying the hands of the U.S. negotiator, Mr. Robert Zoellick, at Doha on agreeing to new talks on anti-dumping duties.

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