Ahem

High visibility. A leader of the Social Movements Indaba chose a rather inappropriate piece of transport for an anti-globalisation, anti-corporatist, anti-conspicuous consumption march on Saturday. Dressed in black, his head wrapped in combative red cloth, spokesman Dale McKinley chose a top of the line, glistening black BMW motorbike to lead the march of those demanding land, food and jobs. Talk about being in the vanguard.

Cat and Mouse. Are British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe playing a game of cat-and-mouse at WSSD? Notwithstanding reports in London newspapers about the bitter confrontation, the two political adversaries are certainly not sharing a platform at the WSSD high-level segment today although they were originally billed to appear close to each other. Blair was listed as the 20th speaker while Mugabe was nine speakers behind him. But a revised list of speakers released yesterday shows that Blair has been kicked upstairs as the 10th speaker in the morning while Mugabe is listed as the 21st speaker in the afternoon. Getting a prime spot on the first day of a U.N. conference is always a tough hurdle to clear unless you have the right political clout. In New York, Brazil has traditionally held the number one spot (no one knows why) at the opening of every General Assembly session, followed by the United States in its capacity as host country. The rest have to contend with the luck of the draw. So, how did Blair climb up the ladder leaving Mugabe behind?

Military clearance. The chair of at least one major political group involved in negotiations here is being dictated to by political developments at home where the army is the power behind the throne. The press has been unable to get any comments from the spokesperson for this group because she is from the military. Asked for her comments on the ongoing negotiations, she would only say: “I cannot make any comments until I get clearance from the military”. We presume it is still better than saying: “No comment.”

Inciherence. Terraviva is also dying to know why some senior United Nations staff flew out to Johannesburg on British Airways via London, instead of using the official carrier, South African Airways which offers a much faster New York-Johannesburg route.

How many? The head of the Johannesburg World Summit company (Jowsco) Moss Mashishi said that 78, 574 people had been accredited to the Summit by Friday morning. Only 30, 888 were delegates, their spouses, civil society and media. The rest were support, security and service providers. That's a ratio of over two to one per delegate. Who said summiteers were not a pampered lot unused to doing things for themselves?