After the exhausting day on Sunday, I was happy to have a "day off" on Monday. We finished the workshop, so I moved into the hotel in Hong Kong where I'll be staying for the rest of the week. I dragged my luggage on the MTR (subway/tube/underground), not a good idea in rush hour. I have to say, though, in general it's a pleasure to ride the subway here in Hong Kong - so organized, so efficient, so intuitive, so few rats. New York MTA, please come learn.

Later on Monday I went to the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, where the Ministerial is, and got familiarized with the place. It's really huge and the facilities are hi-tech, a stark contrast to the ageing UN building. Still, you always wonder with all the money going into these huge conferences if it's really necessary, and if the money wouldn't be better spent on actual development.

I also met a few young activists from Norwegian NGOs. They have a very good working relationship with the Norwegian delegation, and they invited me to join the next meeting. It'll be a good story for the documentary.

If yesterday was quiet, today was a very eventful day. A few of us wanted to go to the opening of the conference at 3pm, and since there were only 200 seats reserved for NGOs we had to line up at around 10.30 in order to get the pass at 11.15. From there we went to Victoria Park, where civil society groups gathered for the big demonstration taking place later. Our group had been asked to perform the African dance again, so we all went up on stage and did our thing again (yes, even I danced to African drums...).

The picture above is of the Korean farmers who later clashed with the police and jumped in the water to try to swim to the conference venue. They were pretty peaceful at this stage.

I met with the GCAP delegation, and talked to a few people I know from New York. I helped to hand out a few white bands to the crowd, although it's almost like preaching to the choir. The white bands need to go out to regular people, people in business areas, people in community centers, etc, not to already engaged activists.

At 2pm, we had to make a decision between attending the opening session of the conference, or participating in the demonstration. Most chose to stay for the demonstration, but Connie, Faith (both from Kenya) and I headed back to the convention centre. We felt after spending 1 hour in the line to get the pass, it would be too bad to miss it.

I wasn't allowed to bring the camera in with me, which turned out to be a missed opportunity for some good footage. The chief executive of Hong Kong (yes, they call him, the head of state, the chief executive) spoke first, heavily promoting a free trade agenda. Then Pascal Lamy, head of WTO, spoke, and the action started.

A group of NGO-reps stood up and marched towards the podium. They were quickly blocked by security guards, so they ended up staying just 2-3 meters from where I was sitting. They had posters saying "WTO kills farmers" and were shouting anti-WTO slogans. The security guards, obviously to avoid a scene, decided not to confront them and push them out, but let them stay where they were until they had delivered their message. Double click for video

The interesting thing was that Lamy did not hesitate for one second, and just kept on talking making only a tiny reference to the noise and disturbances in the room. He was obviously prepared for such events and had planned to not stop the program no matter what activists came up with.

The protesters were eventually escorted out, peacefully, and the program resumed. After it finished, Connie and I took the opportunity to mingle with all the ministers and delegates in the room. Connie met a whole bunch from the Kenyan delegation, while I looked for Norwegian-looking people but could only find Swedes. Such a disappointment...

It had been a long day, so I went back to the hotel relatively early to relax and catch up on work and news. I watched the incident from the conference on several news channels, but could not see myself there. Tomorrow I'm invited to a daily briefing with the Kenyan delegation at 8am, but don't know if I'll make it...