Zardari's Photographs

I thought the aide was walking on to the podium with a folder containing his speech, but in fact it was a prop. As Pakistan's President Zardari spoke, right next to him was a photograph of his late wife former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who, in that photograph, was herself posing with a portrait of her late father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto the late-former Prime Minister of Pakistan. I felt that was a political stunt destined for his domestic audience - that he was heir to the Bhutto dynasty - and an honest admission that his position was by the reflected glory and popularity of the other two. Zardari was a suave and personable man, but in my observation, not much in terms of levity or seriousness of purpose. For some reason, he just seemed a little desperate to be relevant. For a leader of nearly 190 million souls with some the trickiest and most dangerous political and economic challenges in the world (not to mention nuclear triggers on his fingers) I did not feel that he is anything close to a good hand for Pakistan. His aides were serious and smart looking but I had a feeling tha the real power - if ever there is one - in Pakistan lies elsewhere.

The Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was a warm and affable looking man. He was quite humble and generous with his time. But he came across as rather tired and forlorn. He was greeted more as a symbol rather than who he is or what he said and there was a lot of symphathy for what he stands for. But I wonder how much of those expressions of symphathy extend beyond who he was "fighting" rather than for the betterment of the daily lives of the Palestinian people.

Talking about lip service, I began to notice that among many smaller countries, the statements made by their Presidents often - in almost identical wordings - expressed support for ROC-Taiwan's entrance to the WHO and urging for its greater participation in international bodies. No doubt the Taiwanese authorities have been hard at work with the few countries who it still maintain diplomatic relations with. Although I wonder if, in terms of strategy, it would be better not to celebrate those memberships a if there is some kind of point-scoring if the argument is that those are non-political bodies.

I listened to two leaders of Caribbean countries and heard two different messages. I was very impressed with the Dominican Republic not only from learning that they intend to rely 100% on renewable energy by 2015 but also for the positive tone of its message that focused on what the country was able to do. Antigua and Barbuda on the otherhand raised much the same issues but concluded by blaming others and urging mainly others to take responsibility. I have much more faith in Dominican Republic succeeding in whatever they want to achieve.

In between I took a break and paid a visit to the peoples in the room most relevant to me: the Brunei delegation. For a few days I have been dropping my and chatted. This time I noticed HRH Princess Masna was there in attendance. She had her handbag on the table and another briefcase next to her. And she has got her highlighters and pens out and were busy making notes. She was working hard and really paid attention to the speakers. I went up, greeted her and paid my respects. She was warm and friendly; and also amused and perhaps impressed to learn that I am (i) Bruneian (ii) the only Bruneian in the UN system and (iii) I had done this myself on my own accord. She told me I was setting a good example.