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December 02, 2003

Triumph of Hope over Organisation. The spanking new International Conference Centre is an impressive sight - but will be more so when it's finished.

As I wandered around over the weekend, there were armies of people scrambling around, applying the finishing touches. Carpets were still being laid and rendering was being slapped onto bare brick walls.

Every so often I'd come across a room packed with boxes of television sets, or computers. At the media centre, in search of my pass, I met the man charged with pulling things together, crammed into the back of a tiny prefab office.

He welcomes me to CHOGM with a smile and a handshake but, no, the passes are not ready yet. In fact, neither is the media centre. I met delegates who had spent all day in the search for accreditation.

One described the summit sadly to me as "the triumph of hope over organisation."

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