the latest from Bali

It is Friday night at about 6:00 pm. This is the last day of the conference and there is very little going on except high level meetings for ministers. The US and the EU are at a stalemate right now so nothing can move forward until that is settled. Last night they were up until after 2:00 doing negotiations and most people around here expect things to continue much later tonight. Everything has to get finished up.

I just heard that Canada was absent from the last 2 high level sessions. It has been bad enough that they have been so obtrusive but they are not even sitting at the table to defend their position ("what position?" you may be asking) or lend support to other countries. I guess they figure that they don't need to be there since they will just sign on to whatever the US negotiates.

It has been neat for me to stay here at the conference longer. I hadn't seen or heard much of what has been going on with negotiations before Wednesday because there were plenty of side events to keep me busy. The side events have slowed down a lot and I have been talking more with people who have been following the negotiations so it is pretty good to see how this stuff works.

I am leaving the Nusa Dua area tomorrow and heading somewhere further up the island. On Sunday I will likely be heading to the north coast of Bali for a couple of days.