Scorched- Earth Somnambulists

This time, in New York at the Earth Summit 5 (convened to review the progress made on environmental issues in the last five years), the newly-appointed environment minister, Saifuddin Soz, made an entirely undistinguished appearance and a poorly attended, lacklustre speech, whining about the lack of developmental aid and technology transfer from the western countries to the developing world. The normal press briefing was not held and it was clear that he did not want to be seen anywhere near a journalist. A prior appointment given to this writer was not honoured. The reason was simple: the poor man hadn't the foggiest—or should one say smoggiest?—notion about environmental issues.