Excerpt and Photo from royalgazette.com
Animals roam freely in the road, rain-filled potholes serve as impromptu birdbaths, and motorists speed down narrow side streets with little to no regard for the odd pedestrian. No, this isn’t Bermuda. St John’s, the capital of Antigua & Barbuda, is hosting the United Nations’ Fourth International Conference on Small-Island Developing States — an event that seeks to educate, enrich and empower developing nations and territories the world over.
More than 5,000 people have converged on the northeastern Caribbean island for the four-day event, providing local hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and taxi operators with a post-pandemic injection of capital. A minibus collects a Trinidadian SIDS4 attendee and me from a guesthouse in the city centre.
Kevin, the driver, admits that the United Nations has not provided adequate instructions to the companies contracted to shuttle SIDS4 passengers. Driving from 6am that morning until some hour in the evening, he is unsure of how and when he will be compensated for today’s work.