The UN Climate Circus
SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT — The ridiculous circus music was stuck in my head almost from the moment I landed in Egypt, and it only got louder as the absurdity of it all reached unfathomable heights. You know the tune. If you had been there, you would understand why I couldn’t get that outrageous melody off my mind. Everything was beyond ridiculous — it was surreal, starting from the moment I ran into the first COP27 officials who greeted the TNA team as we got off the plane.
The chaos began right away. After waiting for almost an hour for my bag at the Cairo airport, an Egyptian who spoke almost no English informed me that it had been left in Paris. “Can you forward it to Sharm El Sheikh for me?” I asked. “No,” sighed the uninterested attendant. “Why not?” I demanded. “The government said so. You can change your flight to Sharm El Sheikh and get it tomorrow night.” Cue “Under the Big Top.”
This set the tone for the rest of the trip — nothing worked, nobody was willing to do the job they were paid to do, and the scam artistry was unlike anything I’ve seen in any of the more than 75 countries I’ve been to. We were on endless loop for everything. And everybody wanted and expected a tip for doing nothing.
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