•/ Housequake: So how was it for you? Out of the Woods was shaken from his beauty sleep on Wednesday night by a timely reminder of the fragility of the earth on which we stand. It was “only” a 6.0 magnitude earthquake, the IMF informed us all by email, and no tsunami warning — but it makes you think of the terror everyone on Sulawesi must have felt when their world was rattled to its core.
•/ Silence for Sulawesi: Speaking of which… At noon on Wednesday, a crammed auditorium stood for a minute’s silence to remember the thousands who lost their lives in the Sulawesi earthquake. It was scrupulously observed, as one would expect — apart, that is, from the whip-crack sound of a hundred flash bulbs clicking around the halls. To all the offending photographers out there — a little decorum please.
•/ Gender (queue) jumping: Let the record show that Out of the Woods is a boisterous advocate for sexual equality. But waiting in the searing heat on Wednesday to clear security, he realised that women and men were in different lines, and that the former’s sped along while the latter’s was stuck in neutral. OOTW tried to self-identify as a woman in order to jump the queue — a logical reaction to our gender-fluid times — but no dice.
•/ PPP body-slam: When time was called on a downbeat debate on the uncertain future of public-private partnerships in a windowless Westin antechamber, a hirsute chap with more than a passing resemblance to the actor Joaquim de Almeida chirped up. Why, he wondered, did no one on the panel have anything good to say about PPPs? “Are there any good examples of these things,” he said, to general laughter. “Some people must be in favour, but if they are, they aren’t in this room.”
•/ Shrug it off: When France was pipped by Poland in the race to print the world’s first sovereign green bond two years ago, it was so irked it simply pretended it won. With Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati claiming now that a $1.25bn green bond makes our wonderful hosts the leading issuer of climate-friendly debt securities, how should Paris react? OOTW believes a Gallic shrug is the apposite response.
•/ Desperately Seeking Signore: Scanning the newsroom yesterday morning, Out of the Woods was surprised and startled to spot a missing face: the much-revered Signore Numero One, Italy’s number-one journalist (see OOTW passim), a chap so dapper and stylish his tie has a producing credit in the film Roman Holiday. We’ll update you on his presence at this year’s event.