WORLD leaders tend to be immensely serious figures, so when President Clinton tried to start a Mexican wave at the end of a photo-op line up of 18 presidents and prime ministers at the APEC summit, the results were predictably somewhat hesitant, writes Conor O'Clery.
The wave rolled brokenly towards China's President Jiang Zemin standing near the far end where it petered out on the rock of Chinese dignity. But the effort underlined the new confidence Mr Clinton has when meeting other world leaders. He and the Chinese President were relaxed and smiling throughout the ceremonies, reflecting the rebound in US Chinese dealings.
The sunny mood was helped by the casual dress, de rigueur now for Asia Pacific Economic Co operation get togethers. When they gathered at the former US naval base they all wore the barong, a light native silk shirt which has its origins in the era of Spanish occupation. Filipino men were then required to wear semi transparent shirts outside their trousers to show they carried no concealed weapons.
There were plenty of weapons on view in Filipino hands yesterday around Subic Bay. Up to 10,000 police and soldiers enforced the strictest security measures at the luxury villas where the leaders met, and kept away a big crowd of anti APEC protesters.
The security measures angered the demonstrators and some members of the media who were subjected to endless checks. There were loud complaints from some American journalists, especially when a member of a CNN camera crew was excluded by security officials from the media pool filming the world leaders in their tie less barongs, because he was wearing shorts.