CATEGORY:MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT ---------------------------------- By Wallace J.A Inside Grenada correspondent Saturday February 03,2007 ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada: Today marked a very significant milestone in the fraternal relationship between the Government and people of Grenada and the Government and people of the People’s Republic of China. Grenada severed diplomatic ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan sometime after Hurricane Ivan and established diplomatic relations with their rivals on mainland China. The Chinese Government subsequently made a number of promises to assist the Grenadian people in the reconstruction efforts following the two hurricanes that impacted the island in 2004 and 2005 respectively. One of the promises made was to build a National Stadium for Grenada to allow the country to host matches in Cricket World Cup 2007 (the original stadium was completely demolished by Hurricane Ivan in September, 2004). The Chinese were able to deliver on a number of promises they had made to the Grenadian people and even though many persons had doubted that the stadium could ever be completed on time, they were able to accelerate work on the project and present a marvelous, world-class sporting facility to the Government and people of Grenada on schedule. The Ceremony at the Stadium this morning was therefore meant not only to give thanks to our friends on Mainland China but also to noticeably demonstrate Grenada’s appreciation for the herculean effort of the Chinese workers thereby cementing closer ties with the Chinese Government and people. It was therefore an extremely mortifying moment for the Government and people of Grenada when the Grenada Police Band inadvertently played the national anthem of Taiwan instead of the Chinese national anthem during the ceremony. This must have felt like a slap to the face of the Chinese delegates in attendance who had to stand at listen to the anthem of their archrivals, the Taiwanese. An embarrassed Dr. Mitchell had to profusely apologize to the Chinese delegation over the unfortunate occurrence and assure them that the incident was not done on purpose. He promised that a full investigation will be carried out into the matter. Later on during the ceremony, however, the correct anthem of Mainland China was played. It is somewhat bewildering to think that after so much planning would have obviously gone into preparing for today’s ceremony, the Grenada Police Band would made such a colossal blunder that has the potential to cause a major diplomatic fall-out.