At UN, Gabon's
Dynastic Ali Bongo Celebrated by
Bronx Zoo, Bill Clinton, Citi
& Leo diCaprio
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
June 6 – Ali Bongo, whose
family has ruled Gabon since
1967, is being feted by the
World Conservation Society /
Bronx Zoo and arranged a
softball National Geographic
interview with pre-screened
questions, documents obtained
by Inner City Press show. The
WCS event, according to the
documents exclusively leaked
to Inner City Press by Bronx
Zoo whistleblowers, includes
representatives from Citigroup
(recently praised by UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres), Mitsubishi, Walmart
/ Walton Family Foundation,
the Leonardo diCaprio Foundation,
Robin Hood and the Office of
President Bill Clinton. Document
here. Last year in
Washington the Atlantic
Council reportedly canceled an
award it was quietly giving to
Ali Bongo, after his
dictatorship (and cut off of
the Internet as in Cameroon)
were raised. (Atlanic Council
in a denial
says Bongo was never
considered.) But the UN and
its Ocean Conference
apparently suffer no such
vetting or scrutiny: hence the
leaking to Inner City Press.
This too: National
Geographic's questions, and
Ali Bongo's answers including
the ocean as "a vessel for
recording past climate change"
were known in advance of the
interview. Click here
to view the document, via Patreon. We'll have
more on this. On June 5 when
the Montreal-based
Executive Secretary of the
Convention on Biological
Diversity Cristiana Pasca
Palmer held a press conference
at the UN about Marine
Protected Areas, Inner City
Press as the only media to ask
a question raised criticism
about Canada's proposed
Laurentian Channel Marine
Protected Area. It was
shrunken to avoid key fishing
grounds, it allowed oil and
gas exploration. But Palmer,
and the first expert they
referred to, weren't aware of
it. Another more voluable
responder from the back of the
room said maybe oil and gas
exploration weren't bad, or
the purpose of the Marine
Protected Area. Apparently
not. But shouldn't UN agencies
be aware of such controversies
in their host countries? As
the Ocean Conference started
at the UN there were corporate
exhibits including a large one
by Suez Environmental, a firm
much protested for its role in
water privatization. Inner
City Press asked the UN
Department of Public
Information, which is
sponsoring press conference
complete with corporate
moderators asking softball
questions to supermarket
chains, who in the UN is
vetting these corporate
commitments. You'll have to
wait until the end of the
week, was the answer. But the
corporations are already
getting blue washed in the UN
website and hallways, just as
UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres reflexively offered
praise to Citigroup last week,
while his Global Compact
covered up for a company
exploiting the natural
resources of Western Sahara.
Meanwhile another topic Inner
City Press started asking
about last week, fisheries
subsidies, will not be acted
on in the Ocean Conference but
rather, if at all, in the
World Trade Organization at
the end of the year. We'll
have more on this.
***
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