At
UN, Farewell
to Mr Coffee,
Indians Make
French
Connection,
Immunity
Compared
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 25 --
In the blur of
UN receptions,
in the daze of
National Days
and farewells
to departing
Ambassadors,
some cannot be
missed. So it
was this week
for India's
National Day
on January 23,
and the farewell
to Colombia's
Nestor Osorio,
heading to
London to
represent his
country there.
When
Osorio arrived
three years
ago to take
Colombia's
Security
Council
seat, it took
him some time
to get his
feet under
him. But he
was
unfailingly
polite, and
when he left
the Council he
became president
of
ECOSOC, most
recently
brokering a
compromise on
language about
Palestine in a
resolution.
In London, he
told Inner
City Press on
January 24,
the issues are
more concrete:
increasing the
number of
direct flights
to Bogota,
talking up and
getting
support for
the
process with
the FARC.
On
the FARC,
Osorio was
able to fill
in the gaps
for the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access of
a VICE
"Correspondents
Confidential"
piece about a
journalist
being briefly
taken hostage
there. The
UN
will be a
little
sleepier
without
Osorio.
India
is a power
rising if not
already risen:
even late in
the liquorless
reception
there was the
President of
the General
Assembly and
his
entourage,
Iran's newsy
Permanent
Representative
Khazaee, and
various
Ambassadors
talking to UN
Department of
Field
Support's
Ameerah Haq,
showing off
their support
to mission in
Mali and South
Sudan.
Talk
there was not
only of the
Indian
diplomat
Khobragade who
was
arrested,
strip seached
and indicted,
then told if
she comes back
into the US
she will be
arrested.
Numerous
attendees
commented to
Inner City
Press about
its contrast
with the
French
diplomat
Romain
Serman,
taken into New York police
custody for
attempting to
purchase
cocaine
(and not
cooperating
with the
arresting
officer).
But
when Serman
left the US,
unlike
Khobragade he
was allowed to
come
back in, as
France's
consul in San
Francisco. Attempts to
obfuscate
or even censor
this story
were panned
amid samosas
and skewers of
vegetables and
tofu. The
contrast
between the
censor and
Osorio could
not be more
clear.
Colonialism
mixed with
increasingly
unjustifiable
P3 status
breeds
contempt. When
will that
farewell be?
Watch this
site.
Footnotes:
Inner
City Press in early 2011
nicknamed
Ambassador
Osorio "Mister
Coffee,"
and since then
has wondered
if it was too
harsh. But
Osorio never
let it stop
him from
answering
questions, or
explaining
his positions.
This is in
contrast for
example to UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous. After
Ladsous
proposed in
the C-34
committee the
UN's use
of drones,
and Inner City
Press spoke
with member
states who
complained,
Inner City
Press called
him Herve "The
Drone"
Ladsous.
This led to
push-back and
even threats
bordering on
censorship. It
is to combat
this, and the
other threats
cited above,
for which the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
was formed,
and offers
Osorio a 21
espresso
salute.
, 
