UNITED
NATIONS, May
14 -- The UN
has many
logistics
roles, and
makes claims
to be
efficient. For
example on
Tuesday, when
Inner City
Press asked
UN
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
about Cyclone
Mahasen
bearing down
on
Myanmar,
Nesirky
emphasized the
UN was
pre-positioning
supplies.
Will
it work? At a
much smaller
level, even
the move-back
of the press
corps to the
Secretariat
building has
run into
snafus. The
promised
"EZTV" service
has proved
anything but
easy: it won't
be
ready until
the end of the
week, if then.
And
still, at
least for
some, there
are no keys.
Nevertheless,
the UN on
Monday night
urgently
informed the
Press that the
office it
would
move from
would be
cleaned out on
Tuesday night.
As noted, at
least
some
journalists
cannot leave
documents
unlocked, due
to their
sources. But
this is the
UN.
Some
in the press
corps, favored
with already
locked and
disproportionately
large offices
like the UN
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee, with
which the UN
exclusively
negotiated who
got which
space, see no
need to
advocate. Complaints,
including from
long time UNCA
members not
on the
Executive
Committee, are
being heard.
But is the UN
in too deep?
Tuesday
from
noon to 2, as noted,
UNCA was
trading 50
free lunches
for a
commitment not
to ask any
questions at a
"Luncheon and
Briefing"
on wrestling,
held in the UN
because the
sponsored paid
the
contractor
Aramark.
Meanwhile
the
previous day a
female
journalist was
asked to leave
an open
session on
human
trafficking
held in the
Trusteeship
Council
chamber.
The event was
moderated by
CNN's Jim
Clancy and was
listed in the
UN's Media
Alert (unlike
the fly
by night UNCA
free lunch
with
wrestlers).
But the
journalist was
asked to
leave, she
says, related
to a previous
complaint she
made of sexual
harassment.
Human
trafficking
indeed.
Whatever the
provable
back-story to
the order to
leave the
event, the
order was
wrong.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
back on Sunday
and early
Monday
raised the
issue of "no
keys" and
other
move-back
snafus.
From
the top level
of DPI, there
was
responsiveness.
But where the
rubber meets
the road, or
cylinder in
this case --
the UN
Locksmiths
-- the
responsiveness
has stopped.
If this is how
the UN deals
with
the cyclone in
Myanmar, watch
out. And watch
this site.
, 
