At
UN,
Tuvalu on
Fukushima, UAE
on Bahrain,
Low Drama From
Tableless
Booth
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 28
-- Friday
night at the
UN was high
drama. The
Security
Council passed
a resolution
on Syria
chemical
weapons;
French foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
pontificated
at the
stakeout
as John Kerry
walked out.
Saturday
the
UN returned to
earth, hard.
The General
Assembly Hall
felt empty
as Tuvalu
denounced the
nuclear
poisoning of
the ocean --
that would
be Japan's
Fukushima --
then the
United Arab
Emirates
claimed that
opposition in
Bahrain are
terrorists.
Inner
City Press ran
to the
Temporary
North Lawn
Building, this
year's GA
hall, to watch
the final
speech of the
night and the
rights of
reply
from what's
called the
"Print Media
Booth." This
was
established
after the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info
challenged the
unprecedented
banning of the
press from the
GA hall.
But
in the Print
Media Booth,
there is no
table, no
chairs, no
translation.
If you sit on
the floor to
use a laptop,
all you see is
the ceiling.
Of
rights of
reply, there
were only
three. Serbia
shot back at
Albania,
saying they
have not
accepted the
breakaway of
Kosovo. Iran
chided
the UAE for
calling the
Persian Gulf
the "Arabian
Gulf."
And the UAE
closed it out,
in Arabic
untranslated
in the Print
Media
Booth, citing
the Abu Musa
island.
Outside
on
First Avenue,
the police
barricades
were removed,
the protest
pens
being
disassembled.
A longtime UN
staffer told
Inner City
Press she
was not
impressed by
Obama's speech
this year, and
even less
impressed by
French-nominated
Syrian rebel
leader Ahmad
al Jarba,
a/k/a
Jarbucks.
Inner
City Press was
interviewed on
radio Saturday
morning about
Jarbucks,
and will be
again on
Monday. It is
a classic UN
story: rules
ignored
by the
powerful,
attempts to
censor press
question. This
is the UN,
after all --
when it
returns to
earth. Watch
this site.
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