At
UN, Ban and Pachauri Take No Questions on IPCC and Outside Income,
Transparency Charade
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March 10 -- Seeking to dampen controversies about the Inter
governmental Panel on Climate Change's use of NGO press releases as
science and about IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri's outside income from
sources like Deutsche Bank, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and
Pachauri "encountered" the Press on Wednesday.
It
was a one way
encounter. Each man made a statement, each praising the other and the
IPCC -- and then they left the stakeout, taking not a single
question. Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe was left telling reporters,
no questions, no questions. Video here.
The
UN press corps
was essentially used as a prop or as extras, to make it appear to
viewers not paying attention that this was a legitimate press
conference or Q&A. In fact, as put by one climate change
activist, this was mere propaganda, like "something out of North
Korea."
Or
perhaps Tiger
Woods is the more apt analogy, given the "racy" novel
recently published by Mr. Pachauri, another correspondent noted, in
which an aging Indian scientist flies around the world bedding young
followers.
Back
on December 21, Inner City Press
asked
Ban about Pachauri's presumptive financial
conflicts of interest and failure to disclose, but Mr. Ban did not
answer the question.
UN's Ban and Pachauri at photo op, no questions allowed
Later, Ban's
spokesman Martin Nesirky said that
Ban did not have to respond to the controversies surrounding the
IPCC, and that Pachauri would answer questions himself.
On
Wednesday,
Pachauri did not allow or answer any questions, and neither did Ban
Ki-moon. What was first advertised as a sit down press conference at
12:30 was converted into a stand up stakeout from which the two men
left immediately after speaking. So much for transparency. Watch this
site.
Footnote: while
refusing to take or answer questions in supposed press encounters, the
UN is holding two separate events for journalists in the next five
days. Inner City Press will not be present at the first, but may report
on the second, unless questions are taken and answered before then.
Watch this site.
* * *
As
UN's
Ban "Divides and Rules" G-77, Pachauri's Bank Links
Unexamined
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 21 -- While most observers and even participants
describe the Copenhagen global warming talks as a disappointment, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Press that they
"sealed the deal" and were a success.
Inner
City Press
asked Mr. Ban about the scandal erupting around the undisclosed
business interests of the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri, from the Tata Group
through Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse, and about the criticism by
the chairman of the Group of 77 and its now 130 member states.
Mr.
Ban entirely
dodged the first question, paradoxically using it as an opportunity
to praise business. On the second, he asserted that the chairman of
the Group of 77 was not, in fact, speaking for the Group, since
others' of its members spoke more positively.
Moments
later,
Inner City Press asked Sudan's Ambassador to the UN about Mr. Ban's
comments. "Divide and rule," he answered, calling the
Copenhagen process "climate apartheid." This phrase steps
back from his counterpart in Copenhagen who analogized it to the
Holocaust.
Pachauri's
conflicts of interest are extensive and emblematic of the UN's lack
of transparency and safeguards.
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