Bloomberg
Notes UN Is Outside the Law and Unsafe for Children, Dodges
on Iran and Obama Plan, Message
for Bronx Merchants
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 23 -- Mike Bloomberg, mayor of the UN's host city, was
diplomatic on Tuesday when asked by the Press about complaints
surrounding the repair of the UN's buildings, including asbestos
removal next to captive employees and use of
plastic PVC piping.
"That's not easy," Bloomberg said, but "if the UN uses
good New York City contractors I'm sure that the workmanship will be
stellar."
As
Inner City Press has reported, UN general
contractor Skanska is the
subject of live litigation in California for its asbestos removal
practices. In the UN's third sub-basement, there is sewage plumbing
of white PVC plastic. UN Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein
says that fine because they are temporary. But they are not connected
to the sewers but rather collect in septic tanks.
Bloomberg
continued, "you've got to remember UN is by law a separate
entity, we can only provide advice." What is the City's advice
about the PVC pipes and septic tanks? Bloomberg referred to his sister,
the City's liaison with the UN. What does she have to say about this,
or the now-broken fire doors that she had required?
After
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left the event, about a climate change
week in September, Bloomberg was more direct. He acknowledged that
the City has barred its public school students from entering the UN
due to lack of safety. He was asked if that's why the joint event
with Ban, in part about a UN day on climate change on September 22,
was not held in the UN but outside it. Bloomberg joked about the
weather -- the first day in a week it hasn't rained -- but the
question lingered in the humid air.
UN's Ban and NYC's Bloomberg, beyond climate,
PVC pipe, Iran and economics
Inner
City Press also asked for Bloomberg's comments and suggestions for
the UN on events in Iran. This, Bloomberg diplomatically dodged,
saying, "I'd leave the international scene to the Secretary
General." Some wonder how well that's working out. Click here for Inner City
Press June 18 debate on that.
Bloomberg
also essentially dodged or declined to answer Inner City Press'
question for his view of President
Barack Obama's financial reform
plan, announced last week, including the proposed Consumer Financial
Protection Agency.
Bloomberg said it was not for him to comment, he
lacks information and leaves it to the person "in the ring."
But how would the plan impact the economy of New York City?
Finally,
about the micro-economy of the South Bronx, Inner City Press asked
Bloomberg to respond to criticism that the City-subsidized new Yankee
Stadium has not helped local small businesses but rather hurt them,
as affluent game goers bypass River Avenue for the franchises in the
Stadium compound, from Hard Rock Cafe to official Yankee merchandise.
Bloomberg said that some merchants have to change inventory. How that
will play on 161st Street remains to be scene. Watch this site.
Footnote:
the event, by the Climate Group and the Carbon Disclosure Project,
featured a backdrop with logos including Swiss Re. From the podium,
HSBC Bank was also thanked for unspecified partnership.
HSBC is in
fact under fire for funding rainforest destruction in Indonesia, and
more recently blithely gushing
about investment prospective in Sri
Lanka, which is under criticism for killing and interning Tamil
civilians and detaining UN staff. HSBC's logo was not on the banner,
nor in the June 23 press release. Perhaps they put their cash on the
barrel right at the last minute?
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Vattenfall
CEO Says UN Climate Change Post Praises Coal Burning
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 18 -- The day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
named an Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change, Inner City
Press asked the UN Secretariat's representative Tarik Banuri on what
basis Lars Josefsson, the CEO of notorious Swedish coal burner
Vattenfall AB, had been included. Vattenfall
has stated that it will actually increase its use of fossil fuels in
the years to come, click here.
Banuri first said that Sweden is a
country to be admired for its environmental record, then added that
Josefsson had been appointed in his personal capacity, not as any
statement on this record of the company he heads. But Josefsson
had
already issued said in a statement that "the invitation is also
a recognition of the significance of Vattenfall’s efforts to
advance the energy and climate issue."
So
polluting companies use the UN to blue wash their records, and the UN
does nothing. In fact, UN
envoy Jeffery D. Sachs recently praised Vattenfall at a
corporate-sponsored event that some environmental activists called
turqoise washing.
Vattenfall has already been awarded the Global
Greenwash Award
in
connection with the World Business Summit on Climate Change in
Copenhagen which Ban Ki-moon attended on May 24, just after his
whirlwind "victory tour" of Sri Lanka. Inner City Press,
returning from Sri Lanka, went to the Bella Center where Ban was
speaking to the Summit, but Ban's spokesperson there insisted there
was no way to get UN accredited media inside.
Also
on Ban's new advisory board are representatives of India's Tata,
Norway's StatOilHydro and the Korea Energy Management Corporation.
Inner City Press asked if member Carlos Slim Helu, monopolist and New York Times titan, had attended
the Group's first meeting. Banuri said he had not.
A Vattenfall coal fired plant in Germany - celebrated by UN?
Meanwhile, a group of former Presidents of the UN General Assembly
met in Seoul, on climate change. Not there was the just-past PGA
Kerim, who Inner City Press spotted Wednesday night going in to the
Ban Ki-moon speech in Manhattan which was protested by Tamils. Inner
City Press asked at Thursday's noon briefing
Inner
City Press: this grouping of former Presidents of the General
Assembly, do you know how many, and like how many of them attended? I
hadn’t heard of that group before and I saw [Srgjan] Kerim only
last night at the Ban Ki-moon award and protest. Not at the protest.
Spokesman
Enrique Yeves: To be honest, I am not sure how many of them they
are. But this is not new. They have met several times, and actually
President d’Escoto attended the meeting last year during the
General Assembly with those former Presidents. And he was invited to
go to Seoul to this meeting, and President d’Escoto wanted to
attend, but then when we changed the dates of the summit, it was
impossible for him to attend. So he sent a video message and I think
the full list of participants is on the website.
Inner
City Press: On the website of…? This body has its own…?
Spokesperson:
No, no, on the website. I think they have released just today a press
release.
The
chairman of this body, Han Seung-soo, was named a UN climate change
envoy by Ban, until he returned to South Korea as prime minister. Now
Ban has named Srgjan Kerim a climate change envoy. One wag quipped
that regardless of one's views, climate change is the last refuge of
a....
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