In
NYC,
Fireworks Are For Tourists, Afghan Iraq Echoes, Illegal Bronx
Fight Back
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS/Bronx,
July 4 -- New York City's fireworks on the Fourth of July
were top heavy with tourists, marveling at the pyrotechnics, the
history and present of war on the Sunday's agenda. Days after the
U.S. had to switch generals in Afghanistan, bringing in its Iraq
hero, the significance of the aerial display seemed lost on Brazilian
and PIGS tourists reveling by the Hudson River.
Inner
City Press
viewed the barrage from 11th Avenue and 49th Street, the route to
which led through a tourist packed Times Square, and an extension of
Little Brazil from 46th to 48th Street. While Mexican immigrants are
to be cross examined in Arizona, more affluent South American
tourists preened in front of the Marriott Marquis.
“Give us your
decadent, your tourists with thousand dollar cameras, we'll will
fleece them in theme park restaurants” -- was THIS was America was
about?
NYC's Bloomberg and UN's Ban, inauthenticiy and S.
Bronx not shown
Earlier
on July 4,
Obama played golf, as his chief of staff mocked BP's executive for
going on a yacht. The throngs moved east on 49th and 48th Street,
past the UN's temporary peacekeeping office on Madison Avenue.
In
the Congo, over
200 died in an oil tanker crash, buried in mass graves. In Times
Square, decadent European tourists argued about frozen yoghurt. The
UN was dark, the world without direction.
But
up in The Bronx,
the fire crackers were illegal, the fire hydrants were open, the
summer was beginning...
* * *
IOC
Says
Saudi Arabia, Qatar & Brunei Sent No Women to Olympics, Sochi
Time Bomb?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 29 -- Three countries have never sent women athletes to
the Olympics: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei. This emerged on
Tuesday, when Anita DeFranz of the International Olympics told the
Press there are 204 national Olympic Committees and only three have
not sent women. “Which three?” asked Inner City Press. Ms.
DeFranz named them.
The
IOC has become
an Observer at the UN. Since the UN has 192 members, how does the IOC
have 205? Ms. DeFranz explained that for example Puerto Rico and Guam
has organizing committees but are not countries for purposes of the
UN. Inner City Press asked, “And Abkhazia?”
While
there was
laughter, by the 2014 Winter Olympics it may not be so funny. Those
games were awarded to Russia, for its notably warm resort town of
Sochi. Georgia call for a boycott, after its war with Russia for
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (Georgia's Ambassador recently traveled
to the International Criminal Court conference on the Crime of
Aggression, his Mission told Inner City Press, still beating the drum
for “accountability” for that war.)
Ms.
DeFranz took
questions about rules on ambiguous gender and the IOC's reliance on
national identification documents to resolve disputes about underage
gymnasts. Ms. DeFranz is a lawyer, and her answers showed it.
Video here.
UN's Ban, Rogge & Olympics: S. Arabia, Qatar
& Brunei not shown
A
loaded question about participation by countries “where women are
brutalized,” Ms. DeFranz answered with her own question: “the
United States?” She said the beach volley ball players are not
required to wear such small swim suits, and that boxers have agreed
to forgo beards, without it being formally required.
“What the
benefit
for the IOC of becoming an Observer?” Inner City Press asked. “Now
we can talk,” said Ms. DeFranz. She said the UN flag has flown over
the Games since 1992 in Barcelona.
Footnote:
in
audience was another Olympic athlete, swimmer Donna de Varona who spoke
to Inner City
Press about the U.S. Title IX. More countries should have it, she
said. When asked about a case in Connecticut where Quinnipiac is
defending closing its women's volleyball program by saying that cheer
leading is a sport, she shrugged. It is if they compete, she said.
Follow the money: hiss boom bah.
* * *
UN's
Closure
of
Day Care Center Raises Questions of Hypocrisy, Gender Entity End Game
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June
25 -- As at the UN talks on the “Gender Entity”
resolution are convened today, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon heads
to the G-20 meeting to speak of the importance of women to the MDGs,
the hypocrisy of closing the UN day
care center on only two days notice to parents has not gone unnoticed.
Earlier
this
week Inner City Press exclusively
reported on the June 18
closure, which working parents using the center were informed of
only
on June 16.
Inner City Press is
now informed
that the UN Department of Management run by Angela Kane has been asked
about decision, how it was taken and even if it
can be re-considered.
The
hypocrisy is
just too obvious. The Department of Management's Office for Human
Resources Management has as a stated goal “to support the
development and implementation of policies and programmes concerning
staff welfare and employee assistance..." and "(f) to
develop and implement policies on work/life issues to assist staff in
balancing professional and personal lives" (ST/SGB/2004/8).
A
Secretary-General's report on “Improvement of the status of women
in the United Nations system” (A/63/364), for example, identified
the existence of child care facilities as one of the most effective
means of facilitating work/life balance in the workplace, and notes
the small percentage of these facilities as a “notable gap” in
the United Nations.
What
was
already a
gap was made a gapping hole by a unilateral decision by an out of
touch bureaucracy which didn't even purport to consult with those
impacted.
Angela Kane claps while DSG Migiro holds the
scizzors, ASG Pollard on side
On
June
24, Inner City Press asked
the
UN Spokesperson:
Inner
City
Press:
Some staff members have raised concern that the UN day
care that they’ve run here for 38 years, at least that’s the
number that’s put on it, is now being discontinued on two days’
notice to the affected staff members. And they seem to think this is
inconsistent with everything that’s been said about work-life
balance and making it easier for women to work in the UN. What’s
the reasoning, particularly for the limited notice given to the staff
members using that day care center?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky:
What I can say, I can’t really address the
question of notice. That’s something that we could seek further
guidance on. But what I can say is that it’s clearly linked to the
renovation that’s going on in this building and the lack of
appropriate space for children to be looked after.
Inner
City
Press:
These staff members have pointed to an unused, or
virtually unused space in [building] DC-1, and said that it seems
from the notice that was put on i-Seek that the only concern is that
they’d have to have licenses and somehow be up to New York City
standards if they held it off premises. Does this imply that for 38
years it was somehow sub-par? I guess they view there was no
dialogue given and there seems to be space. I’m just wondering, I
don’t know, you didn’t make a decision to close it, but I’m
wondering…
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
That’s
for sure, that’s for sure.
Question:
Who
did, actually? Who did make the decision?
Spokesperson:
Let’s
find out.
While
as
of this
writing some 22 hours after the question was posed Mr. Nesirky had
not named the decision making official, Inner City Press has been
informed
that the Department of Management, run by Angela Kane and
overseeing “power broker” Michael Adlerstein's Capital Master
Plan, has been asked about decision, how it was taken and even if it
can be re-considered.
Footnote:
Ironically, at the same time as this reporting, Mr. Adlerstein and Ms.
Kane sent threatening messages to Inner City Press related to the
Capital Master Plan. So it goes at the UN. Watch
this
site.
, 
