"My Year With
Helen" Shines Light On UNSG
Election of Guterres, Who Hasn't
Seen It, ICP Asks"
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 21 – Throughout 2016 New
Zealand documentary maker
Gaylene Preston and her crew
staked out the UN Security
Council along with Inner City
Press, awaiting the results of
the straw polls to elected Ban
Ki-moon's sucessor as UN
Secretary General. Preston's
focus was Helen Clark, the
former New Zealand prime
minister then in her second
term as Administrator of the
UN Development Program.
Preston would ask Inner City
Press after each poll, What
about Helen Clark's chances?
Suffice it to say Clark never
caught fire as a candidate.
Inner City Press told Preston,
as did many other interviewees
in her documentary “My Year
with Helen,” that it might be
sexism. But it might be power
too - including Samantha
Power, the US Ambassador who
spoke publicly about gender
equality and then in secret
cast a ballot Discouraging
Helen Clark, and praised
Antonio Guterres for his
energy (yet to be seen). On
March 21, Inner City Press
asked asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about the film, and if
Guterres had watched or was
trying to avoid it. UN
transcript
here: Inner City Press:
I bet you he has seen this
one, but I don't know if
you'll review it.
There's a movie called My Year
with Helen, and it portrays
the process through which he
was elected, but it's sort of,
you know, followed… so I'm
just wondering, since it's
now… it's been re… I…
Spokesman: The
Secretary-General has not seen
the documentary…
Inner
City Press: He
hasn't seen it?
Spokesman: …neither…
neither have I.
Inner
City
Press:
Does he plan to see it?
Spokesman: I don't
know if he plans to… I don't
know if he plans to see
it. The process through
which he was elected was, I
think, more transparent than
we had ever seen in the
past. And it followed
the rules and regulations, but
I'm not in the…
Inner
City
Press:
I'm saying it because it
focuses a lot on the gender
issue and how it played out.
Spokesman: The decision
to elect António Guterres as
Secretary-General was not
taken by António Guterres.
Inner City Press: …but
seeing the movie wouldn't, you
know, undermine his positions
as Secretary-General
[Washington echo]
Spokesman: And I think
his commitment to gender
parity and gender equality has
been clearly articulated and
shown, notably, in the fact
that he now has gender parity
plus in his senior management
group." But why did he run?
And what has he done? He *has*
continued censorship and
restriction, and is rarely
accessible or accountable. As
to the film: there was a
private screening of My Year
With Helen on December 4 at
NYU's King Juan Carlos Center,
attended by a range of UN
staff, a New Zealand designer
of a website for the country's
proposal new flag, and Ban
Ki-moon's archivist, among
others. After the screening
there was a short Q&A
session. Inner City Press used
that to point out that
Guterres has yet to criticize
any of the Permanent Five
members of the Council who did
not block him as the US,
France and China blocked
Clark, with Russia casting a
“No Opinion.” And that
Guterres picked a male from
among France's three
candidates to head UN
Peacekeeping which they own,
and accepted males from the UK
and Russia for “their” top
positions. Then over New
Zealand wine the talk turned
to the new corruption at the
UN, which is extensive, and
the upcoming dubious Wall
Street fundraiser of the UN
Correspondents Association,
for which some in attendance
had been shaken down, as one
put it, for $1200. The
UN needed and needs to be
shaken up, and hasn't been.
But the film is good, and
should be screened not in the
UN Censorship Alliance but
directly in the UN Security
Council, on the roll-down
movie screen on which failed
envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed are projected. “My Year
With Helen” is well worth
seeing.
***
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