UNITED
NATIONS, May
30 -- When Togo
held its end
of Security
Council
presidency
reception
Thursday at
the UN,
Ambassador
Kodjo Menan's
gratefully
short speech
did not look
back at the
month, as the
morning's
Wrap-Up
session did,
but rather to
a UN election
on Monday.
Ms.
Hohoueto,
interviewed
later by Inner
City Press, is
running for
the
UN Committee
on the
Elimination of
Racial
Discrimination.
There are
16 candidates,
minus
Madagascar,
for nine
seats, and the
election is
June 3. This
is how the UN
works.
This
too is how the
UN works:
multiple
diplomats
approached
Inner City
Press to say
they are
outraged at
the idea of a
press table in
front
of the
Security
Council being
eliminated.
One African
Permanent
Representative
demanded, Who
is behind
this?
A
Western
Permanent
Representative
explained,
there are some in
the UN
press corps
who have said
they do not
want it. (They
control the UN
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee.)
"We do not
agree, but
we need them."
How
can it be,
that
ostensible
journalists
would be
lobbying for
less
rather than
more access?
It's
that the media
is a business.
These Gulf and
Western
correspondents
benefit from
less access:
they get
spoon-fed
scoops by
"their"
missions, and
do not want
independent
media being
able to access
the
range of UN
and elected
Security
Council
members states
by means of a
work table at
the stakeout.
But
what should
the UN
Secretariat
want -- access
for the range
of
journalists,
or a monopoly
of Gulf and
Western media?
This has
become
the question,
raised by the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
The
head of the UN
Department of
Public
Information,
to whom this
has
been raised,
faces a moment
of truth: is
he in favor of
access? The
arguments have
been made, and
the verdict is
awaited. He has
asked for time
and it has
been granted.
But time is
running short.
The issue is
not
complicated:
return to how
things were,
or reduce
access.
Invited
to
the Togo
reception in
the "Delegates
Dining Room,"
Inner
City Press
went up to the
DDR
on the fourth
floor, now
open. But
there it was
corporation,
JP Morgan,
Bill and
Melinda Gates
et al.
Toto was in
the cafeteria,
albeit with
smoked salmon
by the river,
spicy Togolese
meats in the
back.
Among
Permanent Five
members of the
Council,
Russia's
Vitaly
Churkin,
China's Li
Baodong and
the UK's Mark
Lyall Grant
were in
attendance.
UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve
Ladsous,
we kid you
not, walked
around
unnoticed
for a while,
before
alighting on
Kenya's
Permanent
Representative.
Did they talk
about the
racism of the
ICC? Or how
that court
refuses
to prosecute
those who kill
perceived
supporters of
Laurent
Gbagbo?
Somalia's
Permanent
Representative
as it happens
is a long time
UN system
employees,
with the World
Health
Organization
all over
Africa and
finally in
Eritrea. It is
a UN story, as
is that of an
80 year old
retiree who
remembers a UN
barbershop,
cut rate roast
beef and the
Delegates'
Lounge.
When
will that
re-open, after
so much
spending by
member states?
And who
would dare
turn it dry,
even on Friday
night? Is that
Joe Torsella?
Or someone
joyless? Watch
this site.
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