UNITED
NATIONS, June
25 -- With
fifteen months
to go until
the
“Sustainable
Development
Goals” are
determined by
the UN General
Assembly,
Palau's
Ambassador
Stuart Beck on
Tuesday made
the case for
an oceans SDG.
He recounted
that only last
night, Palau
had its
highest tide
ever.
The
seas have
become so
acid, he
continued,
that mussels
and clams are
having a hard
time forming
their shells.
Inner City
Press asked
Beck about
Palau's shark
sanctuary,
which became
with 600,000
square
kilometers and
is now up to
12.5 million
square
kilometers,
with
subsequent
joiners like
Mexico,
Honduras and
Costa Rica,
Bahamas,
Barbados,
Micronesia and
the Maldives.
If sharks
could say
thanks, he
concluded,
they'd give
thanks for the
sanctuary. Video
here from
Minute 7:05.
Accompanying
Beck
was Ghislaine
Maxwell of the
TerraMar
Project, who
said the
oceans account
for 16% of
humanity's
food and spoke
of using
social media
in the
campaign. It
must target
all 193
states, Beck
pointed out.
(Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, it is
understood,
doesn't know
much about the
idea.)
It
seems Ban's UN
doesn't know
much about
social media
or new style
network
organizations
either. The
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
formed after
the old
UN
Correspondents
Association
showed itself
willing to spy
for the UN
and seek
to get new
media thrown
out, has
been using the
Internet
and now Twitter
to press for
media access.
Now
the UN Department
of Public
Information
has threatened
to suspend or
withdraw
Inner City
Press' UN
accreditation,
ostensibly for
having a
FUNCA sign on
the door of
its office.
(Ironically,
it was FUNCA
that thanked
Beck for his
briefing; no
UNCA Executive
Committee
member even
came.) It was
about this
office that a
DPI official
demanded to
speak to Inner
City Press in
the two
minutes
between
Palau's
presentation
and the noon
briefing.
Inner
City Press
asked again
for answers to
questions it
has put to
DPI, about
double
standards for
UNCA
Executive
Committee
members with
solo offices
and two
UNCA signs,
and crackdowns
on free
speech. DPI is
trying to
dictate that
FUNCA use old
organizational
forms. But
there is no
going back.
Watch this
site.
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