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UN Plots a Global Lottery, Lays Claim to
U.S. Stimulus Payouts
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
April 14 -- A
"global lottery" is among the innovations in financing for
development that former French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
mentioned
to the Press on Monday. Given the widely acknowledged regressive nature
of
raising funds through lotteries, Inner City Press asked Douste-Blazy if
a
lottery was really the best or most innovative way to try to help the
poor.
"You mean, on the ethical plane?" Douste-Blazy asked. Yes, that would
be the question.
While
agreeing that
this is "a real question" (sur
la table is how he put it in French, a question that is on the
table), Douste-Blazy
spoke of the social goals of lotteries in Belgium and France. Video here,
from Minute 19:35. "We are
working on it," he said. And he's not kidding -- "global
lottery" has been mentioned before in this context by the UN, click here.
Douste-Blazy also discussed raising
funds off airplane tickets, saying there are only three main sites that
make
reservations over the Internet. Let the games begin...
Douste-Blazy plans Lotto at UN, where
stimulus payments will be swallowed, like Rice
Meanwhile,
in the run-up to the release of the $600 stimulus payments by the U.S.
Treasury, Inner City Press was told Monday that the UN's Office of
Legal
Affairs has ruled that UN employees who receive the stimulus payment
will be
expected to turn it over to the UN. The UN Staff Union has argued that
since it
is not a tax rebate, but intended to stimulate the U.S. economy, giving
it to
the UN is not, they say, appropriate.
While
others consulted by Inner City
Press on Monday did not disagree that the payments be endorsed and
signed over to the UN, one
wonders if this was intended as a stimulus to the UN, and how the money
will be
spent.
Footnote: One impacted
staff member marvelled that OLA chief Nicolas
Michel is being allowed to keep the ten thousand dollars a month,
minimum, he received in housing subsidy from his Swiss government since
2004, while his Office rules that lower down employees must return
$600 received from their government. Only at the UN...
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Tel: 212-963-1439
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718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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