UN Ranges from
Shanghai Expo to Literacy Lunch, UNESCO's Friendly Face
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 7 -- Even with the UN
General Debate concluded, the wine and dine season of the UN is just
getting
started. Things are always for a cause. Monday night, for example, the
UN lobby
was taken over by a promotion for the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, China. China's new Ambassador to the UN was there,
along with the highest UN official from China, Under Secretary General
Sha Zukang,
with an entourage. The seal of the wider UN was delivered by Kiyo
Akasaka of
the Department of Public Information, who praised the good working
relationship
between DPI and the Chinese mission.
One
UN staffer in attendance snarked,
"This is basically promotion." Well, yes.
China is a Permanent Five
member of the Security Council. Russia, too, was given space to promote
its bid
for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. At the Chinese event, the finger food
were
swept up as by locusts.
Eighteen
hours later, four floors in the Delegates Dining Room, an A List crowd
including Ambassadors of Egypt, Finland and Spain -- always ready to
party --
the Observer of Palestine and two representatives of UNESCO, dined
politely
during a speech ranging from literacy to AIDS. The press, lured to the
event by
the promised later appearance of First Lady Laura Bush, sat in the
corner
taking notes on the diplomats' table manners.
When last we met UNESCO, sponsor of the event, they
were excluding
Tamil Tiger-affiliated groups from their human rights conference in
Paris.
Before that, in July, a UNESCO-related body agreed to Cambodia's
request to list the
Preah
Vihear temples as a World Heritage site despite Thailand's protests,
soon
followed by a military stand-off. The lunch appeared to be going more
smoothly,
as least as of this writing.
Another China exhibit, with USG Sha and Mr.
Ban, Laura Bush not shown
The head of UNESCO sent his apologies, he had to
attend to the member states on his Executive Board. They are discussing
the
process for selecting his successor. Perhaps
the interviews will include, how would
you have dealt with Preah Vihear, and the Paris conference issues?
The question for Laura Bush, assuming she accepts
one, is whether the
UN's Ban Ki-moon should even consider going to Myanmar unless Aung San
Suu Kyi
is released. Ban was asked the question at a press conference earlier
on
Tuesday, which will soon be reviewed on this site.
Laura Bush
arrived and began speaking at 1:50 p.m., thanking among others the UN's
First Lady Mrs. Ban, long-time U.S. USG Joseph Verner Reed -- who it
should be noted is close to Ban's Myanmar envoy Ibrahim Gambari -- and
the Permanent Representative of Mongolia, a co-sponsor of the lunch.
The country's president recently met with Mongolian expatriates on the
second floor of the Millennium Hotel. He was asked, if Mongolia has so
many resources, why is it underdeveloped? He was not asked about
literacy, or this lunch. Laura Bush praised Mongolia for using radio
and CD-ROMs to promoting reading to nomadic herders. Who knew?
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs.
* * *
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
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