UN's
Happiness Day Run by UN
Censor Gallach, Promotes Smurfs
Movie, Press Hindered
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
March 20 – When the UN marked
the "International Day of
Happiness" on March 20, UN
official Cristina Gallach who
has evicted and still
restricts the Press after it
asked corruption questions
screened a short promoting a
Smurfs movie. Vine
Camera video here. Inner
City Press after checking in
with minders covered the event
from a photo booth; despite a
gesturing to come to the floor
of the ECOSOC chamber to ask
questions, Inner City Press'
reduced UN pass does not allow
it there. Gallach is happy to
censor, that much is clear.
And who will come next? Inner
City Press hears, troublingly,
of a former spokesperson. More
to follow.
Facing
budget cuts, now of up to 50%
and to be addressed
systemwide, how does today's
UN react? By wasting money and
refusing to answer quesitons
about it. Inner City Press on
March 17 asked the three top
UN spokespeople, among other
things, to "please state, in
advance of the event, the
costs to the UN of the Smurfs
event tomorrow at the UN, and
who reviewed and approved it."
No answer, even as the bogus
embargo time arrived. Inner
City Press reported, and on
Friday evening the UN
confirmed, that its Department
of Public Information (DPI)
under Cristina
Gallach plans a Saturday
event with lobbyist UN
Foundation and the Smurfs, and
invited only UN-friendly media
to the photo op before it.
Inner City Press, which
closely covers the UN, was not
sent the information and has
not able to even try to RSVP
(this is similar to the way
the UN recently did
not inform the News
Agency of Nigeria, which
covers UN Headquarters, about
a trip... to Nigeria). Those
who were sent the invitation
and RSVP-ed were told:
Location: Visitors Lobby in
the General Assembly Building
Media area check-in opens:
9.30am
Media area check-in closes:
10.15am
Photographers / TV Crews in
position: 10.30am
Photo call starts: 11.00am
TV media line interviews
start: 11.05am"
All of
this for the Smurfs, in the
face not only of budget cuts
but while the same DPI under
Gallach never sent the Press
the video of Friday's
questions and answers on Cameroon,
Yemen,
Bahrain,
and Western Sahara. (The UN
has also provided no read-out
of a meeting held at 4 pm on
Friday). UN DPI should be
defunded and disbanded.
Instead, it sent out this
under embargo until now:
"Voice actors from the
upcoming animated movie
Smurfs: The Lost Village today
joined officials from the
United Nations, UNICEF and
United Nations Foundation at
the world body’s headquarters
in New York to celebrate
International Day of Happiness
with a campaign promoting the
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
The “Small Smurfs Big Goals”
campaign is designed to
encourage young people
everywhere to learn about and
support the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals adopted by
world leaders in 2015 to help
make the world more peaceful,
equitable and healthy.
As part of the celebrations,
Team Smurfs recognized three
young advocates -- Karan
Jerath (20), Sarina Divan
(17), and Noor Samee (17) --
for their actions to promote
the Goals.
Jerath, a UN Young Leader for
the Sustainable Development
Goals, invented a containment
device that could prevent
offshore oil spills and ensure
the protection of marine life.
Divan expanded a UN Foundation
girl empowerment initiative at
her high school and beyond,
and Samee is a UNICEF blogger
and advocate on social justice
issues and raising awareness
of the Sustainable Development
Goals.
The movie’s U.S. stars -- Demi
Lovato, Joe Manganiello and
Mandy Patinkin -- presented
the three young students with
a symbolic key to the Smurfs
Village in recognition of
their work.
“This inspirational campaign
highlights the fact that each
and every one of us, no matter
how young or old, small or
big, can make our world a
better and happier place,”
said Cristina Gallach, United
Nations
Under-Secretary-General for
Communications and Public
Information. “We are grateful
to creative partners like Sony
Pictures Animation and Team
Smurfs for their spirit of
collaboration in helping the
UN reach diverse audiences.”
The Small Smurfs Big Goals
campaign culminates on the
International Day of Happiness
on 20 March, which emphasizes
the importance of personal
happiness and well-being. The
idea is closely linked to the
17 Sustainable Development
Goals, which include decent
work for all, access to
nutritious food, quality
education and health services,
and freedom from
discrimination.
“Today we have seen how the
Small Smurfs Big Goals
campaign is giving children
and young people a platform to
speak out about issues they
are passionate about. As we
celebrate International Day of
Happiness, we hope many more
young people are empowered to
take action on the Sustainable
Development Goals and help
achieve a world free from
poverty, inequality and
injustice,” said Caryl M.
Stern, UNICEF US Fund
President and CEO.
The actors and UN
officials addressed some
1,500 students attending
an international Model UN
conference in the iconic
General Assembly Hall of the
United Nations, where they
encouraged all participants
and the public to join “Team
Smurfs”.
The campaign invites the
general public to visit
SmallSmurfsBigGoals.com to
find out how to contribute to
achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals, and share
information, ideas and images
on social media.
The actors also premiered a
new public service
announcement video starring
cast members of the film that
inspires viewers to join the
campaign and champion the
Sustainable Development Goals.
“We hope the campaign will
help us all think about how
our actions impact the
planet,” said Demi Lovato, who
voices Smurfette in the movie.
“Every one of us, even a Small
Smurf, can accomplish Big
Goals!”
The United Nations Postal
Administration closed out the
blue carpet event by unveiling
a special edition stamp sheet
featuring the Small Smurfs Big
Goals campaign. The film cast
along with the Belgian
Ambassador to the United
Nations, Marc Pecsteen de
Buytswerve, and United Nations
Assistant Secretary-General
for Management, Stephen Cutts,
presented the Small Smurfs Big
Goals UN stamps to the press.
Along with the event at the
United Nations, other
celebrations took place in 18
countries around the world
including Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, Russia and
the UK, to name a few, to help
raise awareness for the “Small
Smurfs Big Goals” campaign and
the Goals.
“Since 1958, the Smurfs have
embodied around the world the
universal values of
camaraderie, helping one
another, tolerance, optimism,
and respecting Mother Nature,”
said Véronique Culliford, the
daughter of Peyo, who created
the Smurfs. “It’s been an
honor and privilege for The
Smurfs to support the United
Nations and to continue our
longstanding relationship with
UNICEF with this campaign
focused on raising awareness
for the Sustainable
Development Goals.”
On March 20, festivities for
the International Day of
Happiness will culminate in a
special ceremony with the film
cast along with United
Nations, UNICEF and United
Nations Foundation officials
where they will help turn the
Empire State Building blue to
commemorate the occasion."
At 6:47 pm
on Friday, while Inner City
Press cut short an interview
and ran so that the UN
wouldn't lock away its
computer until Monday, the UN
confirmed that Saturday at
12:15 pm the following
promotion: "'Smurfs: The Lost
Village,' USG DPI Cristina
Gallach, UN Foundation Senior
Vice President Susan Myers,
President & CEO of the
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Caryl Stern, ASG Stephen
Cutts."
DPI
is a Department that could be
substantially cut or
disbanded. It used public
money to pay a trainer to call
Detroit, Michigan a "third
rate city" in "flyover
country;" it did
no due diligence as a
Macau based businessman bought
the UN, left
his bribery conduit in
and evicted
and
restricts the Press
which reports on it. Making
Inner City Press a "non
resident correspondent"
without hearing or appeal, the
UN now does not inform Inner
City Press of Security
Council trips or
Saturday's Smurf fest. From a
February 15 press
release: "The popular
Smurfs characters are
encouraging children, young
people and adults to make the
world happier, more peaceful,
equitable and healthy with a
campaign launched today by the
United Nations, UNICEF, and
the United Nations
Foundation...Team Smurfs will
rally behind the 17 Goals
through to the International
Day of Happiness on 20 March
2017 when the campaign will
culminate in a celebration at
United Nations Headquarters in
New York to mark the
occasion." We'll have more on
this.
When new - well, 74 day
- Secretary General Antonio
Guterres went on a trip to
Kenya, in New York the Press
was not informed of any chance
to go. But there Guterres
appeared with Al Jazeera, and
now in a profile
in the Washington Post from a
usually
hard-hitting reporter,
this time quoting the UN's
Herve Ladsous, who has mismanaged
UN Peacekeeping and the
Press
for five years. The article
describes the UN Foundation as
"advocating for UN causes."
But shouldn't issues like
accountability for victims of
UN cholera in Haiti, and
opposing censorship in the UN
and for example in Western
Cameroon, with no
Internet for 53 days, be "UN
causes"? In fact, UN
Foundation lobbies against US
budget cuts to the UN, even if
targeted and designed to bring
about reform. The UN's cause,
it seems, is to perpetuate
itself.
(One of
Guterres' team is quoted that
Guterres' goal is to say out
of Trump's Twitter feed. Is
telling a newspaper that the
best way to make it come
about? And if Trump or Rex
Tillerson eschewed a traveling
press corps for hand-picked
coverage, there would be and
is outcry. The Free
UN Coalition for Access
asks, Is it acceptable by the
UN?)
Recently in the UN basement as
Inner City Press came in late
through a long line of
tourists and students at the
metal detectors Inner City
Press must now use everyday
since the UN evicted
it for covering corruption,
a meeting in a windowless side
conference room was ending.
Outside in the hall it was
labeled, Congressional Group.
But inside
on a TV screen it said,
“UN Foundation: Congressional
Learning Trip.” UN Foundation
was set up, with Ted Turner's
money, to help and now defend
the UN. The UN's point person
on sexual abuse, long a topic
of interest for such
Republicans as Senator Bob
Corker (R-Tennessee), is Jane
Holl Lute, who before that was
a high official of the UN
Foundation and of the Obama
Administration. She was
notably absent this week when
a “new” sexual abuse strategy,
immediately critiqued
by Code Blue and others, was
announced. We'll have more on
that.
Down
in Washington, Democratic
sources on the Hill tell Inner
City Press of a visit by the
Obama administration's
appointee to the UN, Jeffrey
Feltman. Strangely, perhaps,
they list the topic not as
involving only Feltman's
specific UN job, the
Department of Political
Affairs he has been held over
to head until April Fools Day
in 2018, but “budget cuts to
peacekeeping.” The head of
that Department, held by
France for more than 20 years,
should be the one lobbying.
But Herve Ladsous is
unappealing in the best of
times; now he is a lame duck
leaving on March 31, to be
replaced by his fellow
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
Will Lacroix be able to stave
off cuts? Will he continue to
use public funds, more than a
quarter of it from US
taxpayers, to pay peacekeepers
accused of rape such as in the
contingents from Burundi
and Cameroon?
Inner City Press exclusively
reported and followed
up on the extension of
Jeffrey Feltman's UN contract
with regard to his UN (largely
US taxpayer) pension vesting
after the five years which
Feltman recently pointed out
has not yet been reached, but
not until now how those close
to Feltman say it was
accomplished. They exclusively
tell Inner City Press that
among the lobbyists to keep
Feltman on was none other than
Bill Clinton, whom they say
said it on behalf of his
spouse, behind whom Feltman
was famously photographed
while she worked her
Blackberry.
Speaking of photographs, Inner
City Press on March 10, still
under censorship restrictions
imposed without
any hearing or appeal after it
sought to cover the fallout
from the UN bribery indictment
of Macau-based businessman and
former Clinton funder
Ng Lap Seng, was Banned
from a simple photo
opportunity on the UN's 38th
floor. The Ban's by the
Department of Public
Information under ostensibly
outgoing Cristina Gallach, who
did no
due diligence on Ng Lap
Seng. When asked the basis,
the UN's holdover Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq gave no
reason or definition being
used; he barely looked up from
his computer, from which he
never did answer Inner City
Press' questions
on Cameroon abuses and the
UN's Cameroon Resident
Coordinator Najat Rochdi blocking
it on Twitter, nor how much
"extra-budgetary" funds the UN
proposes to use on Louise
Arbour's D1 head of office.
The
moves are stealth, like much
in the UN these days - and
have the potential of
backfiring. Watch this site.
***
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