| Amid Covid DG Azoulay
Invites Filmers Inside UNESCO While Guterres
Evades Quarantine
By Matthew
Russell Lee & UNESCO
sources
UN GATE, Nov 12 – Since February
2020, Inner City Pres is
regularly ringing the bell
about the outrageous neglect
of the French administration
of UNESCO regarding the risks
of COVID infection, for
example here.
Then on the
5th of March, here,
Inner City Press reported from
souces that UNESCO was in
turmoil after the revelation
that staff members have been
infected by COVID-19 because
of negligence and profit-based
decision making by the French
DG Audrey Azoulay.
Furthermore,
on October 5th, Inner City
Press also revealed
that half of her closest
collaborators from the
Cabinet, including the
Director of her cabinet
Nicolas Kacyanides, got
COVID-19 positive tests and
that they were all quarantined
at home until further notice.
But it came to
the fore today that all that
was not enough to change the
way of behaving of DG Azoulay
in facing the COVID pandemic
risks. At the time of
the severe measures and
restrictions imposed on human
interactions aiming to limit
the risks of spreading the
infection, DG Azoulay gave a
permission to film a French
movie in the building of
UNESCO next week.
Thus, the French
DG duly authorized her
compatriot movie director to
shoot the scenes of the movie
“Le trésor du petit Nicolas”
("The treasure of little
Nicolas") on 16 and 17th of
November at UNESCO.
We have no
confirmation whether the
“petit Nicolas” is actually
about the Director of her
Cabinet, Nicolas Kacyanides,
but these days everything is
possible at UNESCO.
UNESCO sources
tell Inner City Press, “In her
mind, there is obviously still
a detrimental to UNESCO
confusion between her previous
life stances as short-term
French minister of Culture,
when she was defending
French cinema and the
decisions that she is expected
to take in her new capacity as
Director general of
UNESCO.”
Member states
were informed just a week ago
by the gutless ADG for
administration, Nicholas
Jeffreys, that because of the
severe restrictions even the
small-scaled committee of the
executive board – the CR
committee (30 members, here)
– cannot take place in
UNESCO’s Room I, (capacity of
1500 seats).
Now, it
will be interesting to follow
how will the same member
states react when they will
learn from Inner City Press
that the restrictions valid
for their governance related
work are not applicable to the
work of French movie makers.
The Chair of the Executive
board will have to ask tough
questions to DG Azoulay about
her authorization in the
context of full restrictions
and lockdown.
It must also be
underlined that this decision
by Azoulay to authorize the
filming over two days at the
UNESCO premises is given in a
sorrowful context with the
passing away from COVID of the
Ambassador of Argentina to
UNESCO only days ago on 6th of
November, after the same
causes decease of the African
representative that was
already mentioned in our
articles and the one of a
UNESCO staff, with the
unannounced contamination of
several dozens staff members.
The COVID crisis hit the
corrupted UNESCO unprepared
and poorly managed.
Incompetence and greed of DG
Azoulay put at great deadly
risk the lives of staff
members but also of permanent
representatives of member
states to the Paris based
agency. What else needs to
happen so that member states
start questioning the
privatization of UNESCO by the
French DG is an open question.
The whole
UNESCO is in crisis because of
the irresponsible managerial
behavior of DG Azoulay and her
senior team. No internal
release of information yet
about the film makers or about
the current deceases and
contaminations since the
medical service of the Agency
is under the imperative
instruction from the Cabinet
of the French DG Audrey
Azoulay not to disclose any
information on that issue in
order to avoid panic and
complaints against the
administration for managing so
poorly the crisis and for
failing to protect the staff.
This is
Guterres' UN system, in which
UNECE demands removal
of articles it will not
confirm or deny, and the UNDT
thinks it can ban press and
then demand the destruction
of evidence.
And, on COVID, in
which Guterres bragged to FOSS
small states about evading
quarantine, exposed by Inner
City Press here.
We
will have more on that. Watch
this site.
***
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