As
Norway on
Syria Defends
UN, Might
Gentrify in
Brooklyn,
Haiti
on Agenda?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 12
-- Twelve days
before the
UN's annual
General
Debate kicks
off, Norway
invited the
press to
schmooze high
above
Second Avenue
amid talk of Syria
and chemical
weapons
and,
strangely,
a Norwegian
sponsored
artists studio
in Brooklyn.
Inner City
Press tweeted
photo here.
The
hostess,
Consul General
Elin Bergithe
Rognlie, is
new to New
York
having come in
from Kenya.
But Norway's
Ambassador
Geir O.
Pedersen,
also present,
has also work
for the UN.
Even so,
tellingly, he
acknowledge he
needs to learn
more about how
the UN
responded to
legal claim
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti.
How
can the UN's
forthcoming
report on
chemical
weapons in
Syria be taken
at face value,
when the UN
was willing to
dissemble
about its
responsibility
in Haiti, and
not even
apologize?
It
was said,
repeatedly on
Thursday, that
the head of
the UN team,
the
Swedish Ake
Sellstrom, is
a credible
scientist. But
if his report
is
misused, as it
seems French
foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
tried on
Thursday,
will Sellstrom
speak up?
Still,
hearteningly,
one left the
Norway soire
with this
message, and
not only the
reference to
uber Norwegians
Jan Egeland
and Robert
Mood: the
country
believes force
can only be
used for
self-defense,
or with the
Security
Council.
On
a much smaller
or more local
level, Norway
has through an
artist and
a curator to
Brooklyn, to
Bushwick to be
exact. Inner
City Press
asked - isn't
this
gentrification?
This gave
raise in some
to
laughter, in
others to
self-reflection.
The
context is a
change of
government, in
which the
"Progressives"
(described as
right wingers)
have won
seats. Most of
the Norwegian
diplomats said
there had been
no change yet,
but
journalists,
more
independent,
tell a
different
story.
How
will Norway's
new leaders
view
taxpayers'
money spent
gentrifying
another
country, the
People's
Republic of
Brooklyn?
Similarly,
when
the paper of
record the New
York Times
interviewed
Swedish
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson about
the General
Assembly, the
talk over
sweatbreads
was mostly
parking (as
well as
Syria), with
the
ostensibly
NY-based Times
not even
ASKING
Eliasson about
the UN's
shameful Haiti
dodge. This is
big media, cut
off from its
roots.
In
the midst of
the reception,
Inner City
Press used a
side room with
the consent of
Consul Rognlie
to appear on
the yes,
progressive,
radio show
Make it Plain
on SiriusXM
Satellite
Radio with Ron
Daniels
filling in for
Mark Thompson.
The talk was
anti-war, but
not pro
Obama.
Progressive
means
different
things in
different
countries.
At
the General
Debate in
twelve days,
Norway's old /
outgoing
ministers
will be here.
Their mandate
ends in
October; they
might stay on
as
caretakers but
only that. A
somewhat
similar change
has taken
place
in Australian,
which hold the
Security
Council
presidency
this month.
This is the
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
