|
Yoda Speaks to Dead Cameras, Africa Ignored at the
UN, Burkina Faso Dissed
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 26 -- The UN cameras had
long been turned off when the Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso emerged
from the
Security Council to read a formal statement about the Palestinian
territories
on Friday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the Council stakeout had been
full of
journalists, begging Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin for a sentence
or two
about the pending Iran resolution. Burkina
Faso holds the presidency of the Council
for September, but only two reporters remained when its Foreign
Minister
emerged. While he stood in front of a UN microphone, he voice was
neither
amplified nor recorded.
After the
statement, Inner City Press asked him to explain Burkina Faso's
reported
successes in international diplomacy, starting in Ivory Coast and now,
at least
prospectively, in Sudan. Minister Yoda explained patiently in French
that a
mediator must remain equidistant between the parties, listening to both. His statement was then translated in full for
the second attendee, an intern from CNN.
A reporter
from Radio France International came over and said the
emperor had not clothes: that is, the UN cameras weren't on, nothing
was being
reported. He pulled out his microphone and asked about Chad. Then Yoda,
previously his country's Health Minister, had to
leave to catch his plane. This was his and his countries moment in the
sun
during their time at the head of the Security Council. But it's as if
it never
happened. As one wag put it, referring to
the character in the Star Wars movies, Yoda fell into a black hole at
the UN.
Minister Yoda and the man: UN's dead cameras
not shown
Not asked
was whether Burkina Faso's notably pro-Western positions, for example
on the
Zimbabwe sanctions resolution this summer, bear any relation to Burkina
Faso
being given the Sudan mediator's position, or other development aid. It
would
have felt heartless to ask it, with the UN cameras not even on.
The press
conference of another African leader, Sudanese Vice President Taha, was
cancelled on Friday afternoon. Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete, as Inner
City Press reported on Thursday, was absent
from the UN's big press conference on Millennium Development Goals, at
which
only Bill Gates, Gordon Brown and Ban Ki-moon spoke.
At Friday's
noon briefing, Ban's spokesperson's ten minute opening remarked did not
even
mention the widely reported hijacking of 30 UN system trucks in
Somalia. When
Inner City Press then asked about it, and what the UN will be doing to
try to ensure
delivery of humanitarian aid, the Spokesperson said she'd look into it.
This
had been said 24 hours earlier, without follow-up, about the UN
continuing to
provide services in parts of Sri Lanka. Some places matter, it appears,
and
some matter much less. Some don't even merit a camera. UN Partnership
for
Africa's Development, indeed. Call it
the digital divide.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
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
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
