At the
UN, Questions of Real Estate and Cyprus, Rwanda and Korea, While UNDP Hides
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April
25 -- There were many more questions than answers at the UN on Wednesday,
particularly on the status of the 90-day "urgent audit" ordered 95 days ago by
Ban Ki-moon. This was the main topic of the noon press briefing,
transcript below.
Following this fruitless Q&A, Canada's Ambassador John McNee spoke about his
recent trip to Haiti. But he couldn't speak about the
murder earlier this month in Gonaives of
journalist Johnson Edouard --
"that's for MINISTAH," the UN mission, he said -- nor about the status of other
donors fulfilling their pledges to Haiti. Thus insulated from questions, his
answer was "everything's improving." Video
here,
from Minute 38:34.
On the
other hand, some responses came in my mail to previous days' questions. Tuesday,
Inner City Press directly a question
"to the Permanent Representative of Cyprus
in his capacity as chairman of the GA's Host Country committee: earlier today at
the UN's noon press briefing I asked if the UN system has any comment or
position on the case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court concerning whether New
York City can collect taxes on the portions of Missions which are devoted to
residential space -- the case is
Permanent Mission of India v. New York.
A spokeswoman for the GA
(President) said she, nor the Office of Legal Affairs, can comment, that only
the Host Country Committee and you as chairman can. So this is a request for
comment."
Wednesday, the following came back:
From: [Second secretary of Cyprus at]
un.int
To: Matthew Russell Lee
Sent: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 4:17 PM
Dear Mr. Lee, I had a chance to speak
with the Chairman of the Host Country Committee regarding your query. As I
mentioned yesterday, the Committee itself has not been seized of the matter as
it was not raised during any of its meetings nor have the good offices of its
Chairman been requested by any of the parties involved. As such, the only
comment he can make at this stage is that the case is followed with great
interest, also because additional Missions are affected by this issue. When the
verdict has been delivered we will examine it and consider reacting, taking into
account the provisions of the Headquarters Agreement between the United Nations
and the United States and the Convention on privileges and immunities.
Okay,
it's a deferral of answer, or a non-answer -- but at least it's a reply!
UN
to Cyprus 2006 -- now Cyprus treads water on UN mission tax case
Compare
to the following medley from the
transcript of
Wednesday's noon briefing:
Inner City Press: With the United Nations
Development Program people being told to leave the country, who or which agency
is going to be the Resident Coordinator -- that system where there’s always one
agency in charge? How is that decided and which agency is it going to be?
Spokesperson: As far as I know, the World
Food Program.
Inner City Press: Also, we've heard that
the previous Resident Coordinator, this guy Timo Pakkala, has now been sent
back, sent home, essentially, on leave with full pay. He's in Mozambique, he’s
on leave. If he’s the person most knowledgeable, is he going to be involved in
the audit? Why is the number one guy...?
Spokesperson: Of course he will be.
Everyone who was involved with the project will be open to auditors' questions,
of course.
Question: We've passed the 90-day mark in
which the audit should have been completed. The Secretary-General [inaudible]
that a formal, official extension of the audit. Is there a timeline?
Spokesperson: The auditors are an
independent body, as you know. It’s not up to the Secretary-General to dictate
the terms.
Question: Is there any sort of movement
to get any United Nations staff at all to visit, to conduct site visits of, some
of these projects to facilitate the audit?
Spokesperson: Well, the board of auditors
is going there.
Question: Will North Korea let them in?
Spokesperson: Well, we are willing...
We’ll find out....
Question: Is Timo Pakkala on leave with
pay or without pay?
Spokesperson: I can check that for you.
That's why I said, I'm going to get... I don't have someone from the United
Nations Development Program here now with me, and I hope to have one with me
tomorrow....
Inner City Press: Just one follow-up on
this -- on the record, in the briefing room, and not in the hallway. There
seems to be a lot of these questions, like why they didn't announce that they
were being put out of North Korea instead of waiting for it, for the letter, to
leak out?
Spokesperson: Okay, we’ll try to get a
briefing for you, on the record.
Inner City Press: I just wanted to ask,
what is the status of the Rwanda genocide exhibit that was supposed to have been
reopened late last week, or early this week? When is it going to be opened?
Spokesperson: I have to say that, it is
almost finalized right now. The equipment has to come from London and be
brought here physically. We are hoping that it still will open by the end of
the week as I had announced. If it cannot be opened on Friday, it will be on
Monday.
We'll
see....
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
In
UNCA-gate, Mr. Ban's Dig from Geneva Leads to Speechwriter Questions in New York
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April
24 -- Speaking at a dinner for the correspondents' association at the UN in
Genera on April 21, Ban Ki-moon began with a statement which his spokesperson
has since characterized as a joke, and which is quoted from below.
Doubtless, there is a place for more humor in the UN system, on both sides of
the Atlantic. And written transcripts cannot convey tone of voice or winks, if
any. But the main job of a diplomat is to master communications. Lack of
clarity, as the Federal Reserve's Alan Greenspan used to do it, should be
intentional. It is difficult to imagine that the parochial echo in New York on
Tuesday to Mr. Ban's Saturday remarks had been intended.
First,
here are Ban's remarks, as emailed to reporters by the UN on April 23:
SG: "Mr. President of the Correspondents
Association in Geneva, Ladies and Gentlemen,
"It's a great honor and pleasure for me to
meet all of you. In fact, it is the first time for me to be invited by this
whole Correspondents Association. I have not even been invited by UNCA, the
United Nations Correspondents Association in New York. I hope that this fact,
on the record, should be recorded from Geneva so that our people in New York
know about this. I am personally very much honored. Normally I have been
inviting journalists all the time in my life. It's almost the first time for me
to be invited by an association of correspondents like this one today, and I am
very much personally honored by this event. And thank you very much for your
warm welcome...
"There is one thing which I have found,
new information, is that Geneva is the largest UN city in the world, even larger
than the United Nations Headquarters in New York. There are more international
organizations, more diplomatic staff, more conference days in the year. This is
what I have found, in the sense that it may be a real sense of a headquarters of
the United Nations."
Tuesday
at the UN's noon press briefing in New York, these statements were the subject
to the first five questions, out of a total of only thirteen questions. Some are
in true-jest now calling the matter "UNCA-gate," UNCA being pronounced Uhn-Cuh,
the UN Correspondents Association. Five reporters, like this one members of
UNCA, fastened on the statement that "I have not even been invited by UNCA, the
United Nations Correspondents Association in New York. I hope that this fact,
on the record, should be recorded from Geneva so that our people in New York
know about this."
People in
New York
asked
what this meant:
Inner City Press: There was this, I am
sorry if I missed this, there was this speech by Mr. Ban in Geneva, in which he
said that they were the first Correspondents' Association...
Correspondent [UNCA President]: I have to
raise the issue officially. The Secretary-General met with the Association of
Correspondents last week in Geneva, and he told them that we here, [the United
Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA)], have never invited him out. So I
wonder... and we have an official transcript of his remarks. My colleagues were
shocked by the remarks, to say it mildly. I want to ask you, what was the
reason for him to say that and why did he say that, in Geneva, while we had
meetings with him here, in New York, at our invitation. And I am pretty sure
that he enjoyed the meetings, also.
Correspondent [UNCA Past President]: And
also, just to add, we did invite him to the annual UNCA dinner. He was seated
with the [inaudible]. So all proper courtesies were extended to him by UNCA.
Spokesperson: Well, thank you to all
three of you. I am sorry these remarks created a misunderstanding, which I want
to lift immediately. It was meant in a light-hearted way by the
Secretary-General. It was referring to the irritation expressed by some members
of the Geneva press corps that he was not able to travel to our second
headquarters at the Palais des Nations until last week. The comments
were meant in jest, and not intended to be taken seriously. I can assure you,
that the Secretary-General is most appreciative of his meetings with UNCA,
particularly the two gracious invitations extended by you to him early in his
tenure and, most recently, for his 100 days in office. He has told me how
highly he values these informal exchanges and the exchanges he had with the
correspondents' association. And the work you do, covering the UN, is to him
essential...
Inner City Press: In his talk there, he
said that Geneva was the largest UN city in the world and that there were more
international organizations and more diplomatic staff. It may be the real UN
headquarters. I am wondering, I don’t know if that was a joke as well, but if
anyone could get the numbers, to know what the basis of this is. And also, I
don't know if you will answer this, but who is writing his speeches now, like
what is the process of that?
Spokesperson: I don't know if that was a
speech. [See below.] He just improvised that. He was answering questions after
a lunch. It was not a speech in any way.
Inner City Press: Got you. Can we get
those numbers?
Spokesperson: Sure, sure, you can have
those numbers on how many agencies there are in Geneva, how many people work
there, that you can have. No problem there.
Sunny Correspondent: Just for the record,
some in New York have advocated moving the UN out of New York, but… just for the
record.
Correspondent [AP]: I would just like to
make a suggestion that, since the transcript does appear on the UN website, that
perhaps there could be a note attached saying that this was said in jest.
Spokesperson: Well, it is not right now
on the website. It has been sent to you, but it is not on the website.
Correspondent [UNCA President]: Some
diplomatic missions saw the transcript. I got a reaction from some missions
also.
Spokesperson: Okay.
Inner City Press: Maybe there should be a
section on the website for humorous speeches.
This
hasn't yet happened. As some correspondents remarked later on Tuesday, at first
Mr. Ban's jokes were accorded laughter. His "Ban Ki-moon is coming to town" song
at the UNCA Ball in December (click
here
to view), his referrals to himself as the Slippery Eel, a more recent statement
-- to UNCA in New York, as it happens -- that "you all must be disappointed in
me." Some wondered: was he joking?
And that
may be the point. The UN Secretary General doesn't intrinsically have much
power. It is a bully pulpit, or place from which to play diplomat. In that game,
if you're going to joke, make sure it's funny, or at least, make sure people who
read it will know it was intended as a joke.
As
documentation of Mr. Ban's statement that "Geneva is the largest UN city in the
world, even larger than the United Nations Headquarters in New York," a
spokesperson later on Tuesday gave Inner City Press a
one-page print-out from the UN's Geneva
web site, with a sentence
highlighted that "with more than 1,600 staff, it is the biggest duty stations
[sic] outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York." Inner City Press
is informed that during his meeting with the Geneva UN staff union, Mr. Ban said
he had "saved the best for last." And what to say in at the UN's hub in Nairobi?
In answer
to which speechwriter is traveling with Mr. Ban, contrary to the UN's
written transcript
quoted above, the spokesperson began "I don't know who wrote that" -- click
here
for video, at precisely Minute 10:25.
On the
question of Mr. Ban's speechwriters, it emerges that Edward Mortimer is gone,
and that Richard Amdur is leaving. Coming in, Inner City Press is told, is Mike
Myers -- not from Wayne's World or the bullpen, but from Newsweek. If this Mike
Myers is taking the speechwriters job that was one of the 12 much-hyped mobility
posts, that would be one that should be announced.
In
Geneva, Mr. Ban, the Swiss president, Mrs. Ban, the Swiss Ambassador to the UN
in New York, Peter Maurer
Two of
the few other questions at
Tuesday's noon briefing
went as follows:
Inner City Press: There was a
report on National Public Radio here
yesterday about reports of forced abortions in China...
Is anyone in the UN system aware of this, looking at this, has the UNFPA said
anything, are you aware of this?
Spokesperson: Of course the UNFPA has
been following these issues for a very long time. You can find a number of...
Inner City Press: This was a specific
report of last week about women being forced to go to clinics and forcibly
aborted...
Spokesperson: No, I don’t have a specific
remark on that specific news report.
Inner City Press: There is a
case now that the Supreme Court is
considering whether New York City can collect real estate taxes from portions of
diplomatic missions that are used as residences.
It is the Permanent Mission of India vs. New York. And Mongolia as well, but
the name of the case is India. I know that the US State Department is siding
with the Permanent Mission of India in this case. Does the UN have any position
on the case? Does it feel that all of these premises should be tax exempt.
Spokesperson: We don't have a position on
this at this point. As you know, there is a committee about the relationship
with the Host Country in the General Assembly, and they are handling this type
of situation.
On the
court case,
Cyprus is chairing the Host Country Committee, and its mission has said that a
statement should issue tomorrow. On
forced abortions in China,
Inner City Press called UNFPA's
previously-elusive
spokesman Abubakar Dungus, and received this in return:
Subject: COERCIVE ABORTIONS
From: [Spokesperson at] unfpa.org
To: Matthew Russell Lee
Sent: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 4:54 PM
Dear Mr. Lee, Thank you for your call.
Please find below a response, as requested. You may attribute it to Abubakar
Dungus, UNFPA Spokesperson.
"UNFPA, the United Nations Population
Fund, is concerned about reports of coercive abortions in Baise city, China. The
Fund has urgently raised this issue with national authorities and sought
investigations. "Forced abortions are violations of international human rights
standards, including those of the Cairo Population Conference, which state that
coercion has no part to play in family planning.
"UNFPA promotes access to reproductive
health care, including voluntary family planning, skilled birth attendance,
emergency obstetric care and the prevention sexually transmitted infections,
including HIV/AIDS. The Fund also promotes gender equality and the empowerment
of women.
"UNFPA provides no assistance in Baise
City. Neither does it support abortion there or anywhere else."
And there
you have it.
UN's
Trip to Balkans Slated To Skirt Demonstrations, Hit Ethnic Enclaves, Work the
Vote
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April
24 -- As the UN Security Council prepared to begin its trip to Kosovo, Serbia
and Brussels, their itinerary was presented to reporters on Tuesday by Belgian
Ambassador Johan Verbeke, who is heading up the
mission.
Since it seemed clear that
Amb.
Verbeke would not and could not answer
questions about whether or not
Russia would veto a Security Council
resolution of independence,
Inner City Press asked Amb.
Verbeke about
reports of
planned demonstrations at the
Jarine crossing point between Serbia and
Kosovo. Video
here,
from Minute 24:02.
Amb.
Verbeke said he had referred to demonstrations under the rubric of "security
dimension," on which he is deferring to UN Under Secretary General for Security,
David Veness. As to which Serb enclave will be visited, Amb.
Verbeke said it has yet to be decided, but that at
least three types of locations will be included: an "Albanian village with
missing persons," a Serb enclave, and a multi-ethnic community. "Comprehensive
and balance," Amb. Verbeke called it. The exact locations remain "to be worked
out," depending on logistics: whether the visits will be by bus or helicopter.
And will this visit impact the
votes of any Council members? Amb. Verbeke would not and could not say. It is
noted that opposition is not limited to Russia. There is the Slovakian
legislature,
South Africa with its concern about
maintaining borders, and now
reportedly Indonesia.
Belgian
Amb Johan Verbeke
Marti Ahtisaari was in Indonesia on Monday, meeting at the State Palace
with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
working for that vote on the Council. But afterwards,
state spokesman Dino Pati Djalal told reporters, "We want this problem be
settled peacefully, without triggering new conflicts. For us the most important
thing is a process that can be received by both Kosovo and Serbia."
Signed up for the trip, for Indonesia, is Mr. Hassan Kleib. For Italy, Marcello
Spatofora. For the U.S., new Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who took some few
questions from UN reporters on Tuesday. For the UK, Deputy Ambassador Karen
Pierce. Beyond the Council, but in the EU,
Inner City Press has been told to check into the position on Kosovo of Spain,
and Greece as well.
Inner City
Press is also told that UNMIK has brought in those in the UN who specialize is
the wind-down and close-down of missions.
Is this
something that the visiting Council members may check? Developing.
Steamroller or Slippery Eel, Ban Ki-Moon's 100 Days
at the Helm, Silence Doesn't Help
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- "I have many years to
go," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told UN staff on Thursday, apologizing for
bureaucratic delays in recruitment and promotion and what he is calling
"mobility."
He could have been directing this "give
me time" plea more widely, as anonymous UN insiders quoted ad nauseam in this
week's "Ban's First Hundred Days" stories have been saying. The critiques, which
Mr. Ban has been closely reading, have focused on the ham-handed introduction of
proposals to split the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations in two, and to
alter the UN's Division of Disarmament Affairs. After acrimony, the proposals
were modified, after Ban mollified UN power players (or steamrollers) whom many
say Ban hadn't sufficiently considered, if only to work around, in the first
place.
To belatedly play the
Hundred-Day, sources-say game, a just-left Ambassador of a Permanent Five
member of the Security Council credited Mr. Ban for acting on what this
ex-Ambassador calls the "Cash for Kim scandal," in which the UN Development
Program was found in withheld internal audits to be paying the Kim Jong Il
regime in hard currency. Ban's reaction,
on January 19,
was to call for an "urgent audit" -- initially worldwide, then
scaled back to only North Korea.
Still, it was said the "urgent audit" would be completed in 90 days. In a
stakeout interview Thursday morning, Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban, video
here,
from Minute 13:12 --
Inner City
Press: The urgent audit that you called for of UNDP in North Korea, that was
supposed to be done in 90 days, we are almost at that time and they still
haven't finished the terms of reference. So I am wondering is the time for the
audit to be completed going to be extended, and also if the auditors are not
allowed enter the DPRK, what will the UN system do in terms of concluding the
audit?
Ban Ki-moon: It
is still under investigation. I do not have anything to tell you at this time.
Whenever I have further information I will let you know.
The background to this (non-)
answer is not only that Mr. Ban was called Slippery Eel by the South Korean
press, but also that Mr. Ban has previously been asked to let the UN Board of
Auditors speak to the press about their work, which
still hasn't happened.
Likewise, Mr. Ban previously said he would instruct his heads of funds and
programs like UNDP's Kemal Dervis to be available to the media.
But
Mr. Dervis has not held a single press conference since the Cash for Kim scandal
broke. In fact, Mr. Ban's deputy secretary general, Asha Rose Migiro, has yet to
hold a press conference, having so far publicly taken a total of four questions
from the media, including one from Inner City Press about UNDP. Thursday a
"senior UN official," who spoke only on that basis, said that Ms. Migiro will
head up Ban's next structural hot potato, "System-Wide Coherence." Ms. Migiro
will meet Friday on the topic with General Assembly president Sheikha Haya
Rashed Al Khalifa. Good time to take questions? We'll see.
Ban Ki-moon responding to if not answering
questions, on April 12
This being a Hundred-Day,
Sources-Say story, the focus is on management style and on telling details.
Beyond the bungling announcement of the DPKO split, Assistant Secretary General
for Peacekeeping Hedi
Annabi only learned that he is being let go by watching on in-house TV the
noon press briefing of
February 9, at which chief of staff Vijay Nambiar read out a (hit) list.
Inner
City Press is informed -- not by Mr. Sach, who now only intermittently replies
to emails -- that UN Controller Warren Sach has yet to know "will I stay or will
I go," even as his contract expires this month. The LA Times' 100 Day
story,
sharper than most, described an incident most UN correspondents had heard, of
Ban Ki-moon rebuking outgoing disarmament chief Nobuaki Tanaka in such a way
that "talk that Ban would not brook dissent ricocheted all the way to U.N.
outposts in Geneva and Vienna."
How openly under Ban UN whistleblowers
can be retaliated against is a question that still hasn't been answered.
Recently a UNDP staffer, close to the Cash for Kim matter, was accused of
leaking information and was told, "You're fired and by the way, you have to
leave the country." UN staff who are not U.S. citizens can be silenced with the
threat of loss of not only their UN jobs, but their ability to stay in the U.S..
This could be fixed, by Ban or the host country. But will it be fixed?
UN staff have other questions,
including
whether the outsourcing of $9 billion from
their Pension Fund, pushed forward by Kofi Annan's USG for Management Chris
Burnham, will go forward. At
Thursday's town hall meeting, Mr. Ban said he still hasn't decided. Last month,
Mr. Ban passed the hat of being his Pension Fund representative from Warren Sach
to USG for Management Alicia Barcena back to Mr. Sach. Ms. Barcena, among the
most approachable of Team Ban, has told Inner City Press that the switch did not
indicate any change in policy about privatization. But then why switch?
In the town hall meeting, Ban emphasized
the idea of job mobility within the UN system, saying that Ms. Barcena and ASG
for Human Resources Jan Beagle would develop the idea. The Staff Union has
called on Mr. Ban to remove Ms. Beagle from that position, something on which
there's as yet no response.) Nor has there been any announcement of the winners
of the dozen "mobility posts," including a speechwriter's gig, that he announced
months ago. Some staff say those jobs were already handed out. How the winners
are announced will be another test.
Ban has reacted to other
Hundred-Days stories by congratulating reporters, even those
perceived as critical.
There is at the UN something of a symbiosis: the beat reporters see their stars
(and airtime or column inches) rise to the degree that the UN is important and
its Secretary-General articulate and of interest. Recently, some question at Mr.
Ban's press encounters are pre-screened, or at least pre-posed. Perhaps, one wag
wondered, this is how it's done in South Korea.
In fact, the back story to Mr.
Ban's press availability on Thursday was his granting of face time to the South
Korean media on Tuesday. When it was raised, a stakeout was arranged. It's been
reported that
during his recent trip through the Middle East, Mr. Ban dined each night with
the South Korean ambassador to the country he was in. Some say that's fine, he
knows these people. Others wonder at entanglements and influence.
In the Cash for Kim audit, an irony's
arisen. Some of the funding that is subject to the audit flowed from South to
North Korea while Mr. Ban was Foreign Minister of South Korea. Inner City Press
has asked the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary General, how much? The
spokesperson to whom such questions are assigned has referred Inner City Press
first to the South Korean mission to the UN (which refused to answer or even
respond), then to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (where
the spokesperson used to work, with Mr. Ban).
"You can go beg the South
Korean government," Inner City Press was told. Click
here
for that story. Well, no. The story will be told -- like Mr. Ban said, there are
"many years to go."
For now, we'll close with a seemingly
apples-and-oranges comparison of the first 100 days, in the same state, of Ban
Ki-moon and New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who has asked the press to call him
a steamroller.
Steamroller
Versus Slippery Eel: Tale of the Tape After 100 Days
Ban Ki-moon took office promising to
clean up the UN and its reputation, among other things. Eliot Spitzer said the
same, and zeroed in on earmarks in the state budget, and lobbyist disclosure.
While Ban Ki-moon made public his own financial disclosure form, none of the
senior officials he has named has followed suit. Some argue that this must await
action by the UN General Assembly. But Mr. Ban could have conditioned the
granting of posts on the grantee making disclosure.
One similarity is the need to back down.
Spitzer had to back down on the budget, and was roughed up by the union of
health care employees. Ban had to change, for example, his Disarmament program,
had to go down himself -- not only sending chief of staff Vijay Nambiar -- to
mollify the G77, as he will now have to do on System-Wide Coherence. Some say
that the remaining ASG posts will be Ban's carrots to get needed support.
Spitzer has quipped, "if
we solved every problem in 100 days, there would be nothing left for us to do
over the next three years and nine months." Mr. Ban might say the same --
perhaps he meant to -- except that it's FOUR year and nine months. Or maybe NINE
years and nine months. Time alone will tell.
At the
UN, Mayor Bloomberg Talks Global Warming While Fire Department Inspection Is
Discussed
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, April
11 -- As the UN moves toward fixing its headquarters building, while New York's
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces a rare municipal climate change plan, Ban Ki-moon
and Bloomberg met Wednesday surrounded by issues, surrounded by aides. UN
spokeswoman Marie Okabe after the meeting said that among the topics covered
were how the UN's fix-up, called the Capital Master Plan, could harmonize with
the City's goal of reducing carbon emissions. Inner City Press asked about the
attendance of NYC Fire Department officials.
"There
was a Fire Department inspection" of UN Headquarters, Ms. Okabe said, specifying
that the inspection took place in late 2006. Now, she said, UN Under Secretary
General for Management Alicia Barcena will be following up with the Fire
Commissioner. Because the UN's campus is international territory, longstanding
issues of immunity have more recently flared into tabloid
Press stories earlier
this year about rats and
eels in
the UN and no NYC inspections.
Ms.
Barcena has told Inner City Press not to expect the Capital Master Plan to be
changed from the current version, involving the construction of a temporary
"swing space" on the UN's North Lawn, to larger plan for a new tower south of
42nd Street. Marie Okabe repeated this on-camera on Wednesday, click
here for
video.
Messrs.
Bloomberg and Ban on April 11: can carbon emissions be reduced?
Mayor
Bloomberg's public schedule for Wednesday, distributed to City Hall reporters at
7 on Tuesday night, included stops at Public School 61 in Queens and at Columbia
University, with no mention of the United Nations. Inner City Press and others
asked the UN press office if Mayor Bloomberg would stop and answer a few
questions. The response was, "Ask City Hall."
Wednesday
afternoon, after having escorted take-no-questions Mayor Bloomberg to his
waiting SUV, Ms. Barcena mentioned the Bloomberg-convened climate change summit
announced earlier in the day. It is slated for May 14-17 and according to City
Hall's press release will involved "mayors from more
than 30 of the world's largest cities, including London, Paris, Tokyo, Mexico
City, Sao Paulo, Moscow and Istanbul. Private sector companies will also be
represented through sponsorship of sessions and events, and having CEOs in
attendance. These companies include: JP Morgan Chase & Co., Alcoa, Deutsche
Bank, the Hearst Corporation, the Shell Oil Company, Siemens, Time Warner, BSKYB,
Citigroup, Con Edison, Federated Department Stores, General Electric, Keyspan,
KPMG LLP, Swiss Re, and Tishman Speyer."
This litany is not unlike the UN's Global
Compact, in which large companies sign on to high-minded principles without
necessarily changing their practices. Musing reporters asked Ms. Barcena what
another item on the agenda, the City's help with Peacekeeping, could possibly
have met. Marie Okabe had referenced New York's "diverse" police force. Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly has been involved in security in Haiti, and Bernard
Kerik in other places, including for profit. It seems those topics did not come
up, nor the UN's allowance of smoking in Mayor Bloomberg's smokeless city.
One wonders if the UN will have a role in
Mayor Bloomberg's climate summit, given Ban Ki-moon's on-again, off-again
position on holding his own global warming summit. In this case, the warming
appears to be more local and concrete, and to involve the fall-out from the Fire
Department inspection. Developing...
Among the UN
correspondents waiting in the lobby, to try to ask Mayor Bloomberg questions, a
story emerged of a more recent rodent sighting in the Delegates' Dining Room,
reportedly photographed by a visiting Brazilian judge. The same was heard later
from diplomatic sources, which in the UN makes the story true, or as good as
true. We will have more on this.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
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