Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

UN Crisis Summit Begins with a Whimper and US Threat, Absent Are Chavez, Consumer Protection

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 -- The green carpeted lobby outside the UN General Assembly chamber was criss crossed Wednesday morning by a procession of diplomats, mostly lower level ministers on their way to GA President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's summit on the global financial crisis.

  At a press conference on Tuesday, d'Escoto had joked among other things about "white smoke" being issued to signal that an outcome document had been agreed to even before the conference began. The only leverage, then, that delegations have is to threaten to reopen the agreed on compromise text. And the U.S. has threatened just that, Inner City Press is told by a well placed Latin diplomat.

A paragraph in the outcome document concerning immigration triggered the U.S. threat, reminiscent of the Bush Administration. Call it the Lou Dobbs CNN effect. No U.S. administration can be seen agreeing to a text promoting open borders.

  Amazingly, given that the crisis began with predatory lending to lower income people, mostly of color, the conference and outcome document deal hardly at all with consumer protection. When Inner City Press on Tuesday after four NGOs about this lack, their answers conflated the high and low of finance, babbling that hedge funds had sold products -- mortgages? -- to unsuspecting people.

   The financial regulatory proposals have been watered down so much that banking industry sources consulted by Inner City Press, to the degree they were even aware of d'Escoto and his shifting cyber-tax proposals, said in essence that they could casually declare victory even in the flag-draped dream world of Latin leftist multilateralism.

    But where was Hugo Chavez? Where was Daniel Ortega? Was it that the sense of crisis passed? Or that d'Escoto's conference became too much of a joke even for grandstanders like Chavez? D'Escoto hired his nephew with UN money to advise about the crisis, then Tuesday refused to even explain the nepotism which left Latin diplomats, even leftists, shaking their heads.

UN PGA d'Escoto, white smoke not shown

   Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his advisors strode in formation into the GA chamber. UN Communications staff came and erected a blue General Assembly backdrop so that the UN TV camera could no longer film into the chamber. Many backdrops at the UN, but who would speak in front of them? Mexico, for example, has a minister said to be ready for press encounters. The UK has Mark Malloch Brown, but where it is not clear. Sir John Sawers was spotted Tuesday afternoon -- looking for intelligence, someone quipped.

   Croatia's permanent representative Neven Jurica, it was confirmed to Inner City Press, is no longer in charge of the mission. The financial irregularities Inner City Press reported on Monday have been further specified: gambling losses in Las Vegas, charged to the mission, according to the Zagreb press. It is the national day there, the mission says, there will be no more statements. Others note that Croatia is downsizing the mission by a full nine staffers. Why run for the Security Council if you're only going to downsize? The financial crisis is everywhere. Watch this space: this will be updated.

Update of 2:22 p.m. -- at the UN's noon press briefing, Inner City Press asked d'Escoto's spokesman about the immigration paragraph and about the U.S. being represented by its UN Ambassador Susan E. Rice, no one from the Treasury Department or financial regulatory or even development agency.

  He gave a count that of 142 delegations "inscribed," 67 are represented by their Ambassadors. Responding to the immigration questions, he called it a negotiation. Prior to the briefing, on why d'Escoto did not provide his reasons for hiring two relatives with UN money, he said that many people want to talk about many things and d'Escoto is not going to fall into the trap. 
 
  Whether while berating the G-20 for example as non transparent and the UN GA as a better alternative it is a good idea to refuse to answer questions about the use of UN funds to hire relatives is a good idea will, one supposes, be subject to objective assessment through time....

Update of 3:24 p.m. -- the panel discussion with Joseph Stiglitz is kicked off, under the watchful eye, on the podium, of President d'Escoto's nephew, an advisor on the summit paid with UN funds. The Press has been confined to the cheap seats, where most seats don't have ear pieces (and some that do, have Stiglitz blaring in Russian). Also on the panel are mid-level managing directors of the IMF and World Bank. There will be something "interactive," but the Press, in the cheap seats, will not be able to participate. Ironically, the UN's in-house media, UN Radio, was down by the podium interviewing Stiglitz. It's like state owned media giving itself a scoop. Only at the UN....

Update of 3:54 p.m. -- Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank, mentions the good deeds of the head of the World Bank (who is not here). Head of ECLAC in Chile Alicia Barcena talks about the UN's "transparency and accountability" and the shift from an oil to a carbon free economy. Why did Chilean president Bachelet cancel her appearance here?

 Meanwhile Ms. Barcena's successor as UN Under Secretary General for Management Angela Kane held a "town hall" meeting earlier this afternoon in the UN basement. Security Officers outside said, only for staff. Shouldn't the sign say closed meeting, then? Yes," the guard acknowledged. Even staff were not allowed to tape record the meeting. Can you say, paranoid? So how much more transparent than the G-20 is the UN?