At UN, Poland's
Duda Claims UNSG Post for E
Europe, Inner City Press Asks If
In 3 1/2 Years
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos,
Periscope
UNITED NATIONS,
May 17 – When Poland's
President Andrzej Duda spoke
at the UN Security Council
stakeout on May 17, in his
opening statement he said the
Eastern European Group has
still not ever held the
position of UN Secretary
General but should be allowed
to. After he took two
questions in Polish, Inner
City Press began asking quite
audibly for the specifics of
his views on the Secretary
Generl post which fell to
Antonio Guterres in 2016, see
below. But the UN TV boom mic
went to the other side of the
stakeout, to a question about
Donald Trump. Inner City Press
was whispered to, don't be
disruptive, the questions have
been pre-selected. The Free
UN Coalition for Access,
which made a request
for transparency and even
harded new at the beginning of
the month when Poland took
over the presidency of the
Security Council, does not
accept UN media availabilities
being turned into
pre-selected, pre-scribed
theater. (The Polish mission
has been sending out
information about briefings,
and its Ambassador has
answered Press questions.) After
Duda took a final Polish
question, Inner City Press
more loudly, Does he believe
the Eastern European Group
should take the position in
eight and a half years - or in
three and a half years. We'll
have more on this. Throughout
2016 New Zealand documentary
maker Gaylene Preston and her
crew staked out the UN
Security Council along with
Inner City Press, awaiting the
results of the straw polls to
elected Ban Ki-moon's sucessor
as UN Secretary General.
Preston's focus was Helen
Clark, the former New Zealand
prime minister then in her
second term as Administrator
of the UN Development Program.
Preston would ask Inner City
Press after each poll, What
about Helen Clark's chances?
Suffice it to say Clark never
caught fire as a candidate.
Inner City Press told Preston,
as did many other interviewees
in her documentary “My Year
with Helen,” that it might be
sexism. But it might be power
too - including Samantha
Power, the US Ambassador who
spoke publicly about gender
equality and then in secret
cast a ballot Discouraging
Helen Clark, and praised
Antonio Guterres for his
energy (yet to be seen). On
March 21, Inner City Press
asked asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about the film, and if
Guterres had watched or was
trying to avoid it. UN
transcript
here: Inner City Press:
I bet you he has seen this
one, but I don't know if
you'll review it.
There's a movie called My Year
with Helen, and it portrays
the process through which he
was elected, but it's sort of,
you know, followed… so I'm
just wondering, since it's
now… it's been re… I…
Spokesman: The
Secretary-General has not seen
the documentary…
Inner
City Press: He
hasn't seen it?
Spokesman: …neither…
neither have I.
Inner
City
Press:
Does he plan to see it?
Spokesman: I don't
know if he plans to… I don't
know if he plans to see
it. The process through
which he was elected was, I
think, more transparent than
we had ever seen in the
past. And it followed
the rules and regulations, but
I'm not in the…
Inner
City
Press:
I'm saying it because it
focuses a lot on the gender
issue and how it played out.
Spokesman: The decision
to elect António Guterres as
Secretary-General was not
taken by António Guterres.
Inner City Press: …but
seeing the movie wouldn't, you
know, undermine his positions
as Secretary-General
[Washington echo]
Spokesman: And I think
his commitment to gender
parity and gender equality has
been clearly articulated and
shown, notably, in the fact
that he now has gender parity
plus in his senior management
group." But why did he run?
And what has he done? He *has*
continued censorship and
restriction, and is rarely
accessible or accountable. As
to the film: there was a
private screening of My Year
With Helen on December 4 at
NYU's King Juan Carlos Center,
attended by a range of UN
staff, a New Zealand designer
of a website for the country's
proposal new flag, and Ban
Ki-moon's archivist, among
others. After the screening
there was a short Q&A
session. Inner City Press used
that to point out that
Guterres has yet to criticize
any of the Permanent Five
members of the Council who did
not block him as the US,
France and China blocked
Clark, with Russia casting a
“No Opinion.” And that
Guterres picked a male from
among France's three
candidates to head UN
Peacekeeping which they own,
and accepted males from the UK
and Russia for “their” top
positions. Then over New
Zealand wine the talk turned
to the new corruption at the
UN, which is extensive, and
the upcoming dubious Wall
Street fundraiser of the UN
Correspondents Association,
for which some in attendance
had been shaken down, as one
put it, for $1200. The
UN needed and needs to be
shaken up, and hasn't been.
But the film is good, and
should be screened not in the
UN Censorship Alliance but
directly in the UN Security
Council, on the roll-down
movie screen on which failed
envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed are projected. “My Year
With Helen” is well worth
seeing.
***
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