As
US Gets Down
With UN, of
Opera and
Rohingya, Fact
Check by the
Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 25 --
In the weeks
before the US
elections, the
US
Mission to the
UN in fine
multilateral
style held
separate 22nd
floor
receptions for
the UN General
Assembly's
Second, Third
and Fifth
Committees,
this last on
Thursday
night.
After
photos with
and a short
speech by US
Ambassador for
Management and
Reform Joe
Torsella --
called by some
Fifth (Budget)
Committee
denizens
"Ambassador
Tweetela" for
his social
media
penchants --
there was
opera, sung
from the top
of the stairs
over
the Mission's
river-view
ballroom.
Earlier in the
week, Torsella
highlighted to
the Press the
US Mission's
reminder to
the
Secretariat,
of promises
Ban Ki-moon
made in
December. Days
later,
Torsella
offered a
Twitter
hat-tip to the
Heritage
Foundation for
a budgetary
catch.
Thursday
night Torsella
told Inner
City Press
that he hadn't
had full
control this
year unlike
last of
the food or
caterer,
but of the
opera he joked
about
"Brindisi"
and "I got a
whole lot of
nothing."
The food
included
sushi, and
Under
Secretary
General for
Management
Yukio Takasu
was
there, as well
as Torsella's
Japanese
counterpart
Jun Yamazaki,
previously the
UN's
Controller.
Also
in attendance
was UN
Assistant
Secretary
General Franz
Baumann. The
US Mission
likes his for
cost cutting;
some UN staff,
particularly
but not only
in Publishing,
are less
impressed.
Recently
after
Inner City
Press was
invited to the
UN's Third
sub-basement
to
disprove
Baumann's
statement that
all the
printing
equipment
worked,
the UN started
some form of
investigation
of how this
fact-check
happened. On
this, the US
should be on
the side of
transparency
and
audit, if only
by the media.
Though
the Fifth
Committee is
largely not
their purview,
at least under
the
December
crunch, many
Permanent
Representatives
were there,
ranging
from Jamaica
and Suriname
through
Algeria,
Montenegro and
new
Security
Council
members
Luxembourg and
Rwanda.
At
the Second
Committee
reception, the
US' Elizabeth
Cousens'
speech
joked about
the many
acronym's the
committee and
wider UN use.
Suriname
chairs the
Third (Human
Rights)
Committee,
which heard
Friday from
the Special
Rapporteurs
on, among
others, Religious
Freedom
and Myanmar.
In Washington,
Victoria
Nuland
expressed US
concern about
the plight
of the Muslim
Rohingya in
Myanmar's
North
Rakhine State.
Would it have
an impact?
Watch this
site.
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