As Ban
Doles Posts to
Podesta,
Holgiun &
Tawakkol
Karman,
Can She Speak?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
31 -- Seven
months into
his second
term at UN
Secretary
General, Ban
Ki-moon has
been doling
out new UN
posts at an
accelerating
speed. Tuesday
posts went to,
among others,
John
Podesta of the
US, Tawakkol
Karman of
Yemen, and
Maria Angela
Holguin
of Colombia.
Recently,
Ban
gave a similar
post-2015
development post to a
representative
of
the Gates
Foundation --
a post paid
for with
"extra
budgetary
resources"
from the Gates
Foundation, as
first reported
by Inner City
Press. But who
is paying for
these?
Ban
gave
a "Global
Education"
post to former
UK prime
minister
Gordon Brown,
whose
successor
David Cameron
he named
co-chair of
the
High-level
Panel on
Post-2015
Development
Agenda.
That
Colombian
foreign
minister Maria
Angela Holguin
was looking
for a UN
post was first
reported
by Inner City
Press back
in April.
This post
may not be
what she had
in mind, but
it is
something.
We
hope, for the
sake of those
so desperately
needing it,
that this
"High Level
Group" results
in some
development.
During
the US
election
season to give
a post to John
Podesta, who
served as
"Co-Chair of
the
Obama-Biden
Transition,"
seemed to some
akin to a Ban
Ki-moon
endorsement.
Other say the
Obama
administration
nominated
Podesta, just
as they did
Jeff Feltman,
and what could
Ban
Ki-moon do?
France
got
a post for a
former
official of an
international
financial
institution.
No, not
DSK, but
Jean-Michel
Severino,
formerly of
the
World Bank. By
the Podesta -
Feltman logic,
he had to be
accepted
just as Herve
Ladsous was
accepted by
Ban, entirely
at the last
minute as
reported
by Inner City
Press, after
preferred
candidate
Jerome
Bonnafont was
found to be
too brash,
bragging in
India about
his new UN
position.
Now Ladsous
openly refuses
to answer any
question
from Inner
City Press.
Arab
Spring
activist
Tawakkol
Karman was
also given a
post, and here
we
have no
choice but to
hearken back
to mid-June,
when the UN
accused Inner
City
Press of misconduct
for signing
Tawakkol
Karman into
the UN as a
guest where
she -- horror
of horrors! --
took questions
from the
press on
camera.
Now
with Ban
Ki-moon giving
her this post,
it seems clear
that
pretextual
"misconduct"
note to file
must be
erased. Watch
this site.
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