UN
Won't
Answer
Questions
Since Ban
Ki-moon's At
Home, Deputy
Spokeman Calls
Press
Solipsistic
for Even
Asking
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 17 --
When Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon does
not
come to the
UN, the UN has
little or
nothing to
say. That was
offered
Wednesday as
the reason for
canceling
regular noon
briefings:
"the
Secretary
General has
been to a
large extent
working from
his own
home."
When
Inner City
Press asked
why not, even
in Ban's
absence,
devote five or
ten
minutes a day
to a question
and answer
briefing
during this
summer of
Libya and
Syria, Ban's
acting deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq on
August
17 called this
request, and
the Press,
"solipsistic"
(transcript,
definition
and synonyms
below).
Haq's
belated
linking of his
canceling noon
briefings to
Ban being
absent from
the
UN, if only at
his UN-paid
residence 10
blocks north,
led a senior
Ban official
to tell the
Press that
this is how it
works: Ban
does
not, for
example, name
an envoy to
Syria because
"if there is
any progress,
Ban wants to
claim the
credit."
The
official
compared it to
Ban's claim of
a personal
relationship
with Sudan's
Omar al
Bashir, that
this would
bear fruit.
"In Southern
Kordofan,
Abyei and
Darfur, has
it?"
When
Haq on
August 12
announced he
would not hold
Tuesday or
Thursday
briefings,
and Inner City
Press questioned
why, Haq said
it was done
previous
summers.
But beyond
this being the
summer of
Libya, Yemen,
Sudan and
Syria among
others, Haq's
claim was not
true: in the
past ten
years,
briefing were
only so
limited in
2009, under
Ban's
spokesperson
Michele
Montas.
Inner
City Press
researched
and put online
the
transcripts of
daily August
briefings
from 2001 to
2010,
disproving
Haq's claim.
But on August
17 Haq would
not admit he
had misspoken,
instead saying
that Ban is
working from
home and
claiming that
"I provided
you the
answers" to
the
questions
emailed to him
Tuesday when
there was no
noon briefing.
But
Haq again
merely
referred a
question to
UNEP, about
Ban giving a
job to Samuel
Koo; as
reported
today, Haq
answered a
question about
UN official
Michael
Williams but
not an
identical
question about
Valerie Amos.
He did not
answer how
many people
work for Ian
Martin on
Libya.
Ban,
Haq, Pascoe
& Kim,
Nesirky not
shown, Q&A
reduction not
admitted
Haq
also did not
define or
provide
synonyms for
what he called
the request
for answers
and briefing:
so here goes,
from merriam-webster.com
Solipsistic:
overly
concerned with
one's own
desires,
needs, or
interests
<regards
today's young
people as
solipsistic
slackers who
have no
knowledge of
or interest in
the world at
large>
Synonyms
egoistic
(also
egoistical),
egomaniacal,
egotistic (or
egotistical),
narcissistic,
self-absorbed,
self-centered,
self-concerned,
self-infatuated,
self-interested,
self-involved,
selfish,
self-loving,
self-obsessed,
self-oriented,
self-preoccupied,
self-regarding,
self-seeking,
self-serving,
solipsistic
This
is how this UN
answers
questions.
Watch this
site.
From
the
UN's noon
briefing
trancript of
August 17 (no
briefing or
transcript for
August 16 -
nor 18?)
Inner
City
Press: I
remember on
Friday when
you announced
that the
briefings were
going to be
[canceled],
Tuesdays and
Thursdays no
briefings, you
seemed to say
that this took
place many
summers
before. So I
went back and
looked at the
archive and it
seems that,
it seems that
only in 2009
were any of
these
briefings
suspended, and
given that
this year
there is so
much going on
with Syria,
Libya and
other things,
I wonder, do
you maintain
this was done
in previous
summers and
what’s the
problems with
just having
briefings
short as
it may be
everyday?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq: There is
no problem
with having
briefings
when we have
information to
impart. There
have been some
days that
we hadn’t had
that
information to
impart.
Frankly, on
this one,
let’s not be
too
solipsistic
about it,
Matthew, you
did have a
bunch of
questions for
me yesterday
and I provided
you the
answers.
Inner
City
Press: You
seemed to
imply that it
took place in
all previous
summers, and I
looked at the
last 10 years
and only one
summer were
they
suspended. Is
this a less
newsworthy
summer than
previous
summers?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq: It was
suspended in
previous
summers —
2009 and I
think a few
years before
that. It
doesn’t happen
every
summer, but
yes, there are
certain slow
weeks. In this
case, this is
a week where
the
Secretary-General
has been to a
large extent
working
from his own
home and quite
a few
officials are
not present.
There
simply wasn’t
that much
information.
And frankly, a
Tuesday
briefing would
have been a
fairly dull
one. If there
seems to be a
lot going on
tomorrow, we
could revisit
the decision,
otherwise, the
next briefing
would be on
Friday.
And
at 4:05 pm on
Wednesday, the
day before
closed door
briefings on
Syria
including by
Ban's
Department of
Political
Affairs, amid
requests for
similar
presentations
about Southern
Kordofan in
Sudan, Haq's
office
announced
there will be
no noon
briefing on
August 18.
Apparently
there is not
"a lot going
on."
, 
