LITERARY
UN GATE, Feb 7 --
In the run-up to the
Genocide Games a journalist had
been fired by a US-based
media company, the story
went. Why? Because she was a
Uighur.
She
said they had been
ordered to fire her by China, the
host of the event. The case seemed
too perfect, certainly to the
decarcelatory Criminal Justice Act
lawyer Gul had first approached,
and who in turn told Kurt.
So
Kurt took the tale to another
lawyer, his friend Michael Randall
Long. They met in
Long's office over the Ali Baba
fruit stand, just down Worth
Street from the SDNY courthouse.
It had snowed and Long's office
was cold.
"The windows are old," Long told
Kurt apologetically.
"Hey, I'm cold
even in the Press Room," Kurt
said. It was true. The last few
nights as he worked on the PACER
terminal, writing up the cases
beyond the hype of US v. Avenatti
and Sarah Palin v. NYT, he had put
on his old suit jacket from
defunct Moe Ginsberg that he left
hung up in the press room, along
with others'.
Kurt told Long
what he knew about the case, and
Long's answer was typically
energetic or naive. "A
lawsuit would take a long time,"
Long said. "I think we might be
able to get her job back by taking
her up to the United Nations and
making some noise. Don't they have
a Human Right Commission or
something?"
Kurt laughed. "It's called
the Human Rights Council, and it's
in Geneva. Anyway China has a seat
on it, and they pretty much back
up dictators all over the world.
Hell, they fired a lady I know
because she blew the whistle on
them giving the names of Chinese
dissidents to Beijing. One of them
got killed."
Long shook his head. "So the
Security Council, then," he said.
"They meet in New York, I see 'em
sometimes on TV. Aren't they
taking about Ukraine these days?
And the US is a big player,
right?"
"The US has a
permanent seat," Kurt said. "But
so does China. And Russia, so they
haven't accomplished anything on
Ukraine if you've noticed."
"I
saw something about the
Administration bragging about
getting a meeting, and then some
Ambassadors standing in front of
flags with a lady from Norway
reading a statement," Long
said.
Kurt laughed. "That's Mona
Juul, as head of the Security
Council. And she refused my
questions about taking a loan from
Jeffrey Epstein. [See here,
and book here.]
"Like
I said, and sang, the UN is
corrupt. But be my guest, try to
take the case up there. Just,
there is no 'We' on this. I can't
even get into the building, since
Guterres had been in charge. You
take her up there, and send a
press release how it goes. Only,
send me the press release first. A
half hour heads up is all I
need."
"Sounds like a plan," Long said.
They arranged for Gul to come to
his office above Ali Baba later in
the day, and Long started
researching how to get into the
UN. He wasn't on the banned list
that Kurt was. At least not yet. #GenocideGamesofGuterres.
*
* * *
File
first, ask questions later. That
was one of Michael Russell Long's
maxims. It made some sense in
Federal court, where the right to
amend was liberally granted, at
least once. But Long had no idea
how to file at the UN, or where.
So
he and Gul headed up to the UN on
the 4 train from Foley Square, two
stops on the express to Grand
Central then four blocks East to
the Glass House.
As
they walked down the Isaiah stairs
on 43rd Street, the 39 floor slab
was glinting like a knife in the
winter sun.
"This
UN never did anything for the
Uighurs," Gul told him as they
passed a felafel truck already
firing up for the day. "And in the
five years, under this guy from
Portugal, and the lady from Chile
in Geneva, even worse. But maybe
you can find the right
people."
Long has signed them up for two
tourist passes, twenty dollars
each. Like a museum, Long had
remarked. Or a whorehouse. They
waited on line at 46th Street, and
flashed the passes when they got
to the front of the
line.
"Passport?"
a guard in white shirt who came
over asked.
Long asked, "Why?"
"Only
for her," the guard said. "You
stay out of it."
"I'm her lawyer," Long
said.
"Ooh,"
the guard said patronizingly.
"Wait here." As he walked away the
guard muttered, "You must be veeery
important."
"Don't worry, Gul, this will just
take a minute," Long told
her. A man in a suit came
back over. He smiled but has a
prepared question: "Of which UN
member state are you a citizen?"
he asked.
"Excuse
me?" Long said. He searched his
brain for a come-back. "Do you
mean if we're from the Cooks
Islands we can't come in and look
around that, uh, Parliament of
man?"
The suited man smiled again. "So,"
he said, "Taiwan, I take it.
Province of China. Chinese Taipei
as the IOC puts it."
Gul put her hand on Long's arm.
"No, I have a Chinese passport,"
she said. "It's expired but I have
a Chinese passport." They had
refused to renew it, at the
consulate on 35th Street, when
they'd locked her parents up in a
concentration camp outside
Urumqi.
"Then
how did you fly here?" the suited
man asked.
"I live here," Gul said. "I have a
work visa." She paused. "I'm a
refugee. The UN is supposed to
help me."
From January 21,
2022: UNSG Antonio
Guterres: This visit to
the Olympics is not a
political visit. We consider
that the Olympic Games are an
extremely important
manifestation in today's world
of the possibility of unity,
of the possibility of mutual
respect, of the possibility of
cooperation, of peoples of
different cultures, of
different religions, of
different ethnicities. And
this is more important than
ever when we see xenophobia,
when we see racism, when we
see white supremacy, when we
see anti‑Semitism, when we see
anti‑Muslim hatred
proliferating all over the
world... That is the reason
why I am going to the Olympic
Games. And it has nothing to
do with my opinions about the
different policies that take
place in the People's Republic
of
China.
Spokesman
Dujarric: Okay, sir, I
think you're then off the
hook.
Will
Guterres be taking his Deputy
Amina
J. Mohammed, supportive
of the killing and targeted
detentions perpetrated by
Buhari of Nigeria? See,
Identity Thieves - and,
forthcoming, Genocide Games of
Guterres. For now, Belt
and Roadkill.
***
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