As
Bed Net Bribes
Pushes Search
to Tanzania,
UN's Malaria
Man Praises
Twitter
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 13 --
Amid happy
talk on
malaria, the
question of
what to do
with the two
largest bed
net producers
both charged
with
corruption was
raised
Thursday at
the UN by
Inner City
Press.
Ray
Chambers,
Special Envoy
of
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
for Malaria,
replied that
"none of us
has the
complete
picture."
He went
on to say,
"from what
we've heard,
it was two
local people,
nothing to do
with senior
management."
But what about
command
responsibility?
A committee of
the Global
Fund will meet
soon to
consider what
to do with the
companies,
which Chambers
called
"Vestergaard and
Sumitomo."
(Vestergaard
Frandsen is
based in
Switzerland;
when the New
York Times
referred to Sumitomo
Chemical of
Japan, they
had to correct
it to Sumitomo
Chemical
Singapore.)
Chambers
mentioned
another bed
net producer,
A to Zed in
Arusha,
Tanzania.
Later on
Thursday a
long time UN
global public
health expert
told
Inner City
Press "We've
been trying to
build up a
company in
Tanzania but
there have
been
problems;" he
mentioned
electricity.
Inner
City Press
also asked
about the
response on
malaria in the
Philippines
after Typhoon
Haiyan or
Yolanda.
Dr. Robert D.
Newman,
Director of
the Global
Malaria
Program at the
World Health
Organization
cited a
recently
publication;
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky
offered to
provide
contacts for
WHO in Geneva
(then
proceeded
to refuse to
take a second
question from
Inner City
Press, while
given another
scribe a total
of four).
Chambers
said
that the
offers of
monetary and
other help for
Typhoon Haiyan
have never
been greater,
which he
attributed to
social media,
Facebook and
Twitter and
people using
them to come
together. Video
here from
Minute 20:55.
Given
lack of
transparency
and double
standards at
the UN,
including in
what questions
can be be
asked to Ban
Ki-moon and
his top
officials
like UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous
(video here, UK
coverage here)
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is using
social media
to bring
together
people wanting
and needing
information
from the UN.
We'll
have more on
this. Watch
this site.
, 
