At
UN, Spinning Rape, Cmr &
Consultants, Smale Town Hall
Panned, Reverse, Recuse or
Resign
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
October 12 – UN
departments hold periodic “Town Hall” meetings
with staff and some are worse that others.
Several attendees of the UN Department of
Public Information town hall meeting on
October 3 chaired by Alison Smale after a
month atop DPI have marveled to Inner City
Press at what was said by Smale. That staff
complain to Inner City Press that Smale and
Guterres may bring in outside consultants is
understandable; perhaps these overpriced
consultants will highlight waste within DPI.
But contempt for Africa, and false promises of
openness, were the themes of the complaints.
Smale began by invoking the Prague spring, and
described CNN as a high level of media to
which the UN should aspire. She mispronounced
the capital city of the Central African
Republic, while saying that presenting
Guterres' upcoming trip there as entirely
positive will be her litmus test for the
Department's performance. So, a staffer asked
rhetorically, we have to lie that the UN is
serving Central Africans well or be reviewed
by some European consultants. Outside the UN,
from Cameroon many have noted Smale's focus on
Germany and Catalonia, more on this to follow.
Smale invoked not SWAT but “SWOT,” insisting
that the UN should push itself forward for
credit for example at the recent Global
Citizen concert in Central Park. She alluded
to a move toward “flexible space” on the 10th
floor of the UN, DPI's offices, where she is
expected to keep her private office (like the
no-show Egyptian state media to which DPI is
trying to award Inner City Press' long time
shared work space on the third floor). She
repeatedly harped on DPI staffers having
different business or “visitors” cards, and
brought up her history at UPI (!) for street
cred, saying that radio spots focus the mind,
pre-podcasts. She claimed “my door is open,”
then modified it to an “email door” -- after
having refused to respond to a single of Inner
City Press' detailed e-mail petitions for more
than a month. She was serviced, the staff
complain, during the meeting by Darrin
Farrant, who used to carry Cristina Gallach's
purse; a staffer wondered if the silent Maher
Nasser, three time loser for the job, was in
fact moderating the failed Town Hall. Overall,
it is a conflict of interest for a person now
openly declared to be intent on false
propaganda in an African capital she can't
even pronounce to continue to restrict
independent Press. Reverse, recuse or resign.
We'll have more on this.
***
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