|
The UN from Elite to Street, in a Party Season, Skanska
Captured, Fetes Lantos
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse
UNITED NATIONS,
December 15 -- Day to night in the
same space in the UN two events took place that show the range of the
Organization,
from elite to street, from out of touch to all-too in touch. Monday at
noon in
the Delegates' Dining Room, over blue cheese salad, tender chicken,
dessert and
coffee, Tom Lantos was celebrated, by titan from Wall Street like
William
McDonough to Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro. In the crowd
were
UNICEF head Ann Veneman, former New York Times correspondent, and now
International Peace Institute spokesman Warren Hoge.
Reporters
who sought to cover the event were asked, "Are you on the list?"
Inner City Press was, as scarfed down salad as Francis Deng spoke about
the
responsibility to protect, after joked about being taken due to his
name as
Chinese at an event of the Stanley Foundation.
The high-brow lunch continued even as down in the
Security Council,
actually working diplomats met behind closed doors about Zimbabwe.
After that
meeting, only the UK's David Milliband spoke. Even South Africa's
Dumisani
Kumalo could not be found. The elite were running the UN, and yet
little was
being accomplished.
Eight hours
later in the same fourth floor space, UN Peacekeeping held its annual
holiday
party. Bureaucrats covering the various missions shimmied to salsa
music. The
level of expertise, both in deployment and dancing, was high. This was
not the
elite, this was the workaday UN. And no one tried to bar anyone else.
In a
previous year, then-DPKO chief Jean-Marie Guehenno danced on a table in
the
UN's Ex-Press bar. His successor Alain Leroy did not try to match that.
Jane
Holl Lute, notorious for her Unifeed-memorialized dancing in Darfur,
also did
not dominate. This was the UN's rank and file, granted the UN's party
space at
least for one night.
UN's Ban, between Tom Lantos R.I.P.
and Negroponte, Wolff alert in background
Earlier in
the month, the new construction elite of Skanska, the Capital Master
Plan
contractors, were given the Delegates' Dining Room on a Friday, and
turned away
other UN staff. "This is a private party," UN staff were told. Some asked, who are these guys? The new
elite, was the answer. This despite Skanska recently being fired and
sued in San Mateo, California, click here
for that. Skanska and UNA-USA run the place, others just work here. But
who is the real UN?
Footnote: among
the UN press corps, this is the
season of goodbye parties for countries leaving the Security Council
after two
years on. At Indonesia's party, the ubiquitous Marty glad-handed
Russia's
Churkin and the UK's Milliband. On December 16, South Africa's Kumalo
says
farewell, in a briefing and a party. And just before New Years, the
Italians
offer drinks. We'll be there, and will
report, in the spirit of UN-transparency. Watch this space.
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
