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From
UN's Post-Cyclone
Stalemale, Air Clooney Called For as Hollywood's R2P
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: A Modest Proposal
UNITED NATIONS,
May
15 --While in Myanmar the death
toll rises and intricate
meetings take place in the UN, outside the call is
growing to get something done in the Irrawaddy Delta, without or
without the
generals' consent. The Security Council is paralyzed, by France's
mis-invocation
of the Responsibility to Protect, and by the U.S.'s previous mis-use of
humanitarian concepts to justify invasion. The U.S. ignored the
Security Council in
entering Iraq. But here it blames the Council, for blocking insertion
of aid.
The people of the Irrawaddy Delta are suffering. What is to be done?
Inner City Press has a hype but simple idea. Why
don't a
group of the celebrities who come through the UN, a group of friends,
chip in a
bit of their salaries from films and hire a few planes? They could take
off from Bangkok, and air-drop aid in Myanmar. It would dramatic. One
would even
make a film, recoup the costs and more.
We have in mind George Clooney, who has come to the
UN to speak of
Darfur, even saying "I
am not a fan of no-bid contracts," when asked about the UN's $250
million no-bid contract with Lockheed Martin. Mia Farrow, too.
She's been frugal. The flights would not be expensive.
If the UN used arms-runner Victor Bout to get things done, why not
George and Mia? Call it Air Clooney. But call it, and do it. Air-drop
high energy biscuits. In the future everything can be
different.
While the UN's expert of
"Responsibility to Protect" has told Inner City Press that R to P, as
he calls it, does not apply to the situation in Myanmar, Team Clooney
would be "non-state actors" -- it would turn the Council tables, and
put the onus on the "Group of 9" to propose a resolution imposing
sanctions on Clooney, et al..
Clooney with UN peacekeepers -- calling in air strikes of high energy
biscuits?
Not to compare them, but
just
as the UN's record with mass death is decidedly mixed -- low marks
including
complicit in Rwanda and Srebrenica, a decided "Incomplete" in Darfur
-- the record parade of celebrities through the UN has had more lows
than
highs.
Cell-phone throwing model
Naomi
Campbell was given an environmental award at the UN this month. On
Air
Clooney, she could be the "gunner" of sorts, heaving the high-energy
biscuits down at the Delta.
Christie Brinkley had
been
advertised as the super-model sponsor of an environmental art show, but
then
refused to come once told that an artist friend of hers couldn't
have their
work added to the show at the last minute. Perhaps this art can be
distributed
in Myanmar -- given the generals' lack of respect for freedom of
expression, it
could become a literal cause celebre.
By the UN -- no, UNICEF --
no, the US Fund for UNICEF -- Madonna and Gucci (which
could contribute bags for the airdrop) were given use of the UN's North
Lawn, where this week trees and hedges have
been cut down. As with carbon offsetting, this is counter-balanced
elsewhere.
As UNEP announced this week, in Myanmar the generals have planted 20
million
trees.
On the upside, while UNIFEM
Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman said she hadn't heard of it, she at
least
appeared concerned once
told about NGO protests that UNIFEM's top post was
awarded to the top-ranked candidate, India's Gita Sen, but rather to
Ines
Alberdi of Spain, following Spanish monetary contributions to
UNIFEM and its
Administrator UNDP. That seeming concern may yet play a role in some
reform.
Clooney,
when at the UN in
his new role with UN Peacekeeping, had taken the time to learn about
the
controversy and calls for investigation of the UN's $250 million no-bid
contract with U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin. "I am not
a
fan of no-bid contracts," he said. "Mistakes
were made." This approach
is so rare in the UN system that a get-things-done Hollywood airdrop of
aid
into Myanmar may not be as ludicrous as it sounds. Heck, as we
learned this week at the UN, a matching grant could be sought from the
founders of eBay -- click here
for that. And the matching funds, and even pilots or volunteers,
could be sought this week at the Cannes film festival.
The
UN used to use
arms-runner Victor Bout to get things done. Why not George Clooney?
Watch this
site.
* * *
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
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