By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
31 -- It was a
slow Wednesday
at the UN, the
last day of
July, when a
microphone and
sound system
were set up by
the entrance
doors and a
mostly blond
crowd began to
assemble. Event video here.
Inner
City Press was
looking for
news --
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
had refused to
say if the
Geneva
Conventions
cover the UN's
new
Intervention
Brigade in
Eastern Congo,
nor which
company got
the contract
for drones
signed by UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous
(video
here) --
and so went to
check it out.
The event
was to cut the
ribbon on a
bike rack, but
not just any
bike rack. The
Netherlands'
Permanent
Representative
Herman Schaper
is leaving his
post, and the
staff of his
Mission
organized this
donation and
ceremony,
without his
knowledge, as
a form of
going away
present.
But
would Ban
Ki-moon
attend? At 3
pm he and his
senior adviser
Kim Won-soo
arrived in
front of the
UN in the black
Hyundai Equus
the South
Korean mission
gave him last
December.
But they went
into the
building.
Inner City
Press was
asked: will
Mr. Ban come
back?
If you
build it, he
will come. An
orange
bicycle, one
of many
identical
bikes owned by
the Dutch
mission, was
set up on the
bike rack.
Soon Ban's
chief of
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the post,
walked by.
Inner City
Press asked,
"Who got the
drones
contract?" Video here.
Ladsous
slowed
and looked
back. He did
not answer,
continuing on
into the
building. How
can the UN
sign contracts
and spend
public money
and not say
who is being
paid?
Some
joked that
this ceremony,
with the sound
sytem and
security, cost
most than the
single
eight-bike
rack being
displayed. But
there will be
80 racks --
640 bikes, as
Ambassador
Schaper
calculated,
for the three
thousand
people working
in the
building.
At
3:30, Schaper
and his
entourage went
into the
lobby. And
there like
clockwork came
Ban Ki-moon,
with his
larger
entourage
including a
staffer with
two pairs of
scissors in a
basket. Ban
gave a speech,
citing how he
presided over
another bike
ceremony last
May. (Inner
City Press was
there, and
rode the few
blocks north
to Ambassador
Schaper's
building
overlooking
the East
River.)
Ambassador
Schaper
lauded the CitiBike
program
(Inner City
Press' review
is here)
and noted that
in the
Netherlands
and Denmark,
biking is not
a sign of
being pure but
of being wise,
healthwise and
for the
environment.
They
cut the ribbon
and then the
moment came:
would Ban
Ki-moon ride
one of the
bikes that had
been brought
for this
purpose? He
gamely tried,
with the
orange bike
leaning
against the
model bike
rack. (A
co-founder of
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked,
"Where's the
helmet?" But
this is
international
territory;
such a
complaint is
"not
receivable,"
as the UN
said of
cholera in
Haiti.
Meanwhile there
are threats
for merely
hanging a Free
UN Coalition
for Access
sign on
the founders'
door, here.)
The
orange Dutch
mission bike
was the kind
one could step
over, between
the seat and
handlebars.
But trying to
raise a leg
over the seat
is something
else.
Come
now, SG, Ban
Ki-moon was
told. You
don't need to
do that.
And he
did not.
Some from the
Dutch mission
expressed
disappointment.
But the UN has
far greater
tasks to
attend to --
for example
like deciding
to disclose
which units of
the Congolese
Army it
supports, if
the Geneva
Conventions
apply to its
Intervention
Brigade, and
whether to
disclose who
it's now
paying for
drones or if
not, why not.
Then there
could be bike
rides, and
long ones.
Watch this
site.
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