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At UN, A Curried Goat Farewell to Mengesha, Mobility Called Unhelpful, Wall Between G and P Staff Must Go, He Says

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- In the run-up to the hype of the UN General Debate, dominated by will-she or won't-she come questions about U.S. candidate Sarah Palin, there was a glimpse on the night of September 19 of what some call the Real UN. It was, as so often happens at the UN, a party complete with thumping music and open bar. This one, however, was for the farewell of long-time Assistant Secretary General Yohannes Mengesha of the never high-profile Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, known by the guttural acronym DGACM, pronounced duh gack um.

   Back on July 6, Inner City Press reported that Mengesha was choosing to leave the UN system, for lack of communication. Specifically, sources told Inner City Press he felt blocked and under appreciated as the number two of DGACM. The number one, the two-named Shaaban Shaaban, was last seen opening up a computer service window next to the bar in the Delegates' Lounge, about which Inner City Press asked on September 16, per the UN transcript:

Inner City Press: In the Delegates’ Lounge, they've opened up this thing called the ICT Center.  It seems to be like a computer either repair or training center, but it seems to be, actually for diplomats, not for UN staff.  It was opened yesterday by Mr. Choi, Mr. Shaaban Shaaban and the Ambassador of Switzerland.  How is it funded and what is it for?

Deputy Spokesperson:  That's a good question, I’ll find out for you, okay?  If there are no other questions for me, please stick around or come back in a few minutes, because the General Assembly President should be here in three minutes.  Have a good afternoon.  And at 5 p.m., don’t forget, the new General Assembly President will be here.

[The correspondent was later told: The ICT Resource Centre is a Department for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management initiative.  It is designed to serve as a central point of contact for Delegates needing information and communication technology support during the sixty-third General Assembly session.  Services provided include printing, scanning and technical recommendations, as well as assistance with IT questions and problems.  The Centre will also provide to delegates, upon request, digital recordings of just-concluded Security Council and General Assembly meetings and official United Nations documents.]

  In fact, the strategy as ASG tells Inner City Press is to make diplomats, particularly those serving on the GA's Fifth (Budget) Committee so grateful for computer fixes that they vote the ever-mount millions of the ICT plan of Ban's man Mr. Choi. Another ASG criticizes Ban's new focus on so-called mobility, moving people from job to job, as a loss of expertise in the UN system. But we digress.

  Friday night in the UN's third floor Ex-Press Bar, there was live music and curried goat and drinks as strong as the orderer wanted them. Photos of Mengesha flashed across a big-screen television. "He's a grandson of Haile Selassie," Inner City Press was told by a UN friend of reggae music.

  People from across the UN system, at all levels of service from Aramark cleaners to fellow Assistant Secretaries General, came up to shake Mengesha's hand, or kiss him three times on the cheek. "He was the best ASG we ever had," more than one DGAC-er told Inner City Press. "It's a bad sign for the UN that he sees a need to leave." Another more more bitterly linked Mengesha's treatment to the consolidation of the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa, and compared the failure to have found him a USG post with another non-transparent recent, non-African promotion from ASG to USG.

Mengesha in 2006, hitting the glass ceiling on the UN's 38th floor

   Simply to move the debate forward, we're compelled to report that even some ASGs were critical of Shaaban Shaaban and his style so far. "Never trust a man with two names," said one. While based on the music Inner City Press thought Duran Duran, the joke went out: Boutros Boutros Ghali. Among the UN press corps, little is known (or offered) about him and DGACM. Questions at times are asked and merely frowned on. But it is a major arm of the UN, on which we hope to report more. This night, Shaban had come and left quickly from the party; Mengesha had given a speech calling among other things for tearing down the wall between Professional and General Services staff at the UN.

  On the margins people told stories to Inner City Press, from which we'll cull this one. There was a move to privatize and outsource the UN's publishing operations, which take place in a huge room three stories underneath the now under-construction North Lawn. Mengesha went down to see and was impressed. He told them, let's bring the delegates who would vote on outsourcing down to see what you do.

  The visit or visits were arranged, the printing presses and other work shown. Food was served, operations explained. Outsourcing was averted. Somehow it was different than the more recent craven hole in the Delegates' Lounge wall. A difference was that involved impacted staff, built camaraderie, value them. That this was Mengesha's approach was clear on Friday night, where people lined up to say goodbye. "I've never seen a farewell this heartfelt at the UN," one G level staffer told Inner City Press. Neither had we, and so we note it, in the run-up to the hype.

Watch this site, and this (UN) debate.

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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

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