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At UN, Spirulina
Pomp Likened to Snake Oil, Obama and Clinton Links Played Up
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, March 5 -- On the
fourth floor of the UN on Wednesday night, a restive crowd formed to
shake
hands with a Sheikh from Dubai, in the name of spirulina. This is an
algae
which, according to the videos shown at the subsequent dinner, can
miraculously
cure the disabled. It was rubbed onto knees in Kenya, it was shipping
into the
white phosphorous marked Iraqi city of Fallujah.
While one skeptic in the crowd
muttered, "Snake oil," it was said from the podium that the UN in
1974 deemed spirulina the best hope to fight world hunger. Its
proponents
called themselves Ambassadors; they are omnipresent in the UN's
Delegates'
Lounge, passing out books of poetry and quoting Che Guevara. Wednesday
night
they kept a Dining Room full of freeloaders waiting for two hours for
the main
course, as representatives of wine firms and the "Official Spokesman of
the Obama Family in Kenya" praised the qualities of spirulina.
Inner City Press, among the freeloaders, spoke with
a Thai refugee of
sorts, now with Smith Barney in San Francisco, who admitted to only
coming
because it was a chance to see the UN, and contrasted the evening's
pomp to a Bay Area non-profit which helps recent immigrants. Next to
her was a farm owner from
Mississippi, who flew up from Jackson for the promise of US Department
of
Agriculture subsidies for spirulina farms on the Gulf Coast.
"It'll be
like ethanol production there," she said. "Thirty six months to make
money, then get out." One wondered
if the cited connection to Obama might help with the USDA subsidy. A point was made from the podium of noting the
attendance of Hillary Clinton's brother Tony Rodham.
In the crowd, along with Tony and others, was the
UN's envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim
Gambari. Jovial as always, he wished "good luck" to those urging
International Criminal Court indictment of Myanmar's General Than Shwe,
and
expressed concern at the demotion of
Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka from head of the
UN Office in Nairobi in favor of the German, Achim Steiner.
UN's Ban with spirulina
promotor : UN, We Believe
The spirulina awardees, for the most part, did not come to the
dinner. An award was given to an
Jamaican soccer player -- called "the Diego Maradona" of that country
-- and to a doctor who took spirulina to Falluja despite the dangers
there.
"I have a good nose for bullshit," said a woman from the Deep South,
"and
this is a Code Red, pure bullshit."
The evening's host and sponsor, Sulaiman al Fahim,
is described in his
spirulina bio as having begun "investing in the stock market under his
mother's
name" at the age of fourteen. An Inner City Press source saw him at 1
p.m.
on Wednesday, while Sudan's
press conference about their president's indictment
went on, sitting in the delegate's lounge in what are described as
dirty jeans.
Hours later, in full dish-dash, he said "I have connections all over
the
world" and predicted a campaign for spirulina including
"Hollywood" people.
In fairness, while not shown in the videos,
sprirulina is said to re-open
the digestive tract in under-nourished people. But to rub it on your
legs? We
will have more on this.
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate esp. here
on Darfur
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
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 -
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