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As Ghana Loses to Dinner of Ban, African Group Gripes, EU Takes for Granted?

By Matthew Russell Lee, News Muse

UNITED NATIONS, March 6, updated below -- As Ghana celebrated its 55th national day in the UN tent facing the East River, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hosted a dinner for the Security Council facing out on First Avenue. Inner City Press covered one and than the other, see below.

At Ghana's event, a trumpeter played as the Permanent Representatives of Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Fiji and Cameroon among others nibbled on fish and exchanged tales of the UN's unfairness.

   Much of the talk centered on Ban Ki-moon's exclusion of the African Group from his recent appointments: handing the Tanzanian Asha-Rose Migiro's deputy post to a Swede while considering an Egyptian for the long unfilled Special Adviser on Africa post.

An expert from the Fifth (Budget) Committee said the American Joe Torsella seemed to be gunning for a post, perhaps the Department of Management job recently advertised in The Economist. "How could the US get DM as well as DPA?" demanded another delegate.

"If they ask for it they'll get it," said another, longer working in Ban's UN. A delegate stretching back to the era of Edward Koch marveled as Albania lobbied the EU representative. "That's how they do it," he said, adding that the EU asks its accession countries to sign off on statements two hours after they're send out. "They take us for granted," he said bitterly.

Austria's Thomas Stelzer, as reported, as given one more year. But what of the African Group, on this, Ghana's night?

Update: less than an hour after goodbye to Ghana's night, Inner City Press asked descending Council Ambassadors for their read outs or views. The Permanent Representatives of Russia, the UK, China, Colombia, India, Azerbaiban, Togo and others were there, along with the deputies of France and South Africa, the head of Security Council Affairs, DPKO and Ban's wife and chief of staff. It was mostly joking, though on Sudan there was interaction that seemed serious. We'll see -- watch this site.

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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

Click here for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City Press at UN

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