As
UNDP Uses Arab
Spring for
Green, Had
Aisha Gaddafi
as Ambassador
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 2 --
In what some
see as
opportunism,
the UN
Development
Program which
had Aisha
Gaddafi as a
Goodwill
Ambassador
today proclaimed
that "the
'Arab Spring'
shows need for
greener
development."
One wag
wondered: is
UNDP's
reference to
Gaddafi's
Green Book?
Then
at UNDP's
press
conference,
among the few
questions was
one about
hydro-fracking.
Despite
opportunistically
using
environmentalism
to
raise money --
that is,
"green" --
UNDP said it
is no
expert and to
ask Nick
Nuttall of
UNEP. (Nuttall
has repeatedly
refused to
answer press
questions
about Ban
Ki-moon giving
a UN post
to Samuel Koo
of South
Korea.)
During the
Arab Spring,
the UN
system's
coordinator
for Libya, UNDP
official
Costanza
Farina, had in
fact been
praising
Gaddafi's
regime. She
said, “''Libya
has made
immense
progress and is well positioned among
the countries
that will be
able to say
that they have
reached 8 of
the Millennium
Objectives in
2015.” And
click here,
2010 "UNIC
Tripoli
organizes
Reception at
UN House in
celebration of
UN Day."
(c) UN Photo
Helen Clark in
green &
Gaddafi's
Treki: Arab
Spring not
shown
She
also praised
Gaddafi on
women's
rights, as
Libya is on
the board of
UN Women:
“the
UN chief for
Libya,
Costanza
Farina, said
that the fight
against
violence
against women
was one of the
priorities of
the agencies
operating in
the country
and announced
that the
United Nations
Development
Programme
(UNDP), thanks
to a
contribution
from the Dutch
embassy in
Tripoli, would
be able to
support the
programme
financially.
Farina added
that Libya is
one of the 41
members
elected to the
executive
committee of
the new UN
Women agency,
which was
created on
July 2 to show
the desire of
governments to
respect women.
Farina also
said that
"Libya
confirmed the
equality in
rights between
men and women
in 1969.”
Maybe
she is
unaware, as “local
UN officials
said, the new
coordinator of
the UN in
Libya,
Costanza
Farina,
credited only
last June 1,
is located in
Geneva.”
On February
17, Inner
City Press had asked
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
Inner City
Press: Is
there any
thought of
using the
existing UN
programs on
the ground,
whether it is
UNDP or
otherwise?
There was some
criticism of
this training
of police in
Egypt prior to
the — there
was criticism
by NGOs that
it didn’t
bring in human
rights
activists but
rather
Government
people. Is
there some
thinking of
how — the UNDP
website about
Libya hasn’t
been updated
now in several
months, I
guess — it
seems to some,
due to the
turmoil. What
about these
UN…?
Spokesperson
Nesirky: Who
might that be?
Who is it,
these people
who think it
might be?
Inner
City Press:
People that
look at it and
have seen that
it was updated
all the way,
until suddenly
there was
turmoil in the
country and
then it is not
updated any
more. What’s
the role,
according to
the
Secretary-General,
of the
existing UN
programmes in
countries like
Libya and
Yemen, where
Helen Clark
visited and
didn’t say
anything about
democracy?
, 
