| While
UNSG Guterres
Flies 1st
Class For
Safety, US
Pruitt Mocked
For That,
Senator Cites
Shame
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 17 – The UN spent $319
million on travel last year -
but in that are automatic first
class fares not only for
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, a frequently flier to
what UN staff call his real home
in Portugal, but also for his
deputy Amina J. Mohammed and
both of their "eligible family
members." Inner City Press
reported this and asked the UN
why; the response, without
specifics, was safety concerns.
But consider that in the UN
government, EPA chief Scott
Pruitt is under scrutiny for
using safety as a reason to fly
first class; previous US EPA
administrators didn't fly first
class, even on longer overseas
trips. “I would be embarrassed
to get on a plane, sit down in
first class and have my
constituents pass me by and see
me in first class," Sen. John
Kennedy (R-La.) said. But
today's UN is shameless. UN
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres, who
will spend the
next four days
in his native
Portugal,
says he has a
"zero
tolerance"
policy for
sexual
harassment,
and for
retaliation.
But his chief
of "Global
Communications"
Alison
Smale
argued that
all UN staff
including
victims should
"speak with
one voice"
which several
staff told
Inner City
Press they
took to mean,
Don't make the
UN look bad.
When Guterres
took
over on his
post-Olympics
junket, Inner
City Press
predicted he
would use
it as a
pretext to go
to his real
home, Lisbon.
And so it is -
on February
16, after his
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric literally ran off
the podium as
Inner City
Press asked a
question,
saying "I'm
good," the UN
put on its website
that Guterres
is in Lisbon
and won't be
back to New York
until February
20, four days
away.
All this to
receive an
honorary
degree. Previously,
Guterres did
this to give a
ten minute
speech about
the Internet.
Who
is paying for
this? And what
conflicts,
from Myanmar
to Yemen to Cameroon,
are being
solved? Given
that Amina J. Mohammed brought
many family members to her
belated swearing in, after she
signed 4000 CITES certificates
for endangered rosewood from
Nigeria and Cameroon already in
China, one must ask: which
family members? How many?
***
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