Amb
Power with
Mashable Is
Mostly Syria,
Nothing on
Spying or DRC,
Haiti
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 22
-- When US
Ambassador
Samantha Power
spoke
Sunday at the
Social Good
Summit at the
92nd Street Y,
one expected
her to fill in
the African
holes in
President
Obama's speech
and its
run-up.
As
Inner City
Press reported
on Friday,
Obama adviser
Ben Rhodes'
summary of
Obama's UN
General
Assembly
speech had no
Africa at all:
just Syria,
Israel-Palestine
and Iran.
Since so much
of the UN's
actual work is
in Africa,
that's where
Power would
come in,
right?
Not
right.
Friendly-interviewed
for 20 minutes
by Pete
Cashmore of
Mashable,
Power's first
three
country-specific
references
were all to
Syria. She is,
as one wag put
it, selling
that soap.
It's an
important
topic, sure.
But there are
other topics.
Amazingly,
Power
didn't mention
the deadly
attack on the
Westgate Mall
in Kenya,
for which Al
Shabaab has
taken credit,
yes, on
Twitter. This
is a UN
issue: al
Shabaab said
the attack was
for Kenya
sending troops
into
Kismayo in
Somalia, as
part of the UN
Security
Council
approved
AMISOM
mission.
Beyond
Syria, Power
mentioned an
anti-corruption
program in
India, then
her
advocacy to
Cuba's foreign
minister at a
UN meeting.
She didn't
say:
the meeting
was on
regional
cooperation
and many
countries,
especially
from Latin
America,
criticized the
US for the
NSA's spying
exposed by
Edward
Snowden.
Another topic
that did not
come up.
Power
did mention Sri
Lanka,
saying that
activists
there say they
like the
UN Human
Rights
Council. She
mentioned
Zimbabwe
twice, about
really
one incident:
a Zimbabwean
activist met
with her
earlier in the
day,
along with
others from
Egypt and
Ukraine.
She
mentioned
Haiti, how
social media
allowed people
to know where
others
are buried.
She did not
mention: some
of those
buried were
killed by
cholera
brought to
Haiti by the
UN. There will
be a protest
on that
topic on
September 26;
information is
available on
the website
of the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access, @FUNCA_info.
Power
did not
off-hand know
her Twitter
handle,
leading to
question: who
is
tweeting for
her? Upstairs
in the "Social
Media Lounge"
--
beyond
Mashable, the
event was
sponsored by
UN-fan UN
Foundation,
with Southwest
Airlines and,
strangely,
Caterpillar
also listed
among
the "Presented
By" on the
agenda --
tweets of
#2030Now and
blogs were
flying.
But
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
wasn't
mentioned
once. And for
the UN
Security
Council's
upcoming trip
there, in
which
Ambassador
Power will
presumably
participate,
it is France
which is
allowed to
pick and block
how it is
covered.
THAT is the
UN, that is
censorship.
And what will
Ambassador
Power do,
about the DRC
and Rwanda?
About
the UN's
impunity for
bringing
cholera to
Haiti? Watch
this site.
, 
