Ban's
UN
Fetes Africa
But Gave Sahel
to Italy, W.
Africa to EU,
Maged in
Defense
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 16 --
As the UN
trumpeted its
Africa Week on
Tuesday, Inner
City Press
asked the UN's
Special
Advisor on
Africa,
Egypt's former
Ambassador
Maged
Abdelaziz, to
respond to
criticism
that for
example the
UN's top
envoys in
Liberia,
Sierra Leone,
Cote
d'Ivoire and
now the Sahel
are all
Europeans,
that Tanzanian
Asha
Rose Migiro
was replaced
as Ban
Ki-moon's
Deputy by Jan
Eliasson of
Sweden, and
USG Tibaijuka
taken out. Video
here, from
Minute 23.
Maged
Abdelaziz,
whose taking
of the OSSA
post also drew
criticism from
the
UN African
Group directly
to Ban
Ki-moon,
offered an
on-camera
defense,
initially of
Eliasson.
He
said Eliasson
has a "genuine
passion for
Africa," that
he
has traveled
with Eliasson
in Africa and
will do so
again in
mid-November,
to Addis
Ababa. OK, but
what about the
West Africa
envoys, and
Romano Prodi
for the Sahel,
being paid as
a full time
Under
Secretary
General while
working from
his native
Italy?
Maged
Abdelaziz said
the UN is a
"multicultural
organization,"
and that it
should not be
expected that
all its envoys
to Africa
would be
Africans.
He
rattled off
other posts
held by
Africans:
UNFPA, UNAIDS
-- whose
chief, at
least
according to
the UN, is
from France --
and the
threatened
with merger
mandates of
children and
armed conflict
and
sexual
violence in
conflict.
To list
someone he
didn't
mention, there
is Adam Dieng
in the
Genocide
Prevention job
(rather than
DGACM,
which has been
given for now
to a Belgian,
holding the
post for
someone else
in the
future).
OK,
but why was
Ian Martin
given Libya,
and then Prodi
the Sahel? Or
Bert
Koenders given
Cote d'Ivoire?
To what end?
Inner
City Press
also asked
about Sudan
and South
Sudan, and
NEPAD's
Ibrahim Assane
Mayaki replied
that the
government in
Juba invited
NEPAD to help
design their
development
plan. For
Inner City
Press'
piece on the
Sudans, from
later in the
day, click
here.
During the
press
conference, an
80 page "NEPAD
Guide 2012"
was
distributed.
There is a
section on
water --
praising Rio
Tinto.
There is a
full page
devoted to
"General
Electric in
Africa." Both
are listed as
"Platinum
Members" in
the back; one
of the
Corporate
Members is
Citigroup,
whose former
chief of
Africa (and
Europe and the
Middle East)
Michael Corbat
replaced
Vikram Pandit
on Tuesday.
Multicultural,
indeed...
Watch
this
site.
, 
