At
UNGA's Surreal
Stakeout,
Swiss Small 5
Lost in
Translation,
Morocco Runs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 25
-- Even penned
in cavernous
Conference
Room 1
during a badly
administered
first day of
the UN General
Debate,
opportunities
that seem
potentially
newsworthy
crop up
unexpected.
Between
scheduled
"media
availability"
stakeouts by
Julia Gillard
of Australia
and
Guatemala's
president,
Switzerland's
president
Eveline
Widmer-Schlumpf
appeared on UN
Television
speaking at
the stakeout
microphone.
After
first her
answers were
in German. But
then an
Australian
journalist
asked if
Europeans
would vote, in
the current
Security
Council seat
race, for
Luxembourg and
Finland rather
than
Australia.
She declined
this question,
but
half-answered
the next one,
about Obama or
Romney.
She said they
would be the
same on banks,
that she has a
preference
but will not
say it.
As
she responded
to a question
about
sanctions on
Iran, Inner
City Press
ran from the
Media Center
along a
corridor of
blue painted
barricades
to the
stakeout and
asked a Swiss
question: does
the "Small
Five"
effort to
reform the
Security
Council's
working
methods
survive its
withdrawal
earlier this
year?
To
be diplomatic,
it seems the
question was
misheard. She
answered
"2022,"
apparently
that
Switzerland is
running for a
Security
Council seat
in a decade's
time. She
called it a
"one
year term,"
when the terms
are for two
years.
Afterward
a
spokesman told
Inner City
Press, "you
can't use
that." If
agreed in
advance, Inner
City Press
always
respects that.
But in this
case, the
comments were
already
broadcast on
UN Television.
And this comes
shortly after
hoopla about
Switzerland's
ten years in
the UN -- click here for
decade's
review by
Inner City
Press. For the
record, Inner
City Press has
had praise for
the Swiss
Mission to the
UN and related
community. But
answers to
questions on
UN TV are for
use.
Minutes
later
the foreign
minister of
Morocco
Saad-Eddine El
Othmani
appeared.
Inner City
Press has
previously filmed Q&A
with him,
and this time
ran to the
stakeout as
for
Switzerland's
president.
But
this
time a signal
was given and
the media
availability
abruptly
called to a
close. There
are questions.
Hey, it might
have been a
softball about
Morocco's
position on a
UN envoy for
the Sahel.
Maybe --watch
this site.
, 
