Prodi
To Work "Full
Time From
Italy" on
Sahel and
Mali, Dolce
Vita?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 9 --
Once Romano
Prodi was
confirmed
Tuesday as the
UN's Sahel and
Mali envoy,
despite the
pre-existing
dominance of
Europeans
holding the
UN's top posts
in Africa,
Inner City
Press asked UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
more about
Prodi's post.
Nesirky
said it is a
full time,
Under
Secretary
General level
job, and that
Prodi will be
based in
Italy.
Afterward,
a Wester
African
Permanent
Representative
expressed
amazement to
Inner City
Press at this.
A wag - not
him - wondered
if Prodi will
be so well
paid for
working from
his house, a
UN dolce
vita or
sweet life.
Kofi Annan
lived in
Geneva when he
took the six
month Syria
envoy post -
but Geneva is
a UN city.
Brahimi moved
to New York
(or now Cairo)
from Paris
where he
resides.
Prodi will
work from Italy?
Where - from
UNICRI, one of
the little
known UN
offices in
Italy? Or the
log or
logistics base
at Brindisi?
Already,
as noted, the
top posts in
the UN
missions in
Liberia,
Sierra Leone
and Cote
d'Ivoire all
went to
Europeans, the
last to
Dutchman Bert
Koenders.
Many
were less than
impressed with
Prodi's report
on the
"modalities
for support to
African Union
peacekeeping
operations"
which he was
paid to
oversee; to be
fair, some
perhaps liked
it, or him.
Inner
City Press covered
Prodi's craven
UN job search
in 2008,
when he and
his entourage
met with none
other than
Laurent Gbagbo
on the terrace
of what was
then the
Delegate's
Lounge. Click
here for that.
Now,
ironically,
the UN to the
benefit of
Koender's
mission and
France's
project is
accusing
Gbagbo
supporters of
trying to
recruit groups
from Mali to
somehow come
destabilize
Cote d'Ivoire
-- as if
outlawing even
the
opposition's
newspapers
didn't do a
good enough
job of
destabilizing.
Why
did Ban
Ki-moon dole
out this job
to
Prodi? Why are
all of his
West Africa
Special
Representatives
from
Europe?
Some
go further and
continue to
ask, why did
he replace a
Deputy
Secretary
General from
Tanzania with
one from
Sweden -- and
then not make
up
for it, even
giving the
Special
Adviser on
Africa post to
the former
Egyptian
Ambassador
under Mubarak,
Maged
Abdelaziz?
This
last triggered
the anger of
many African
countries, not
least from
the South. But
Ban Ki-moon,
as one source
put it to
Inner City
Press,
does not seem
to take these
things
seriously.
Hence Prodi.
Watch this
site.
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