UN Plots a Global Lottery, While Laying Claim to U.S. Staffers' Stimulus Payouts

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1lotto041408.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 14 -- A "global lottery" is among the innovations in financing for development that former French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy mentioned to the Press on Monday. Given the widely acknowledged regressive nature of raising funds through lotteries, Inner City Press asked Douste-Blazy if a lottery was really the best or most innovative way to try to help the poor. "You mean, on the ethical plane?" Douste-Blazy asked. Yes, that would be the question.

While agreeing that this is "a real question" (sur la table is how he put it in French, a question that is on the table), Douste-Blazy spoke of the social goals of lotteries in Belgium and France. Video here, from Minute 19:35. "We are working on it," he said. And he's not kidding -- "global lottery" has been mentioned before in this context by the UN, click here. Douste-Blazy also discussed raising funds off airplane tickets, saying there are only three main sites that make reservations over the Internet. Let the games begin...

Meanwhile, in the run-up to the release of the $600 stimulus payments by the U.S. Treasury, Inner City Press was told Monday that the UN's Office of Legal Affairs has ruled that UN employees who receive the stimulus payment will be expected to turn it over to the UN. The UN Staff Union has argued that since it is not a tax rebate, but intended to stimulate the U.S. economy, giving it to the UN is not, they say, appropriate.

While others consulted by Inner City Press on Monday did not disagree that the payments be endorsed and signed over to the UN, one wonders if this was intended as a stimulus to the UN, and how the money will be spent.

Footnote: One impacted staff member marvelled that OLA chief Nicolas Michel is being allowed to keep the ten thousand dollars a month, minimum, he received in housing subsidy from his Swiss government since 2004, while his Office rules that lower down employees must return $600 received from their government. Only at the UN...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1lotto041408.html