UN Remains Unreformed After Srgjan Kerim's Year, Sarah Palin on Her Way?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unga1kerim091608.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 16 -- At the end of his year as president of the UN General Assembly (PGA), Srgjan Kerim on Tuesday said he is "personally disappointed" with how the member states dealt with a UN reform issue that, due to Press coverage, became synonymous with Kerim: the lack of independence of the PGA due not being paid by the UN but by a particular country or, in Kerim's case, company.

Early in his tenure, Inner City Press asked Kerim how he got paid, and it emerged that his pay came from his country and once and future employer, WAZ Media. While Kerim showed some displeasure when Inner City Press went on to analyze the potential conflicts of interest created by these arrangement, he maintained that he would seek General Assembly action before the end of his term.

On Tuesday, as Nicaragua's Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann took over as PGA, Kerim acknowledged that the problem has not been fixed or reformed. He called the situation "urgent." We'll see. Video here, from Minute 17:53.

Elsewhere in his eight-minute response to Inner City Press' two question, Kerim said that the UN budget process is broken, and recounted that in December he spent 23 hours straight in the UN working on the budget, even telling Ban Ki-moon to give a speech to the General Assembly promising to report on spending every three months.

Kerim also took credit for changing the Capital Master Plan to renovate the UN Headquarters, saying he wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he'd agreed to the initial plan, to leave a portion of UN staff inside the building while it was being fixed.

Kerim had a farewell reception last week, at which shrimp and even foie gras were served, with cocktails sipped out on the balcony over the East River. He was given an award for the Millennium Development Goals, like his predecessor and probably his successor, and now according to his spokesman will return to WAZ Media, which he notes in investing in Vietnam and hospitals. We will follow his movements.

Footnotes: as Ambassadors stream in to d'Escoto Brockmann's speech to kick off the 63rd General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, it emerged that two new crypto-states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, have tried to get their representatives in but still do not have visas. It was also said, not for attribution that John McCain and Sarah Palin will come to the General Debate, specifically for the latter to "meet world leaders." This might later change.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unga1kerim091608.html