UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- Faced with the global financial crisis, the Sandinista, former and current Nicaraguan President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockman has convened a GA session for June 1, and released his own draft outcome document which proposes a UN Taxation Authority and body to regulate cyberspace.
"This is a subject I don't have any expertise on," d'Escoto said when Inner City Press asked. Video here from Minute 7:25. The European Union, Inner City Press has learned, has written to d'Escoto in protest of his draft, which they say ignores a text that was being negotiated.
Two d'Escoto advisers held a press conference on the topic on May 14, but instead of addressing the controversy, Michael Clark held forth at length on his ideas of the end of money. As Inner City Press confirmed during Clark's May 1 press conference -- video here from Minute 26:24 -- Clark previously served the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and then lobbied for U.S. companies to get more business in India, in the U.S. - India Business Council. So did he believe in what he was doing then, or now? Apparently it's been an evolution.
While the May 14 press conference lasted an hour, it was organized in such a way that not all questions, including one on the European Union letter, could be asked.
Some in the press corps think that d'Escoto is over-briefing about this financial session. But his Office is not even answering the obvious questions. The main spokesman for d'Escoto is away, which may explain it. Previously, Inner City Press has asked his office for d'Escoto's view on carbon offsetting his travel around the world, without receiving an answer.
D'Escoto himself seems a nice and gentle man. After his press conference -- at the most recent of which he took only three questions, refusing one about the contentious UN Gaza report -- journalists descend on him like locusts for, as one put it, "crazy quotes." Now security officers surrounded d'Escoto as he moves gingerly off the podium. It is all coming to a head: Watch this site.
Footnote / analysis: clearly, there is a need to re-think the under-regulation of finance. But grandstanding and pontificating, and ignoring major blocs drafts of document and then refusing to take questions, seems unlikely to be effective. There are still two weeks to be more effective. Given the importance of the topic, here's hoping.And see, www.innercitypress.com/unpga1taxnet051509.html
