Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unpga1entertain062309.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- Asked Tuesday about charges of nepotism in the use of UN funds to pay two of his relatives, President of the General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann told Inner City Press, "I leave you free to continue your speculations, I find them extremely entertaining." Video here, from Minute 18:42.
But the spokesman for d'Escoto confirmed to Inner City Press on June 9 and subsequently to the Times of London that d'Escoto is using UN budget funds to pay his nephew Michael Clark to be an economics adviser, and his niece Sophia Clark to be his deputy chief of staff. There is no speculation. There will however, as invited, be entertainment.
On the eve of a UN General Assembly summit on the global economic crisis for which his nephew has been a major briefer and advisor, d'Escoto said he was not troubled that only two heads of state are coming: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Ecuador's President Correa. Even Chile's President Bachelet, in the Northeast United States to meet with Barack Obama, has canceled the previous indication that she would come.
Inner City Press, which was first to report on June 9 the use of UN funds to hire d'Escoto family members, also asked d'Escoto why there was still no word who was coming from the host country or if his president, Daniel Ortega, was coming. D'Escoto answered, I have no confirmation of who is coming from the two countries you mentioned.
While nepotism and d'Escoto's proposals to, for example, establish a Taxation Authority to consider regulating (or taxing) cyberspace, are not the only reason that many view the Summit as "a joke," they are not unrelated. That d'Escoto's advisers didn't tell when he began his term that issues might arise about putting two relatives on the UN payroll, and now advise him to make light of the matter, is also indicative.
Non-governmental organizations, too, are too blame for allowing the Sandinista emperor to have no clothes. On June 22, Inner City Press asked the South Center's director Martin Khor to respond to the nepotism and cyberspace taxation proposal. Video here.
Khor began diplomatically, saying that some Ambassadors were taken aback by "Father Miguel's" inclusion of so many references to Mother Earth. Later in conclusion Khor said yes, he had read the stories about the nephew. Why then say nothing?
On June 23 Inner City Press asked a panel of NGOs, who had just finished calling the UN more credible than the G-20, what they had done to make the UN more accountable, for example on the controversy and staff-pressuring surrounding the search for a second term in the top post of UNCTAD. None of the four NGOs would touch the question directly. Video here.
Yes, the G-20 is undemocratic. But for the UN, particularly its General Assembly and President, to be a credible alternative, nepotism and hair-brained proposals cannot be so easily accepted and laughed at.
It was the Latin American and Caribbean Group's turn to hold the General Assembly presidency this year. The spokesman for a major Latin country told Inner City Press on Tuesday that Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia -- "that bloc" -- had pushed for Nicaragua, and hence d'Escoto.
Why didn't they choose a less comical or less entertainment starved representative, or at least one who wouldn't hire two of his relatives and then refuse to answer any questions about it? Put otherwise by the diplomat, who is making the UN a joke?
If the summit had been more professionally organized, without Internet taxation proposals and open nepotism, then the decision by powerful countries to boycott it could more legitimately have been criticized. But "they made it easy for them," the diplomat said. And not only rich countries, but powerful banks are the ones who benefit.
