By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1animals100809.html
UNITED NATIONS, October 8 -- Should animals have a seat at the UN? In some sense they already do. The World Society for the Protection of Animals briefed the Press on Thursday about its efforts to insert two paragraphs into a resolution pending in the General Assembly's second committee, on "animal welfare as a component of development... and disaster reduction."
Inner City Press asked WSPA's director Mike Baker about the balance between assistance to humans and animals, in light of the Myanmar military regime's decision after Cyclone Nargis to allow in animal care workers while blocking humanitarian supplies. Baker's response included a swipe at the "Western centric view that people come first." Video here, from Minute 39:13.
He said that a group called Practical Action surveyed people "around the camps in the Darfur" and they listed their top three concerns as security, water and donkeys -- this last, to get to market and to plow. In Myanmar or Burma, General Than Shwe's concern may also have been with plowing, for rice production. But Myanmar exported rice for profit while food and monetary aid came in, with 25% skimmed by the regime through currency exchange scams using Foreign Exchange Certificates.
The animal kingdom can be brutal, but it is not so duplicitous. Inner City Press asked Baker if his organization might apply for observer status at the UN, if animals should have a seat at the UN's table. I don't think we'll get to that stage, Baker said. His colleague added that WSPA has consultative status with ECO-SOC, and would later that day be briefing the Group of 77 and China about the treatment of animals (shark fin presumably not included).
While the G-77 meeting was closed, one wonders if WSPA's criticism of Egypt's cull and slaughter of pigs, in the name of H1N1 swine flu, was raised. Regarding the culling of poultry, Inner City Press asked Vinod Kapur, a social entrepreneur and founder of Kegg Farm in India, if avian flu had impacted his organization's bird work in India. Yes, he said, adding that rather than killing, a vaccine should be developed, for the birds. A reception -- vegetarian, one hoped -- was scheduled for later on Thursday, perhaps including answers about the G-77 meeting.
Footnote: at the other end of the spectrum, two hours later in the UN briefing room, actors Judith Light, Ana Ortiz and Tony Plana from the TV show "Ugly Betty" spoke about malaria, an upcoming episode filmed at the UN in August. Inner City Press observed and reported on the filming, then got a response from the UN Foundation, click here.
UN Foundation's representative on Thursday, Ms. Gore, called malaria a "good news story," and handed out "Buzzkill" t-shirts. Since in his introduction producer Richard Heus said that the focus had been on filming in a New York landmark, and that Nothing but Nets was only one of the UN related projects presented to Ugly Betty, Inner City Press asked what the other projects were. This question was not answered. And so we can report what we saw during the filming: a staged fight, in a UN conference room, in front of a replica inauthentic UN logo. its on ABC on October 16 at 9 p.m.
