By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unP5sc1haiti011910.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 19 -- Amid the Haitian earthquake emergency, attacks on Kabul, in Yemen and in Darfur, the US Mission to the UN on Tuesday night welcomed a diplomat into the fold, on the 42nd floor of the Waldorff Towers.
As U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff put it, Rick Barton has represented the US in 30 countries in ten years. And on his family vacation, he went to post-Katrina New Orleans to build homes.
The well attended reception began with somber statements for Haiti. In the crowd, many asked Inner City Press if the coverage of the UN was too negative, unfair, sensational. CNN's Anderson Cooper showed looters; the Washington Post's new Turtle dubbed Haiti "Ban's Katrina."
At a UN Foundation luncheon on Tuesday, Ban took the blog's author to task for several minutes, publicly. From Haiti via video link Ban's former spokesman Michele Montas also said the media is being too negative. Edmond Mulet called the Press irresponsible.
The UK and France take a different approach to the media. Each has an off the record briefing scheduled Wednesday for selected reporters. The two used to hold such briefings on different days, but then the "Western diplomat" moniker was too transparent.
Now they hide behind each other, only because few file stories between the UK's early morning briefing and France's 5 p.m. follow up.
Here's what the UK Ambassador should be asked: is it true, as Middle Eastern sources say, that the UK is trying in the Security Council to bring up the conflict in Yemen, specifically targeting Iran's support for some parties?
In this account, the Russians balked, saying as Missourians do, Show me. Or at least wait until the conference on Yemen in London on January 27.
Before that, on January 25 in Montreal, there's a conference on Haiti. France's Ambassador Araud -- who initially put the date at February 25 -- took a decidedly different stance on the U.S. in Haiti than did his foreign minister and Cooperation minister.
A French journalist, while suggesting to Inner City Press that Araud was being diplomatic -- imagine that! -- also lambasted the Obama administration's resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine. "They have spoken with the Brazilians and the Canadians," he said, "as if that is enough."
So the US hardly briefs anymore, and the UK and France do so only off the record. Chinese Ambassador Liu on Tuesday night told Inner City Press that China had its search and rescue team in the air to Haiti three hours after the earthquake. He asked, "But why didn't they have notice?" Why indeed.And see, www.innercitypress.com/unP5sc1haiti011910.html
