By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- At the UN on Monday there was a lot of talk about youth, but not enough talk by young people themselves, at least not in the General Assembly. This was the assessment of the Swiss delegate Oliver Felix.
He told the Press that the outcome document of this High Level Meeting on Youth was agreed to in February, but that actual participation by young people in the event was less than it should be. He said that some of the substantive parts of the World Program for Action on Youth were being opposed the members of the Group of 77.
He was accompanied by the 33 year old mayor of Geneva Pierre Maudet, who began by noting the decidedly non-young participation of some heads of state, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
When Inner City Press asked for more about Mugabe, Maudet said it was not his place to judge, that the UN is like “une auberge Espanol” where you decide what to come look for, then find it.
Earlier, Inner City Press spoke with a youth delegate from South Africa in a less formal setting, who extolled the connections between studying chemical engineering and international politics. He had agreed to transport back home a suitcase full of the school books of a South African student at NYU, since they are needed back home.
The UN and these meetings, then, are different things to different people. Of the idea for a new UN Agency for Youth, Maudet was skeptical, calling it the bureaucratic (or “non-youth”) way of burying a problem in a new agency. One wondered what he'd think of the new UN Women.
Inner City Press asked Maudet about Geneva's relations with the UN and its agencies. He said that it's in Geneva that “norms” are set, in telecommunications, commerce and health. He said Geneva is geographically small, and big businesses like Proctor & Gamble are moving in from London, with problems ranging from parking to affordable housing.
Maudet mentioned CERN's collider. Inner City Press asked if there's been any thought of an alliance of mayors of UN cities -- New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, Addis Ababa, Bonn. Maudet said the idea exists and he's tried to reach out to New York, but Mr. Bloomberg is busy. What about his sister? Busy too, preparing the the 9-11-01 anniversary. Perhaps after that. We'll see.
