By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- The day after the UN refused to appear in court for one of the lawsuits against it for bringing cholera to Haiti, pianist Lang Lang as a UN Messenger of Peace held a press concert for his UN Day concert in the General Assembly Hall.
Inner City Press asked Lang Lang if he thinks the UN should answer on the issue of more than 8000 deaths caused by it bringing cholera to Haiti. Video here.
Lang Lang politely answered that he had not heard of the case or the issue. I have not been updated, he said.
The fault, the Free UN Coalition for Access says, lies not with the star but with the UN itself. If it recruits and uses celebrities to promote its brand, it should give them background information, positive and in this case, negative.
But there are efforts and decisions inside the UN to keep quiet and off-line the issue of UN Peacekeeping, run by Herve Ladsous, having brought cholera to Haiti. Inner City Press and FUNCA have repeatedly asked for Ladsous or his deputy Edmond Mulet, previous head of the UN mission in Haiti, to hold a question and answer press conference on the topic; these have been rebuffed. (Ladsous, in fact, blocked the Press' camera, Vine here.)
Earlier on October 24, a session about Haiti cholera that could and should have been in the same UN Press Briefing Room as the UN put Lang Lang in was instead held, without webcast, in the private clubhouse that the UN gives to what has become its UN' Censorship Alliance, formerly the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA). This group has tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN for reporting on conflicts of interest and war crimes, in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. We'll have more on this.
