UNITED NATIONS, May 17 – When Poland's President Andrzej Duda spoke at the UN Security Council stakeout on May 17, in his opening statement he said the Eastern European Group has still not ever held the position of UN Secretary General but should be allowed to. After he took two questions in Polish, Inner City Press began asking quite audibly for the specifics of his views on the Secretary Generl post which fell to Antonio Guterres in 2016, see below. But the UN TV boom mic went to the other side of the stakeout, to a question about Donald Trump. Inner City Press was whispered to, don't be disruptive, the questions have been pre-selected. The Free UN Coalition for Access, which made a request for transparency and even harded new at the beginning of the month when Poland took over the presidency of the Security Council, does not accept UN media availabilities being turned into pre-selected, pre-scribed theater. (The Polish mission has been sending out information about briefings, and its Ambassador has answered Press questions.) After Duda took a final Polish question, Inner City Press more loudly, Does he believe the Eastern European Group should take the position in eight and a half years - or in three and a half years. We'll have more on this. Throughout 2016 New Zealand documentary maker Gaylene Preston and her crew staked out the UN Security Council along with Inner City Press, awaiting the results of the straw polls to elected Ban Ki-moon's sucessor as UN Secretary General. Preston's focus was Helen Clark, the former New Zealand prime minister then in her second term as Administrator of the UN Development Program. Preston would ask Inner City Press after each poll, What about Helen Clark's chances? Suffice it to say Clark never caught fire as a candidate. Inner City Press told Preston, as did many other interviewees in her documentary “My Year with Helen,” that it might be sexism. But it might be power too - including Samantha Power, the US Ambassador who spoke publicly about gender equality and then in secret cast a ballot Discouraging Helen Clark, and praised Antonio Guterres for his energy (yet to be seen). On March 21, Inner City Press asked asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the film, and if Guterres had watched or was trying to avoid it. UN transcript here: Inner City Press: I bet you he has seen this one, but I don't know if you'll review it. There's a movie called My Year with Helen, and it portrays the process through which he was elected, but it's sort of, you know, followed… so I'm just wondering, since it's now… it's been re… I…
Spokesman: The Secretary-General has not seen the documentary…
Inner City Press: He hasn't seen it?
Spokesman: …neither… neither have I.
Inner City Press: Does he plan to see it?
Spokesman: I don't know if he plans to… I don't know if he plans to see it. The process through which he was elected was, I think, more transparent than we had ever seen in the past. And it followed the rules and regulations, but I'm not in the…
Inner City Press: I'm saying it because it focuses a lot on the gender issue and how it played out.
Spokesman: The decision to elect António Guterres as Secretary-General was not taken by António Guterres.
Inner City Press: …but seeing the movie wouldn't, you know, undermine his positions as Secretary-General [Washington echo]
Spokesman: And I think his commitment to gender parity and gender equality has been clearly articulated and shown, notably, in the fact that he now has gender parity plus in his senior management group." But why did he run? And what has he done? He *has* continued censorship and restriction, and is rarely accessible or accountable. As to the film: there was a private screening of My Year With Helen on December 4 at NYU's King Juan Carlos Center, attended by a range of UN staff, a New Zealand designer of a website for the country's proposal new flag, and Ban Ki-moon's archivist, among others. After the screening there was a short Q&A session. Inner City Press used that to point out that Guterres has yet to criticize any of the Permanent Five members of the Council who did not block him as the US, France and China blocked Clark, with Russia casting a “No Opinion.” And that Guterres picked a male from among France's three candidates to head UN Peacekeeping which they own, and accepted males from the UK and Russia for “their” top positions. Then over New Zealand wine the talk turned to the new corruption at the UN, which is extensive, and the upcoming dubious Wall Street fundraiser of the UN Correspondents Association, for which some in attendance had been shaken down, as one put it, for $1200. The UN needed and needs to be shaken up, and hasn't been. But the film is good, and should be screened not in the UN Censorship Alliance but directly in the UN Security Council, on the roll-down movie screen on which failed envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed are projected. “My Year With Helen” is well worth seeing.
Spokesman: The Secretary-General has not seen the documentary…
Inner City Press: He hasn't seen it?
Spokesman: …neither… neither have I.
Inner City Press: Does he plan to see it?
Spokesman: I don't know if he plans to… I don't know if he plans to see it. The process through which he was elected was, I think, more transparent than we had ever seen in the past. And it followed the rules and regulations, but I'm not in the…
Inner City Press: I'm saying it because it focuses a lot on the gender issue and how it played out.
Spokesman: The decision to elect António Guterres as Secretary-General was not taken by António Guterres.
Inner City Press: …but seeing the movie wouldn't, you know, undermine his positions as Secretary-General [Washington echo]
Spokesman: And I think his commitment to gender parity and gender equality has been clearly articulated and shown, notably, in the fact that he now has gender parity plus in his senior management group." But why did he run? And what has he done? He *has* continued censorship and restriction, and is rarely accessible or accountable. As to the film: there was a private screening of My Year With Helen on December 4 at NYU's King Juan Carlos Center, attended by a range of UN staff, a New Zealand designer of a website for the country's proposal new flag, and Ban Ki-moon's archivist, among others. After the screening there was a short Q&A session. Inner City Press used that to point out that Guterres has yet to criticize any of the Permanent Five members of the Council who did not block him as the US, France and China blocked Clark, with Russia casting a “No Opinion.” And that Guterres picked a male from among France's three candidates to head UN Peacekeeping which they own, and accepted males from the UK and Russia for “their” top positions. Then over New Zealand wine the talk turned to the new corruption at the UN, which is extensive, and the upcoming dubious Wall Street fundraiser of the UN Correspondents Association, for which some in attendance had been shaken down, as one put it, for $1200. The UN needed and needs to be shaken up, and hasn't been. But the film is good, and should be screened not in the UN Censorship Alliance but directly in the UN Security Council, on the roll-down movie screen on which failed envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed are projected. “My Year With Helen” is well worth seeing.
