On Malaria, UN's Ray Chambers Explains Net Slow Down, Heat, Douste-Blazy's MassiveGood's Quiet Death

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 -- Why did the number of malaria bed nets distributed in Africa fall from 145 million in 2010 to only 66 million last year?

  Thursday was World Malaria Day -- WMD, to some -- so Inner City Press asked at the UN's noon briefing about bed nets, and about the failure of the “MassiveGood” fundraising trumpeted by Philippe Douste-Blazy, former French foreign minister and now sometime-UN official.

  Both questions were addressed by Ray Chambers, with the long title of “Special Envoy of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for Malaria and for the Financing of the Health-related Millennium Development Goals.” 

Inner City Press asked Chambers about MassiveGood back on December 14, 2010, here.

 OThursday, Chambers said he hadn't heard anything about MassiveGood for the past year.

  Exactly -- it closed down, albeit quietly, in November 2011. What's Douste-Blazy doing now? (Other than this hiring, on which the UN only answered Inner City Press on New Years Eve, here.)

  On bed nets, Chambers said that there had been a push for as many nets as possible in 2010, which inevitably led to a fall-off afterward. Then the Global Fund had to be “re-structured” -- a diplomat word, that -- and so there was less money to buy nets.

  But now, he said, it is turned around. In the first quarter of 2013, some 36 million nets were produced, which he projected to 140 million on the year. And they will be needed: the children who've slept under nets since 2010 now have no immunity at all.

  Chambers explained that there's a move to nets that last longer than three years, but that will require more “tensile strength” to avoid breaking when kicked at by a child. But that makes the nets heavier, and hotter to sleep under, leading some to then not use them.

Joy Phumaphi, Executive Secretary of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, added that there's a move to standardize net size, which will make them cheaper to produce, rather than trying to tailor the size of nets to different regions and preferences. The whole ten minute exchange is here, from Minute 27:22.

  On fundraising, Chambers recounted going to Washington last week, to meet Senator Lindsey Graham and then, drum roll, Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett last Friday. 

  Chambers screened the trailer of “Mary and Martha,” a movie involving malaria that premiered on HBO on Saturday. Call it World Malaria Week, with the less tainted acronym WMW. Watch this site.

Exclusive: For Mali Envoy, Ban Slates De Mistura, Who Hired His Son in Law in Iraq, African Grumbles about Italian Connection

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- After Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about the UN's plans for Malimidday on Wednesday, and she replied that robust counter-terrorism should be separate from a UN mission with a strong Special Representative, multiple sources exclusively told Inner City Press the person slated for this post.

  It is Staffan de Mistura, currently in the Italian government as deputy foreign minister 

but “not for long,” as one source put it.

  Previously De Mistura was the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Iraq, where as Inner City Press noted he hired Ban Ki-moon's son in law Siddarth Chatterjee.

  Later when De Mistura was given the top Afghanistan envoy job, he told Inner City Press he would push with the Karzai government for answers on their killing of UN staff member Louis Maxwell. There have still be no answers.

  But “like a bad penny” as one put it, now De Mistura is slated to return.

“What is this Italian connection?” one African delegate asking Inner City Press, pointing out that Ban's Sahel envoy is Romano Prodi, and that Ban recent gave the Deputy slot at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to an Italian, Flavia Pansieri.

  Another asked, “Why are there so few Africans heading up the UN missions in Africa?” 

  The three Western African missions are all led by Europeans. Bert Koenders of the Netherlands, head of the Cote d'Ivoire mission, was at the UN Wednesday, greeted Inner City Press on his way it's said to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

  There is also the American Roger Meece heading the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An African Deputy Permanent Representative opposed to this new nomination asked, “And now De Mistura? No.”

  An ambassador who Inner City Press asked to comment on De Mistura after learning of the plan laughed and said, “They're going to raid your office again.”

  Others from the Arabic and Muslim side recalled that to the recent Arab League Summit, “not only didn't Ban Ki-moon go, he sent to representative Jeff Feltman, before the US face in the region. What is going on here?”

  But to some the most dissonant note was De Mistura's jobs, prospectively this one, after hiring Ban Ki-moon's son in law Siddarth Chatterjee. 

  After Inner City Press' cusp of the year exclusive on Philippe Douste Blazy's hiring of Ban's daughter Hyun Hee Ban

, there were some calls to make this type of hiring illegal. 

  But as Staffan De Mistura might say, if it's legal and it works, why not do it? Watch this site.

At UN, Hollande Micro-Manages Room But Not Time, Blather on Mali

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 25 -- Giving a speech at the UN General Assembly may give one 15 minutes of fame, as Andy Warhol promised. But one doesn't know when they will be.

 This French president Francois Hollande learned or should have learned on Tuesday. He scheduled his press conference for 12:30 pm, then moved it back to 1:30, then finally after 2 pm as speakers before him went overtime.

 During this time, the French Mission to the UN had the Dag Hammarskkjold Auditorium cleared out, such that a crowd of journalists built up in the hall in front of the Capital Master Plan office.

  Not so the room could be sniffed by dogs for bombs, Inner City Press was told, but to try to ensure that French diplomats and traveling media got places in the front row, which were marked "Reserved." The back row, too, was marked "Reserved," and the microphone to ask questions was closely controlled.

  He was not asked, for example, about France's continuing colonialism in Africa, for example twice now being the one to announce the wishes of the post-coup government in Mali, all the while offering "logistical" help for retaking northern Mali. Click here for the Inner City Press story written before Hollande's speech and press conference, but not able to be updated with any answer.

  Another of France's pet projects is "innovative financing." For this, they have sent to the UN their ex minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who has run the "MassiveGood" project into the ground, with a $500,000 film by Spike Lee featuring among others Bill Clinton.

  Hollande was asked what he thought of Barack Obama not even attending the Secretary General's luncheon, at which US Presidents traditionally give the toast. He excused Obama, smiling that he is busy. He added that he'll see Obama after November, one imagines.

  That was in French; when asked a rare permitted question in English, Hollande grabbed a special ear piece, smaller than given to the journalists.

 As run, Hollande was largely asked softball questions, from beginning to end. Ultimately, after Hollande had made much of his commitment to a new environmental agency for the UN, he cut 20 minutes into the time of UNFCCC climate change chief Figueres. 

  Then Hollande and his large entourage -- or "retinue" as the translator called it -- headed out. It includes former French Mission political coordinator Emmanuel Bonne.They'll be in New York until Thursday. Watch this site.

UNaccoutable on AIDS, Ban Ki-moon GIve Post to Kazatchkine Ignoring Global Fund Scandal & Exit

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- Even on a topic as serious as HIV / AIDS, the United Nations has become a sinkhole of patronage jobs, without accountability.

  Inner City Press has previously covered not only the failure of, but corruption in, the so called "MassiveGood" UNITAIDS fundraising program run by Philippe Douste-Blazy who spent over $500,000 for a 60 second video ad featuring Spike Lee and former US President Bill Clinton.Click here for first exclusive story, here for first follow-up.

  But just before this AIDS 2012 conference, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, July 20 doled out another UN envoy position, that on HIV / AIDS for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, giving it to Michel Kazatchkine of France.

  UNmentioned in Ban's four-paragraph appointment was the fact that Kazatchkine left the Global Fund earlier this year amid a management and even corruption scandal in Mauritania, Zimbabwe and Mali then probed by former Botswana President Festus Mogae former US HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.  French magazine Marianne pushed the scandal into fundraising by Carla Bruno-Sarkozy, click here for that

   The Fund had to stop making grants and appoint a different General Manager, Santander banker Gabriel Jaramillo, amid calls for Kazatchkine to resign and be held accountable.

  Now a few months later he has a new post with the UN. And last week at UN headquarters in New York, France held another pitching event for UNITAIDS in Conference Room 5 of the North Lawn building, with not even the cursory acknowledgment of missing all of MassiveGood's promised fundraising targets that Inner City Press receives in response to questions in the UN briefing room, from UN envoy Ray Chambers and others.

  How UNaccountable can this UN become? The Friday before, on July 13, Ban doled out other such posts, including one on AIDS, another on "Global Education" to Gordon Brown. What's next? Watch this site.

UN of Ban Ki-moon Defers & Delays on Yemen & Somalia, MassiveGood & Green Climate Fund, Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 25 -- Even on a slow day at the UN there are questions, if few answers and even less follow-through.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about Yemen and Somalia, war crimes in Sri Lanka, the Green Climate Fund and defunct MassiveGood scam now dubbed MassiveFraud by some. Video here.

The answers ranged from "we're still studying" through "not our fault" to "we'll get back to you."

On Yemen, Inner City Press asked about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's statements Wednesday that Ali Saleh would come to New York, stepping back from power, and that Ban hadn't discussed in any detail with Saleh what's now being protested as the immunity provisions of the deal.

Nesirky noted that Inner City Press was there when Ban spoke and all Ban was doing was recounting what Saleh said: "ultimately it's up to the president to travel as he sees fit."

He said the UN "has a clear position against impunity," and that Ban's envoy -- if not Saleh -- will be in New York on Monday. But what about the at least five dead protesting the deal that Ban applauded?

On Somalia, Inner City Press asked about Ethiopia entering the country, and if Ban thought it required Security Council approval or review. Nesirky said that Ban's office won't comment on what the Security Council should discuss, "that's for the Council to decide."

Inner City Press pointed out that previous Secretaries General -- the primary reference was to Kofi Annan on Iraq -- had spoken about how the UN Charter applies to the entry into one country by another.

On reports that the US and Saudi Arabia won't sign on to the Green Climate Fund, Inner City Press asked for Ban's view. Nesirky said that beyond the Green Climate Fund, Durban's discussions will include other topics, "we need to wait and see." That is, unlike even the UK, no criticism of the Obama administration's positions.

Now that the Sri Lanka's government own Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission report has been leaked, as the UN's was, to The Island, Inner City Press asked about it. "National accountability is always the most important," Nesirky said, "it remains to be seen." Really?

Finally on the MassiveGood program, which after being touted by Ban Ki-moon and Philippe Douste-Blazy as to a way to raise funds for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis spent over $11 million to raise only $300,000, Inner City Press what Ban had learned from this fiasco.

Inner City Press previously asked Ban's office about the waste of money and illegality in MassiveGood, involving former and current French government officials pretending to be based in Geneva when they weren't, for tax purposes, and misuse of funds for, among other things, a Spike Lee directed video.

"We'll find out," Nesirky said. We'll be waiting - watch this site.

UN Slow to Act on Douste Blazy Misuse of MassiveGood Funds, Malaria in Myanmar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- Former French foreign minister Philippe Douste Blazy's misuse of millions of dollars in funding from UNITAID has yet to be effectively acted on by the UN system, it emerged on December 14.

At a press conference on malaria, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy on the topic, Ray Chambers, what has been done since Inner City Press' questions and expose more than five month ago.

We are watching it, Chambers said, adding later that his past work as an investor made him wary of “start ups.” But Douste Blazy presented his Millennium Foundation and its MassiveGood program as nearly a sure thing. He paid Spike Lee $500,000 to make a promotional film that featured Bill Clinton, Paul Auster and others. And then... nothing, or very little.

As Inner City Press showed, the Millennium Foundation was stocked with associates of now former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, recently fired by Nicolas Sarkozy. Chamber on December 14 said that “to the best of our knowledge,” UNITAID gave some $8 to $10 million to Douste Blazy's Millennium Foundation, which has been hampered by “software problems.” Video here, from Minuyte 37:20

But where is the accountability? To fight malaria is laudable. But who approved this transfer of funds?

In the rest of the press conference, from which WHO chief Margaret Chan left without taking any questions, Inner City Press asked about the UN's response to malaria in Pakistan after the floods, and about WHO's involvement in a company's work with genetically modified mosquitoes.

WHO's Doctor Rob Newman, in Chan's absence, acknowledged WHO's engagement with genetically modified mosquitoes. Video here, from Minute 45:07. Inner City Press was not allowed a follow up question about the specifics.

On Pakistan, Newman said that WHO sent a situation assessment team from its Eastern Mediterranean office, and has procured and shipped the “commodities” needed. But how will malaria spread in Pakistan?

How is are resistant strains of malaria spreading along the borders of Thailand with Cambodia and, more recently, Myanmar? Watch this site.

Footnote: WHO's Newman says he wrote to 39 companies to urge stopping production of single drug malaria products, and got only two responses. It seems that these, targeted by African leaders as recounted to his credit by Ray Chambers, are mostly based in India, which is joining the UN Security Council next month.

Notably, as Inner City Press reported last week from India's Mission to the UN, India argues that Myanmar is NOT a threat to international peace and security, and should not be on the Security Council's agenda. But if resistant malaria is spreading, isn't THAT a threat to international peace and security?

France, Under Fire on Roma & from Al Qaeda, Hides from the Press at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- With confirmation that the French uranium workers in Niger abducted last Thursday are being held by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, recent French hijinx at the United Nations are increasingly being questioned.

Two months before this UN General Debate, France's former diplomat Douste Blazy was exposed, including by this publication, for siphoning off $11 million in UNITAID funds to raise a mere $200,000. Still, Douste Blazy appears in this week's MDG Summit.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy was in New York for three days, including his speech Monday to the Summit, but he did not hold any media availabilities with the UN press corps.

Sources say Sarkozy wanted to avoid the inevitable questions about his policy of expelling Romas or gypsies from France. Previously, Sarkozy held a "French only" press conference at the UN, excluding even a Francophone Lebanese reporter for lack of a French passport.

A day before Sarkozy, French Defense Minister Herve Morin came to the UN. In light of the previous day's kidnappings in Niger, Inner City Press specifically asked Morin about his country's war on Al Qaeda, leading to the military action along with Mauritanian troops against northern Mali in July. Video here, from Minute 14:42.

Morin told the Press, that “France is determined to combat Al Qaeda... France is committed to combat this cancer which has invaded the Sahara.” He said France trained troops in Mauritania, Mali and Niger to fight “four to five hundred fanatics.”

Now the five French hostages have been taken from Niger into Mali. France is flying surveillance planes over the desert. Even in New York, the security seems to be high.

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who claims he almost quit over the Roma issue, will host a reception Friday night at the French facility on Fifth Avenue and 79th Street. Even journalists who questioned Morin are not invited, or are specifically dis-invited. Is it fear for security, or fear of questions? Watch this site.

Obama's Head On a Starving African Child's Body is MDGs Promo, UN Questioned

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/obama1mdgsunpho091310.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 13 -- A composite photograph of US President Barack Obama's head atop the emaciated body of an African child, set in a limousine and used in a UN funded website called WeCanEndPoverty.eu, has drawn criticism both from African Ambassadors and Obama supporters.

Inner City Press is told by each camp that the photo is offensive. The wisdom of the UN Development Program -- and the propriety of it funding a dot EU website -- are being questioned in the run up to the Millennium Development Goals summit later this month in New York.

To see the photo, click here, then, placing cursor on the right side of the screen until an arrow appears, scroll three photos to the right.

The photo chosen by the UN: before it come off shine? Shame not shown

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the press on Monday that he will be meeting with Obama during the MDGs summit and after, about such issues as Sudan. Did Obama give his blessing to this photo composite?

Outgoing president of the General Assembly Ali Treki offered tepid praise for Obama later on Monday, questioning the US wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Treki then presided over a GA session in which, in turn, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba denounced the MDGs outcome document as going soft on capitalism, neo-liberalism and the IMF.

The UN Development Program's leadership on the MDGs has already been brought into question, for example by Millennium Project leader Eveline Herfkens taking $7,000 a month from the Dutch government on top of her $200,000 a year UN system salary. Ms. Herfkens said she couldn't live in New York and entertain on a mere $200,000 a year. After she was forced to step down, she remained as a consultant, getting paid on a “per diem” basis.

Who was responsible for the Obama head on top of a child's body?

It was selected in a competition in which the head of the UN's Department of Public Information Kiyotaka Akasaka was one of six members. The Partners include the UN and a slew of media companies; the .eu apparently means the UN Regional Information Center for Europe.

The group's “Friends” include Philippe Douste-Blazy, a former French diplomat who has yet to explain the scandal surrounding his “MassiveGood” MDG program, exposed in detail by Inner City Press here. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/obama1mdgsunpho091310.html