Inner City Press Asks UN Global Compact's Lise Kingo If Arms Trade Can Join, Yes If Legal, She Says

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- When new UN Global Compact chief Lisa Kingo took questions about upcoming private sector events on September 21, Inner City Press asked for her view on the need for substantive standards for this UN program, to avoid "blue-washing."Video here. 

  Kingo replied that the focus on the Global Compact is on reports. Inner City Press asked, then, if arms manufacturers or traders could join.

 Kingo replied that "illegal areas like the ones you mentioned" couldn't join.

 But, Inner City Press pointed out, armed manufacturing and trading is legal. She replied that "special kinds of bombs" might not be. So: no standards? We'll have more on this.

Back on June 25, 2015, the UN Global Compact was studied and praised in a 205 page study by DNL-GL. Inner City Press asked DNL-GL's Henrik Madsen if he has listened to critics of the Compact as "bluewashing," having as members banks like HSBC which engage in tax evasion and predatory lending.

  Madsen replied that he would be telling companies later in the day that they should pay their taxes. Fine - but HSBC has helped its customer to evade taxes. What about that?

  Georg Kell of the Compact said Madsen will be joining the Compact board of directors; earlier he said he's told the Compact principles are in the Koran.

 Inner City Press asked about Westpac, which cut remittances to Somalia. This was not directly answered.

Back on June 5 financial inclusion was the topic at the UN when Queen Maxima of the Netherlands held a press conference at the UN, for which she's the the “Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.”

  Inner City Press asked Queen Maxima what she has done on the issue of banks like Barclays and Westpac cutting of remittances to Somalia.Video here.

   Queen Maxima, who had cited remittances in her opening statement, replied among other things that banks take a “risk-based approach,” and that the smaller profits they make on remittances make them cut them off. 

  It is on just this type of thinking, we'd say, that this UN office ought to be raising its voice, for example in the case of Westpac, which is a member of the UN Global Compact.

 Inner City Press also asked Queen Maxima if UN agencies like UNRWA and UNHCR are working on the issue of the unbanked, trying to ensure that the payments they make help recipients to establish bank accounts. This too is unclear - the answer was that the UN is studying this, is producing knowlege. It will be good to produce results. We will stay on this.
   

Barclays Celebrated at UN Despite Coal Mining, Cutting Remittances; Statoil in Myanmar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- Alongside the UN's Climate Summit on September 23, corporations came through the UN Press Briefing Room promoting themselves and their good deeds.

  Inner City Press asked Barclays' vice chair Jeremy Wilson about his firm cutting off remittances to Somalia, and directly on climate, funding mountain-top removal coal mining and Bumi Resources in Indonesia, displacing many people.

  Wilson did not directly respond to these issues, except to say that things "move more quickly" on some areas.  Did he mean, geographic areas? 

  Inner City Press asked a panel on the UN Private Sector Forum, including Statoil, about that firm's exploration off Myanmar, and impact on Mozambique. The answer came from another panelist, that one should or can look at a company's trajectory and not where it is at the moment. 

  The point, though, is whether the UN should be praising and "blue-washing" corporations without asking about coal, remittances, displacement. What are the standards?

   The night before the People's Climate March, the UN buildings on First Avenue will be lit up with photos and footage of trees and fish and, it seems, written messages. It is called "illUmiNations."

   Inner City Press late on September 19, after covering the Ukraine, Iraq, Ebola and Iran nuclear meetings inside the UN, went out and found a sort of trial run for the screeningtaking place on First Avenue, already lined with NYPD cement blocks. Photo here.

   Looking back at the UN's press release for the upcoming "VIP Press Screening" -- hard to know how they could exclude non-VIPs from it, or why they would want to -- there were laudatory quotes about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and: 

Obscura Digital has staged similar large-scale architectural mapping projection events on the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. For examples of previous work, please visit the following linkhttp://wdrv.it/1tx7Emd.

 In that video compilation, well worth watching, there are also corporate projects for Coca-Cola and YouTube owned by Google, with history at the UN. 

  A message Inner City Press photographed on September 19, here,  was "In nature's economy, the currency is not money but life." Is this true of Coca-Cola?

   There are questions about the UN's UNcritical approach to corporations and corporate "partnerships."

   In the run up to the UN's September 23 Climate Summit, the UN put out a media advisory promoting the participation of 14 corporations ranging from Saudi Aramco through Cargill, McDonald's and Walmart to Bank of America and Credit Agricole. 

  Inner City Press on September 16 asked Summit promoter Robert Orr how these 14 were selected for listing in the media advisory, and if the UN had reviewed their wider record. For example, the recent court decision involving Cargill and child slavery in Cote d'Ivoire, orSaudi Aramco not allowing employees in Saudi Arabia to protest.

   Orr mentioned a luncheon during the summit about carbon pricing and the UN Global Compact, a branch of the UN which repeatedly says it does not enforce substantive standards, only encourages reporting and dialogue.  Well, Saudi Aramco did not respond to the complaint about “employees allegedly dismissed after being detained for participation in civil rights protests in Saudi Arabia.”

   And what of the environment? Bank of America has been the number one funder of mountain-top removal coal mining, but Ban Ki-moon made it chairman the chief of his Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

  On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked that those making commitments, like the 14 corporations named, hold question and answer sessions during the summit. We'll see.

   

At UN, Praises Sung of Shell & Anglo-American by HSBC Director Moody-Stuart, Softball Questions from Global Compact and FT: Bluewashing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- When Mark Moody-Stuart appeared against the background of the East River with Wall Street behind it on April 28, it was a UN classic event: fauxinterview, self-congratulation and critical questions not taken.

Moody-Stuart largely sung the praises of Shell Oil and then Anglo-American. A Financial Times journalist was brought it to toss soft ball questions and then pick, along with a UN Global Compact staffer, questions from the floor.

These consisted of questions like, How can you expand the Global Compact, and what do responsible companies like Shell do with corrupt governments? One chosen questioner didn't himself disclose that he is on a board of the Global Compact; another was a UN official.

Inner City Press indicated that it wanted to ask a question, even directly approached the question-distributor, who nodded. But no question was ever allowed. When it ended and Inner City Press walked out, a "business and ethics" scribe approached saying he had interviewed Moody-Stuart at some length earlier in the day. Inner City Press asked: did you ask about the global financial meltdown caused by predatory lending? Apparently not.

It should be noted that the UN uses as its bank JP Morgan Chase, even as a draft resolution by the Group of 77 circulated condemning Chase for essentially diplomatic redlining. Critical questions were not taken: there were a stack of books to be promoted, and a lot of backs to be patted. 

  There may have been some improvements at the Global Compact, such as a described working group on remittances that might address such issues as Barclays' Somalia cut off.  But this type of controlled Q&A and self congratulation is indicative of continued blue-washing. Watch this site.

   

As UN Global Compact Member Sonera Linked to Uzbek Probe, UN Defers & Spins, Blue-Washing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 -- Company join the UN Global Compact, but when they are charged with corrution and money laundering, what happens?

This week, Inner City Press put this question to new / old UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric:

Now that UN Global Compact member Telia Sonera has been linked to the Uzbek bribery and money laundering probe, what is the UN or its Global Compact's response? To assist you answering:http://yle.fi/uutiset/sonera_linked_to_uzbek_bribery_probe/7134014 News 

Sonera linked to Uzbek bribery probe One of Finland’s largest telecom operators has been indirectly tied to a money laundering investigation into the flamboyant daughter of Uzbekistan's president

and

http://www.teliasonera.com/en/newsroom/news/2013/teliasonera-becomes-a-member-of-the-un-global-compact/

TeliaSonera becomes a member of the UN Global Compact 21 February 2013 The UN Global Compact, with over 10,000 corporate members and other stakeholders across 130 countries, is the largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative in the world. It is a leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices. In February, TeliaSonera became a signatory and a member of the UN Global Compact.

  The first day, Dujarric just ignored the question as if it had not been asked. Inner City Press published a story, one in a series. On March 14, the following came in, which we publish the same day:

Subject: Your question on the Global Compact
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org>
Date: Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 1:54 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org

Regarding your recent question on the Global Compact, the Global Compact Office has the following information:

The UN Global Compact is a voluntary multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue, exchange of good practices and collaborative solutions in the business arena. It is neither the UN Global Compact’s mandate nor its intention to monitor or judge participants’ performance, and participation in the initiative does not constitute a seal of approval.

Nevertheless, the UN Global Compact has in place Integrity Measures to promote continuous improvement and assist participants in aligning their actions with their commitment to the Global Compact principles. When it receives information suggesting that a participant company is not committed to continuous improvement, the UN Global Compact will endeavor to encourage dialogue (Dialogue Facilitation) between the company concerned and those who have raised the concerns. The UN Global Compact will make enquiries of its Nordic and Netherlands Local Networks about this matter. It will also forward the matter to the company itself asking for their reply.

  To which one UN observer opines, "That lame response dodges the main point: that shabby companies like this sign up for the UN Global Compact because they think it will make them smell better. The UN demands payola from these companies (for the blue-washing) and they get to use the UN's name on their websites and stationery as a sort of Good Housekeeping seal of approval. And when a story like this comes in, the UN paternalistically say that they will start asking questions to the company in question."

  Sounds like the UN... Watch this site.

   

As UN Ban Ki-moon Takes Photos With Businessmen, Unclear Who They Are

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 19 -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is usually insulated, including from the Press, by bodyguards paid by the UN's member states. But sometimes photo opportunities with Ban are allowed, or sold.

Such appeared to be the case on December 14, when Ban was whisked to a stakeout with a series of Asian businessmen. Video here.

Inner City Press filmed what it could of the photo op -- those arranging it kept telling the Press it had to leave -- and afterward several in Ban's circle said they had no idea who the businessmen had been.

There was dark talk about one David Ng, a businessman who has bankrolled "vanity" media projects given awards that night -- people funded by Ng used the word "vanity," so we use it here. They speak of similar awarded given in September 2011 to the maligned President of Equatorial Guinea, in a nearly endless process of "blue washing" at the UN.

In one view, Ban Ki-moon is the high priest of blue washing, who can for example name the chairman of bailed out Bank of America as the chairman of this "high level" group on sustainable energy for all, even as BofA is protested as the #1 funder of mountain top removal coal mining.

But in a sense Ban himself is washed in blue: liberals who don't follow issues closely automatically assume Ban is doing the right thing, despite repeated and conclusive evidence to the contrary. The Emperor has no clothes, but who dares say it? For now, we run this video of Ban and the businessmen, for as a form of crowd-sourcing, who are identify them? Watch this site.

As UNHCR Pulls Back from Deal with Nestle, It Fudges on Future Bluewashing

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unhcr4nestle112709.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 27 -- Two weeks ago, the UN's refugee agency told Inner City Press on the record that despite Nestle's alleged involvement in child labor in Cote d'Ivoire and abusive water practices, "we are in discussion with Nestle about cooperation on future projects that will help deliver clean water and support small scale farming initiatives for refugees."

Inner City Press published an article about this prospective "bluewashing," citing non governmental organizations which had made UNHCR aware of their concerns about Nestle record.

On November 22, UNHCR sent the NGOs two messages, first that "there is currently no plan for an agreement with Nestlé but we do not rule out the possibility in the future." Asked a follow up by the NGOs to confirm that no deal would be announced in late November, UNHCR's Sybelle Wilkes replied that "I can confirm that there is no agreement and no planned agreement."

Inner City Press asked Ms. Wilkes and Ms. Melissa Fleming, in light of her earlier in the month "we are in discussion with Nestle about cooperation," to confirm the last assurance to the NGOs, that there is "no planned agreement" between UNHCR and Nestle.

But Ms. Fleming said she was traveling, and Ms. Wilkes would not confirm her own earlier statement, instead stating "I'm writing to follow up on a question you sent to Melissa Fleming. I can confirm that there is no agreement with Nestle, but UNHCR does not rule out the possibility in the future." Why wouldn't she say for the record what she'd told the NGOs, that there is "no planned agreement"? Can UNHCR be trusted? Why stonewall? Why fudge?

In fact, UNHCR came under fire this month in the UN budget committee, for failing to provide documentation for many of its expenditures. There are many well meaning people working for UNHCR, but the way the agency is being run is not consistent.

And Nestle, under fire for its participating in the UN's CEO Water Mandate as well as UN Global Compact, has a history of paying money to try to make problems go away. Previously it demanded compensation from Ethiopia for a subsidiary nationalized decades ago, then tried to diminish the backlash with a donation to UNHCR. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unhcr4nestle112709.html