By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 8 -- As India began its second week atop the UN Security Council on Monday, its Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri opened an exhibit of photographs by Fredric Roberts, "named 'Best Foreign Photographer for India' by the Indian Government" according to the program distributed at the event.
Roberts joked that such praise was like being recognized as a doctor by other doctors, and not merely parents blinded with pride.
Hardeep noted that most of his fellow Permanent Representatives were out of New York on vacation -- the Perm Reps of Belgium, Jamaica, Netherlands, South Africa and Sri Lanka among others were there -- so he invited an Indian judge, who in turn invited other judges and New York politicians, including State Senator John Sampson and Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks. There were some Anthony Weiner jokes, along with spicy meats and samosas.
Representatives not only of India but also Brazil and South Africa, together the so-called IBSA, let it be known that their ministers are now on the way or in Damascus. "This has nothing to do with the Security Council," South African ambassador Baso Sangqu told the Press.
The event took place just above the Security Council, and so talk inevitable turned in that direction. It was said that a press statement was being circulated for the August 9 consultations on Yemen, and that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is leaning toward naming an envoy to Syria .
"The Westerners will support this idea" at the August 10 session, Inner City Press was told, along with the prediction that the envoy will be "Anglo Saxon," just like Ian Martin on Libya. "They have no credibility," the IBSA source snarked, lumping lead Libya envoy Al Khatib in with the lot. "You can't even understand him, he has no plan."
Hardeep & Lahkshmi Singh Puri, Meeks, Sampson, looking left (c) MRLee
Various Council sources said that in the consultations on Sudan earlier in the day, Hardeep took on all comers, saying that celebration of South Sudan's independence had been premature, that many problems remained and that the Council was not solving them by taking sides.
At the event, Hardeep offered fulsome praise of Fredric Roberts, promising another show with him. It's said Robert when in India offered photography training to rural and urban youths, not unlike another photographer who spoke at the UN last week, Teru Kuwayama, has done in Afghanistan. Roberts began his short speech by saying, "Unlike the Security Council, I'll be brief." There was laughter -- but no reform. Watch this site.
