By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, November 19 -- It's World Toilet Day, and at the UN there is
a lot of snickering and, at 10:30 am, there was a press conference.
Inner City Press asked the four-woman panel about the UN Peacekeeping
mission in Haiti MINUSTAH bringing cholera by lax sanitation
practices. Persumably they had toilets - but the waste went into the
river and now over 8,000 people are dead.
The
panelist from Pakistan, Tanya Khan, agreed there is a need for "total
sanitation" including where the waste goes.
Therese
Dooley of UNICEF agreed, that if one family pays for a toilet and the
neighbor doesn't, both might still get sick.
But
still - what is the UN doing? They covered up their role in Haiti,
still refusing to even apologize.
On
November 14 and again November 18, Inner City Press asked if UN
Peacekeeping, anywhere, has a Standing Claims Commission. On November
18, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesperson said
he has asked UN Peacekeeping, but it is "not a yes or no
question." Really? UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is slated
to speak, outside the UN, to a select(ed) crowd.
November
14, 2013:
November
18, 2013:
Likewise,
on
November 14
Haq was asked
for a
comprehensive
list of UN
Under
Secretaries
Generals and
Assistant
Secretaries
General. He
said these are
announced. But
Inner City
Press asked,
what about
long-standing,
part-time
officials?
Where is the
list?
As a
follow up,
Inner City
Press asked
Haq for the UN
Secretariat's
response to
criticism of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
seeking to
move his close
associate
Robert Orr
from an ASG
position
funded by used
portions of
other empty
budget lines
to a new USG
position,
while seeking
cuts
elsewhere.
Haq
didn't provide
a defense of
this, other
than saying
that any new
position is up
to the General
Assembly and
if created
would be
recruited for
in an open and
transparent
process. An
example of why
some doubt
that is the
refusal to
answer simple
questions
like: does any
DPKO
Peacekeeping
Mission have a
Standing
Claims
Commission?
That should be
answered.
Footnotes:
after
Inner City
Press asked
about Haiti
cholera on
November 14,
including
Stephen Lewis'
statement that
the UN should
admit
responsibility
and try to
make victims
whole, Pamela
Falk the
president of
UNCA, now
known as the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
jumped onto
the topic in
essence to
help the UN
out.
She
said that Haq
has been open,
and raised a
reason why the
UN might still
not be
screening
peacekeepers
for cholera
before
deployment:
the World
Health
Organization.
What was the
purpose of
such a
question?
Especially
after when the
UN
mis-answered
Inner City
Press'
first question
on this,
saying that
the UN does
not screen,
then admitted
that it
doesn't
only when
Inner City
Press asked
again. Open?
Keep an eye
out for that
hard-hitting
coverage --
not.
And on November 19, before Inner City Press thanked the panelists on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Falk for UNCA asked another softball question, working in Unilever which is trying to cleanse its reputation after the racism scandal in Thailand. This is one form of sanitation in which the UN is proficient.