UNGA Speeches Have Ban Without Ladsous, Lykketoft Without UNHCR, Rousseff Goes Local

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 -- In this UN General Assembly debate, in the fire hydrant spray of words and catch-phrase, some stand out and well as some omissions. Inner City Press will note some of them here, in reverse chronological order.

   UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said “Democratic backsliding is a threat in too many places, as leaders seek to stay in office beyond their mandated limits” - but didn't say the word, Burundi, while he did shout out The Gambia.

  Ban also said, “I am deeply troubled by growing restrictions on media freedoms and civil society” - although when his chief of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous had Inner City Press ejected from an “open” meeting, Ban did nothing.

  New General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft said, “As President of the General Assembly I will support member states in their ambitions for revitalization and reform – including a new, more transparent process for selection of the next Secretary General.”

 But when Inner City Press has asked him about the process for selection the next head of the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, he has said that he favors his fellow Dane Helle Thorning Schmidt but that it is entirely up to current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.   Before US President Barack Obama's 42 minute long speech, which Inner City Press separately reviewed here, Brazil's Dilma Rousseff spoke of a Palestinian state, low-carbon agriculture, and this:

“The Brazilian government and society do not tolerate corruption. The Brazilian democracy becomes stronger when the authorities recognize the limits imposed by the law as their own limits. We Brazilians want a country where the law is the limit. Many of us fought for this, precisely when laws and rights were violated during the military dictatorship. We want a country where rulers behave strictly according to their duties, without giving way to excesses. The sanctions of the law must apply to all those who committed illicit acts bearing in mind the need to uphold the principle of due process.”

  As Inner City Press asked midday on HuffPostLive, for what audience was this meant? Watch this site.
   

As Bangladesh Bans Rohingya, UN Silent Like On Sri Lanka, Joining OIC as PR Like #AskJPM?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 14 -- The Rohingya, Kachin and other groups stand to be lost in the Burmese shuffle amid much praise of Myanmar. Yesterday Inner City Press asked the UN about the Rohingya, specifically Bangladesh saying it will close its borders to those trying to flee. The UN has yet to answer:

Inner City Press: Bangladesh has said, formally, that they will close their borders to Rohingya fleeing from Myanmar, what they view as persecution in Myanmar, and in the past the Secretariat has commented on Bangladesh's treatment of Rohingya. Do you have any comment? Is there anything that the UN system, DPA [Department of Political Affairs] or anyone, is trying to do with regard to this closing of the border?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Let me check with my colleagues who deal with that matter; the Refugee Agency, with Political Affairs and others, certainly.

  Eighteen hours later, no comment on this, nor on crackdowns in Sri Lanka against the media and about survivors of the 2009 "bloodbath on the beach" who are trying to testify, despite UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's (still only internal) "Rights Up Front" plan triggered by the UN's inaction in 2009.

  The Organization for Islamic Cooperation's outgoing Secretary General Ihsanoglu is in Myanmar, with Turkey's foreign minister and others. 

  Inner City Press twice asked Ihsanoglu about the plight of Muslims in Sri Lanka; he expressed concern but each time noted that Sri Lankan foreign minster GL Peiris has said the country would like to join the OIC in some way. September 26, 2013 video here from Minute 13:05, and October 28 video here, from Minute 20.

  Would Sri Lanka joining with the OIC just be public relations, like this from Sri Lanka, or the JP Morgan Chase's abortive #AskJPM question and answer set for today then canceled? At the UN, we're still waiting for the UN's answers, on Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Rohingya, and on Sri Lanka. Watch this site.

   

JP Morgan Chase Gets Asked of Predatory Lending & Even Tony Blair, Cancels #AskJPM Q&A

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 13 -- It was back on November 6 that JP Morgan Chase started teasing a November 14 Twitter Q&A by an unnamed executive, urging that questions be posed using the hashtag #AskJPM.

  The foreseeable push-back didn't begin then. But the day before answers were promised, the hubris of bailed-out predatory lender JPM Chase believing it could launder itself through social media was brought to light.

  And so the questioning began, ranging from "Can I have my home back?" through "Do you own anything you didn't steal?" Inner City Press' UN-focused following up, "Does Tony Blair still work for, or get paid by, JPMorgan Chase? For what, exactly?"

  (Blair, alongside being the UN Quartet's representative on Palestine and Israel, took a job with JPMorgan Chase among others, and refused in the UN to answer Inner City Press' questions about the conflict of interest.)

  After much mocking, @JPMorgan called it off: "Tomorrow's Q&A is canceled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board."

  Such is the level of righteous anger, after the predatory lending, after the bail-outs. But that's among people -- in Congress, the wheels being greased, JPMorgan and Citigroup have already rehabilitated their image. That's what made them blind. Watch this site.

Footnote: Returning to a UN perspective, what would happen if the UN in Haiti asked people what they thought, after Secretary General Ban Ki-moon deemed all cholera claims "not receivable"? This is why large parts of the UN system not only never promise to answer questions -- they never do. They communicate one-way. But social media questions should be answered...