At UN, Ban Ki-moon Names Bank of America & Shell On Sustainable Energy, Banning Questions on Blue-Washing?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 27 -- Sustainable Energy for All was UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon topic's when he spoke to the press this morning along with World Bank president Jim Kim. Inner City Press tweeted photo here.

  A handout praised Bank of America, as predicted, despite its role in funding mountain top removal coal mining. Also named for praise was Shell, embroiled in environmental scandals in Nigeria and elsewhere.

  These contradictions should be answered by the UN.

  But Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky, who canceled the day's UN noon briefing for this, took only two questions. First was CBS -- will they report it? -- by coincidence the president of the UN Correspondents Association, about Iran.

  The second question was about nuclear power. Jim Kim said the World Bank does not fund such projects.

   Why did the "press encounter" - Ban's last one had no questions at all -- end then? Why was the UN system's noon briefing canceled for a two-question stakeout?

   We must note that a former UN correspondent who was thrown out, Pincas Jawetz, told the new Free UN Coalition for Access that he was banned from attending the press encounter, though he showed an invitation from the organizers. Mr. Jawetz actually knows about the environment, and SE4ALL, and reports on it. 

   The new Free UN Coalition for Access protests this. UNCA, on the other hand, played a role in Jawets' ouster. That's why UNCA is now referred to as the UN's Censorship Alliance.

   Back in Warsaw, Ban Ki-moon's response on including coal industry lobbyists, for example in the recent climate change talks was that "We must work together so that everyone can be part of the solution. Of course we recognize the importance of coal and fossil fuels in many economies at this time."

   But Bank of America's presence is part of a growing trends of commercialization at and of the United Nations. On November 26 for example, alongside singer Mohammed Assaf was his corporate promoter from Dubai-based MBC media group, permitted to use the UN press conference as an advertisement for MBC.

  Inner City Press wrote about it, and others have picked it up, saying for example that the "corporate storyteller" of MBC "was there to essentially use Assaf's appearance at the UN as an advertisement for MBC, which is wrong."

   But at the UN, the corporate infiltration continues.

   Earlier this same week, a fine play about violence against women was sponsored by the Italian oil company ENI, which also openly advertises with and sponsors the pseudo press advocacy group Ban partners with.

  One point is, these partnerships hurt the United Nations or what it is supposed to be.

   The UN decided to cancel, preempted by Ban's and Kim's press encounter on SE4ALL, its normal noon briefing, at which questions for example about the Haitian refugees drowned off the Bahamas and bombings in Sudan could be asked. So Inner City Press will cover the Sustainable Energy for All event. Watch this site.

   

On Syria, UN No-Comments Grab of Red Cross Workers, So Kaag & Shell Oil, Corporate Games

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 14 -- Since six Red Cross and one Syrian Red Crescent workers were kidnapped in Syria over the weekend, the UN Secretariat has had nothing to say. Inner City Press went to Monday's UN noon briefing and asked why not. Video here, from Minute 11:18.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky twice said to "Speak to the ICRC." He did not respond to the Press question of why the UN speaks out against the kidnapping of aid workers elsewhere, even this weekend against a warning shot fired near, but not at, a UN helicopter in Eastern Congo.

  Some surmise that because it seems the rebels did it, the UN Secretariat is slower to comment. It is in the face of this that some UN explanation would be helpful.

  But as on questions about the UN's credibility for example on bringing cholera to Haiti, raised even by the New York Times, the UN Monday refused to comment. And after Inner City Press' Haiti cholera questions, the noon briefing abruptly ended after only sixteen minutes.

And so on Syria we're left to wonder: when envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that anyone who can help the Syrian people should come to Geneva Two, did he mean Iran and Saudi Arabia? Does the UN deny the accuracy of comments on the Saudis attributed to ex-US, now-UN official Jeff Feltman, who along with Brahimi met John Kerry?

Update: Per a US State Department run media "the UN" denies Feltman's quotes. OK - but note that the UN did not get any correction of a false report they created that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous now screens for cholera, click here.

  What about Sigrid Kaag, Ban's pick to head the Syria chemical weapons mission -- what of her work for the UN in Khartoum, and before that for Shell Oil? 

  On the corporate front, once the quickly ended UN noon briefing came off UN TV, a show appeared promoting the corporate takeover of diplomacy, promoting a US graduate school to that effect.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info has asked the UN why this show is UNTV -- it unquestioningly promoted a softball interview with Pamela Falk of CBS, 2013 president of the UN Correspondents Association which as shown and not explained spies for the UN -- and what the rules are, without substantive answer. This is how the UN is going.

Footnote: Before Monday's noon briefing so abruptly ended, the Agence France Presse scribe who once complained of how Herve Ladsous got asked a question asked the UN if Brahimi would go to Damascus, meet with a main component of the Syrian National Coalition. 

  But the SNC and its president are based in Turkey -- and he should know, on the board of UNCA which hosted a faux UN briefing by Saudi sponsored SNC "president" Ahmad al Jarba. This too is how the UN is going. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Nigeria Mutes Critique of Shell, UNEP & Campbell, But Equal Pay for Equal Work

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- Standing in for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, Foreign Minister Henry Odein Ajumogobia took questions from the Press on Tuesday and answered, not surprisingly, diplomatically.

While civil society and local officials in the Niger Delta have lambasted the UN Environment Program and Shell for what is viewed as a white wash of Shell's destruction of the area, when Inner City Press asked Minister Ajumogobia to speak on the issue, he referred only to clean up efforts in the Delta. One wag asked, clean up of what?

While Ajumogobia has publicly criticized the book of former US Ambassador John Campbell, “Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink,” when Inner City Press asked if Ajumogobia would raise the issue to Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton or any other US official while in New York, Ajumogobia instead recounted his good relations with Campbell around the Gulf of Guinea, when Ajumogobia was the Attorney General of River State.

Inner City Press asked what Nigeria's position is on Sudan, including the International Criminal Court's indictment of President Omar al Bashir for war crimes and genocide. Let me not preempt what President Jonathan will say at Friday's meeting, Ajumogobia said, adding that Nigeria is “fully engaged in Sudan,” particularly in Darfur.

Notably, Ajumogobia's predecessor Ibrahim Gambari is now the joint UN - African Union representative in Darfur.

One of Ajumogobia's answer was clear and to the point. Inner City Press asked him to elaborate on the statements of Nigerian Permanent Representative to the UN Joy Ogwu, that African Union peacekeepers in Somalia should be paid similarly to UN peacekeepers.

“Equal remuneration for equal work,” Ajumogobia replied. Hear, hear. As to Nigeria's position on Sudan and participation in the September 24 meeting, watch this site.

Footnote: Nigerian foreign minister Ajumogobia's press conference started 10 minutes late because the participants in the previous session, including the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Ahmed Djoghlaf, were still in the room taking photographs including of a model Japan Air Lines plane with some murky biodiversity connection. It looked more like an advertisement for an airline...

At UN, Yvo de Boer and Africa's Secret Climate Number, of Indian Black Carbon and Shell Games in the Niger Delta

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncope5offmessage112009.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 20 -- With the UN simultaneous shrinking hopes for the Copenhagen climate change meeting and telling the Press not to cover the diminshed expectations, its top negotiator Yvo de Boer on November 19 effectively set $10 billion as the ceiling for transfers to the developing world.

There is only one problem: the African Union alone is said to be looking for $67 billion annually, with a threat to walk out of Copenhagen is less is offered. Inner City Press asked de Boer is he knew of the African Union number, and if even a feigned successful conference would be possible in the Africans walked out.

De Boer said that as a UN official, he believes in bringing people together, and that any walk out would be bad. He then argued that $10 billion was only a start, not a ceiling at all. But by stating the number as an indicia of success, he effectively did that.

Inner City Press asked de Boer to comment on India's environment minister Ramesh's comment that not only will India not make binding commitments in Copenhagen on greenhouse gas emissions, it will not discuss black coal emissions at all: "Copenhagen meeting is for negotiations for cuts in GHG emission and not for black carbon emission. We would resist any move for bringing in black carbon emission for discussions. Scientific link between black carbon emission and global warming and melting of glaciers is still being studied."

At first de Boer said he hadn't seen the comment and so couldn't response. Then Inner City Press e-mailed it to him.Hours later, to his credit, de Boer responded:

Subj: Here's the Minister Ramesh / black carbon emissions quote I've asked about
From: Yvo de Boer [at] unfccc.int
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 11/19/2009 8:24:29 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

The Minister correctly states that the climate negotiations do not address black carbon as it is not a greenhouse gas. However efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also significantly lower emissions of black carbon

We'll see. Meanwhile, given the environment, some were surprised on November 18 to find Shell's Elizabeth Cheney in a UN conference room blithely praising her company's record.

Inner City Press asked about Shell's activities for example in Nigeria, specifically in the Niger Delta where Shell was accused for playing a role in the death of activist Ken Saro Wiwa, and is currently being sued before the ECOWAS court for pollution and human rights violations.

Ms. Cheney said Shell is "suffering the activities of criminal and terrorists [who] blow things up." She said, "We are not the government of Nigeria... sometimes we shut production and move out of area."

But what about pressuring those who oppose the oil drilling or distribution of revenue? "That's more detailed than we need to get into today," Ms. Cheney said. Afterwards she promised to put Inner City Press in touch with both "communications and... the leadership part of the business, there's more transparency there." If you say so...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncope5offmessage112009.html