UN-Truth

But new SG BAN KI-MOON used it on his first working day at UN Headquarters in New York today, in a typical UN “tour d’horizon” - ”I start my duties at a daunting time in international affairs, starting from Darfur to Middle East, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, many other crises that trouble our world from defending human rights and the need to step up our efforts to implement, to reach the target by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals”…

Millennium Development Goals!  It’s all well and good to want to work for a better world, but it’s also important to be very clear and to speak the truth on this – the Millennium Development Goals are so much preposterous pretentious nonsense.  There is no way to know how many people actually live on less than one or two dollars a day (in some countries, that may be worse than others — how can poverty be calculate in dollars?)  And, there is really no way to know whether or not that number will be halved by the year 2015 — weren’t some world leaders embarrassed when asked to pledge to commit to this goal?  This Millennium Development Goal business is group think, group speak, and strategic communications at its very worst.

The UN has spent a fortune on propagating this pious nonsense, and they should just stop — but of course, they cannot.  Too much has already been invested.  So, it is already a foregone conclusion: victory will be declared, one way or another.

Asked about one of the most famous or infamous executions in history, last Saturday morning (of course it was Eid), the new UNSG said that: ”Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable crimes against the Iraqi people and we should never forget the victims of those crimes.”

He then added, diplomatically but also pragmatically, that “The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide.” 

Just to make sure he had covered all bases, he said that “As a Secretary-General, at the same time, while I am firmly against impunity, I also hope that the members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian laws.”

A few minutes later, pressed again on the issue by journalists, he repeated: “I said that capital punishment, the death penalty, is the issue for each and every Member State to decide. At the same time, I would hope that the international member states would pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian laws.” 

The spokesperson said at the UN Noon Briefing in New York Wednesday, in response to further questions, that the SG “supports the Universal Declaration and the traditions of human rights bodies and international courts. But he represents at the same time the views of 192 Member States, who disagree on this issue… Asked about a moratorium on the death penalty, the Spokeswoman noted that the matter was the prerogative of the General Assembly, and the Secretary-General would push forward whatever the Assembly agreed to on that matter.”  

SG BAN spent a large part of the day on Tuesday meeting UN staff. 

UN staff outside of headquarters were tuned into UN internet webcasts of a public meeting in which BAN KI-MOON noted that “staff morale has plummeted” in recent years.  He attributed this, however, mainly to “harsh and sometimes unfair criticism” of the Secretariat — on areas from lack of accountability to ethical lapses…He vowed to make meritocracy his watchword on human resources, while allowing for geographical representation and gender balance; set career development as a top priority, using training, mobility and evaluation; and encouraging staff mobility, not only between departments at Headquarters, but also between New York and the field.  -Mr. Ban said he would look to senior managers to inspire, motivate and bring out the best in staff, and he urged all staff to be forthright in expressing their views, even when they are discussing shortcomings or problems at the UN.  He said that he was “by nature a steadfast believer in the value and virtue of dialogue, no matter how high the perceived barriers..it is through dialogue that we can and will found common ground to change the working culture of the Organization, restore trust in one another, and learn to speak in one voice.”

The meeting was transmitted by video-conference to UN offices and duty stations outside Headquarters, including Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Brindisi, Geneva, Nairobi, Santiago and Vienna.

On Sunday, just hours before his term of office officially began, BAN KI-MOON pledged “a program of reform of the Secretariat to provide continuity along with change.”

The new SG’s new spokesperson, Michele Montas, said in an interview with UN Radio that she was offered the position on Sunday – just hours before it was publicly announced: “I have absolutely no reason to think it is going to be easy but I said yes immediately,”  

She also said that she believed “The essential role of a spokesperson is to give access to information which is not really available otherwise.”

Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, International Law, Iraq, Journalism and Journalists, Transition, UN Secretary-General