(image via dfo-mpo)
Fuckin' A. There are so many boldfacers in New York City -- for Fashionweek, for the Clinton Global Initiative, the Mayoral election, for the UN Anniversary -- that The Corsair will only turn his head for a duly elected head of state of a powerful ally, a really hott supermodel, or an indie film ingenue. Otherwise, we risk a perpetual case of whiplash. Here's what is being said around the web with regards to the UN:
From Reuters: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon headed on Tuesday for a U.N. summit expected to yield accolades for his pullout of settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip."
An anecdote: My father, Louis Kayanda Mwangaguhunga was Uganda's ambassador to the United Nations in 1979, during the infamous "Zionism-is-racism" resolution that created a great rift between Israel and that global body. The foreign service in Africa operates independent of the dictators du jour (at least it did in the late 1970s). Thus, my father was immune to the sepia-colored intrigues of their ilk. Idi Amin Dada, the tyrant, was scheduled to make an appearance at the UN. My father, who despised the man, prepared a moderate speech for him -- an illiterate 5th grade dropout -- to give. Amin arrived on a private jet (Uganda was, because of his machinations, infinitely impoverished), with half-naked dancing girls and live chickens (As Xenophon has noted in Hiero, dictators are impossibly paranoid, especially about eating food prepared by foreign chefs). Amin proceeded to tear up my father's moderate speech, and deliver -- at the UN -- the infamous "Zionism-is-racism" resolution. It has always been a point of sadness with Father that things went down that way. So, if this blog appears a little overprotective of Israel, you now know why ...
From the UN News Center: "The Assembly's fifty-ninth session will formally close tomorrow morning, paving the way for Wednesday's opening of a three-day summit meeting that coincides with the UN's sixtieth anniversary.
"In one of its last acts under the presidency of Jean Ping of Gabon, the Assembly this evening unanimously approved a series of measures aimed at reaffirming the 191-member body's authority to take up global issues of concern to the international community. It also deferred a number of items to the sixtieth session, including several related to the UN Capital Master Plan, which aims to refurbish the Organization's dilapidated Headquarters and bring it up to code, thus rendering it safer and more efficient.
"At the outset of the meeting, President Ping expressed the Assembly's deepest sympathy to the Government and people of the United States for the tragic loss of life and material damage in the southern Gulf Coast states resulting from hurricane Katrina."
From the AP: "With the UN summit a day away, negotiators tried to agree Tuesday on a watered-down plan for reforming the United Nations, having abandoned many of the sweeping changes recommended by Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"More than 160 presidents, prime ministers, kings and their entourages are descending on New York for Wednesday's summit opening. But it appeared less likely that the 191 UN member states would reach consensus on a document enabling the world body to tackle the major global issues of the 21st century.
Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said negotiations seemed more favourable than a few days ago because 'deadlines are starting to loosen minds and positions.'
"'There's a threshold where we always knew we wouldn't get the full loaf,' Malloch Brown said. 'We've got to start counting slices. Half or more will do at this stage.'
"Many countries blame the United States for proposing hundreds of amendments just a few weeks ago to a document they believed was nearing agreement. The major organizations of developing countries, including the Group of 77 and the Nonaligned Movement, then responded with dozens of their own.
"Russia and other countries also offered many amendments."
Russia. Of course, would we expect Russia, or even their most recent compadre China to do otherwise. The UN and -- god help us -- the Taiwan straits are the arena's for Sino-Russian malice.
From the Christian Science Monitor: "When President Bush speaks Wednesday at the largest gathering of world leaders in United Nations history, he will argue for major changes in a world institution that was conceived by the United States but has since become the object of much American skepticism - especially under the Bush administration.
"Now the lone Gulliver in a land of many Lilliputians, the US has long had a contentious relationship with the world body. Many countries suspect the US wants the UN to operate as a legitimizer of its worldview - or they think the US just wants to disregard it.
"The international gathering of more than 170 countries that begins Wednesday is supposed to approve changes that will make the UN a more effective and relevant institution for the 21st century. And the US, despite its frustrations with the UN, does have specific goals for reform that it believes are minimum 'musts' to reverse a slide to irrelevance.
"One key reform is a revamping of the UN's approach to human rights issues. Another is management reform. The US is pressing to concentrate more management responsibilities in a secretary-general's office endowed with new oversight powers and new officers - such as a chief operating officer who could focus on finances and personnel while leaving political duties to the secretary-general.
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