I got a ton of e-mail from the UN news service this morning. Either a lot of stuff is going on, or their email blaster has been backed up from the holidays. (Oh, and a note to the UN editors: ALL CAPS means SHOUTING on the internets.) First up is the new and controversial Ethics…
Category: United Nations
CSTD – no, not that STD – meeting in May
I just got word that the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) is having their ninth session from May 15-19 in Geneva. The unfortunately acronymed CSTD is a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council in 1992 to provide high-level advice on relevant issues through analysis and appropriate policy recommendations or…
Dear UN: Please get an RSS feed
The United Nations website is filled with a wealth of useful information and news about the world we live in, from on-the-ground updates on conflicts and security crises to statistical data on every country on the planet. And yet it tends to hoard that information to be mostly consumed by a small population of diplomats…
I am the ruler of Panganibania
I recently surfed across NationStates.net, a huge online community of people role-playing as nation-states. The site was created by author Max Berry to complement his novel Jennifer Government. The idea of thousands of people engaging in virtual statecraft in real-time online is so strange and cool. To play the international politics simulation, you first have…
UN fan proposes to girlfriend on General Assembly podium
In contrast to the typical litany of wars, famines and human rights violations, the UN News service sent out a bit of soft news at the end of the year, reporting that a UN fan proposed to girlfriend in General Assembly. It’s a very cute story about Alan Daly, an American, proposing to his German…
WSIS adds the Internet to UN’s agenda
Lots of folks have been asking me what was the main result of the World Summit on the Information Society. My answer is that the WSIS affirmed emphatically that the Internet and other information communications technologies fall firmly within the domain of the United Nations as a policy-making forum. Different actors wanted different outcomes from…
GA President asks for reforms for Christmas
We’ll see which governments were naughty and nice pretty soon. Jan Elliason, the current President of the General Assembly, is cracking the whip on government delegations to get them to finish their work on several UN reform issues before the end of the year. In a December 5 letter to all UN Missions, Elliason urged…
UN Launches US Radio Service
The United Nations yesterday announced that they have launched a new radio service for the United States market. Why they have decided to try and go after the American radio audience now is an interesting question. The news service can be found at http://www.un.org/radio/newsusa. According to a press release: Broadcasters can browse a selection of…
Dumb Bloggers Post about “UN Taking over the Internet”
I’m getting sick and tired of all these bloggers posting paranoid Black Helicopter visions of the United Nations “taking over” the internet. As if the United Nations was one monolithic superpower threatening to engulf the poor, beleagured United States. In fact the situation is the reverse. Among the ill-informed blog entries on the subject are:…
Everyone’s a Delegate
The UN has a local TV and billboard ad campaign called “Everyone’s a Delegate” to get New Yorkers to see beyond the inconveniences of the General Assembly meetings this week and focus on the important issues on their agenda. I particularly like the TV spot where a New Yorker gives delegates directions on how to…