Tomorrow, September 10, is the “White Band Day” to combat poverty, sponsored by the Global Call to Action against Poverty. Groups from around the world are organizing demonstrations to urge governments to do more to end poverty. In New York there’s going to be a large “White Band” contingent at the annual Labor Day parade…
Category: United Nations
President appoints Jerkwad Bolton as UN Ambassador
This just in…. as anticipated, President Bush today appointed Mr. John Bolton, a rabid unilateralist, to be the new US Ambassador to the United Nations. Despite serious questions about Mr. Bolton’s ability to serve in this post, from both sides of the congressional aisle, and unwillingness of the Congress to vote on the issue, Bush…
Bringing both emotions and proposals to the table
I wanted to recount what was for me the highlight of the GA Hearings with Civil Society that captured the value of having these kinds of gatherings. It was on the second day of the hearings, June 23, at the session on peace and security issues, when an activist from the Philippines began speaking on…
“Voices of the UN”: where UN bashers and whistleblowers meet
Someone has gone and stolen my idea. Some folks have created a website called “Voices of the UN” for workers at the United Nations to express themselves anonymously on how the organization is doing. While I am intrigued by the idea, I have to wonder if there are real dangers in creating a central repository…
Who knew feeding people would be so much fun?
I tried out the World Food Programme video game “Food Force” this weekend. I have to say, it’s a really fun game. And you do learn some interesting things about the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid, from dealing with rival factions in a rebel war to calculating the right quantities of rice, beans, oil, salt…
UN launches “feed-em-up” video game
In the “News of the Strange But True” category, the World Food Programme has come out with a videogame called “Food Force” where instead of shooting prostitutes to get a high score you have to feed hungry people. Interspersed throughout the game are videos where you learn about the plight of hungry people around the…
Pick me! Pick me! Who will speak at the GA hearings?
The process for nominations of participants to attend the first General Assembly hearings with civil society and the private sector have been announced, with an extremely short deadline for groups to nominate individuals to speak. It’s going to be a hairy process choosing who from among all of civil society and the private sector worldwide…
Googling the UN Document Server
The United Nations has added another search function to their two existing “simple search” and “advanced search” functions already on their Official Document System, and you get one guess where they bought it. For those who haven’t been following the news, earlier this year the UN publicly released their online archive of documents — including…
John Bolton is a big dork
My friends at Citizens for Global Solutions have started an online campaign to get the Senate to reject the nomination of the Bush Administration of John Bolton to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations. I had the displeasure of seeing John Bolton in action about 10 years ago in DC in a…
Scrap the Commission on Human Rights
I have to say, that after reading several reports from this year’s UN Commission on Human Rights, I think the institution is ripe for reform. Having a smaller, more accountable body of governments responsible for overseeing the human rights work of the UN and the human rights situation throughout the world seems an essential part…