GLOBAL SOLUTIONS FOR GLOBAL PROBLEMS
-----------------------------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2018 August 26
Introduction
----------
For the past ten years the United Nations headquarters on
Manhattan was under an all-points rebuild. This massive work caused
disruption to the peace and quiet of the vicinity, generating major
complaints and agitation. To alleviate this criticism, the UN began a
program of inviting select elements of the public to sit certain
procedings inside the campus. The UN wanted to show that it isn't all
that terrible a neighbor.
That's when some six years ago I spontaneously started getting
sporadic invites to attend a this or that UN event. Altho I never found
out how in hell I was among the selected inviteds, I was honored to
get these invites. I did attend the sessions and I summarized some of
theM in separate articles in the NYSkies web.
The public be welcome
------------------
With construction winding down and the campus cleaned up by late
2017, many UN offices realized that the select-invite events really
helped the public understand their mission and work. Since mid or late
2017 several open-to-public activities were staged at the UN. In many
cases the notices I got were on short leadtime and they could not be
sent out in time to NYSkies.
In late June 2018 I got notice for a two-day conference to convene
on August 22-23. I duly posted it in the August 2018 NYC Events. The
event was the 67th annual conference to scope out topics for the
upcoming General Assembly session. The theme this year was 'People
solving global problems with global solutions'.
A few NYSkiers took up the invite. They were, uh, blown away by
the privilege to actually sit among officials and delegates at a
genuine UN meeting.
The conference
------------
I never heard of this annual meeting, probably because it was an
in-house function. For sure I never received a select-invite for it.
The meeting attracted about 1,300 attendees from all over the
world! I don't know how many were public spectators but I did come
onto substantial numbers of them.
The main session was in a large theater in the Secretariat
building. No, it wasn't the very General Assembly hall, but an other,
far less opulent chamber..
Signing up
--------
The notice directed the recipient to a web to sign up for this
meeting. The procedure was officious. I first had to open an 'account'
and then use that account to go and register. The registration were
only online, to accommodate guests from overseas and to collect
information in digital form.
The end result was an email confirming me as an attendee.
On Monday 20 August I received instructions for the conference.
They were written to cover all guests, with info about hotels and
travel directions to the UN. It stipulated that a GI photo ID was
required, which for overseas attendees is a national passport. US
guests may offer an other valid ID like a driver's licence. From
previous UN events I learned that the deBlasio IDNYC was rejected by
some UN offices as an unsecured instrument.
The instructions explained that guests must first go to an office
building near the UN to pick up an event pass. All guests, including
those already holding other UN passes, must get this ticket.
This office was open only in the early morning before the event. I
could not go and get the lass on a prior day.
Other than picking up this ticket, there was no special
preparation for the conference.The instructions gave links for the
conference program & schedule and for abstracts of many presentations.
These I downloaded and printed out.
Going to the UN
-------------
I sat only the Wednesday session on August 22nd, skipping the one
on the 23rd. The both sessions started at 10:00AM, calling for me to
get to the ticket office by 9:30AM.
It was simplest to take the subway to Grand Central, about a K
from the UN, and walk. The day was still cool in the morning sunshine.
I arrived at the ticket office at quite 10:00 AM, a little later than
I wanted since the conference opened at 10 o'clock.
In the office I encountered NYSkier Peggy Fitzgerald, who also
just arrived. We went to the registration room to get our passes. The
room had ticket windows sorted by last name, putting Peggy and me on
different queues.
I offered my employment photo ID card. The clerk checked me on her
computer, accepted the ID, handed me my pass. Fitzgerald got her pass.
We two crossed over to the UN and entered thru the visitors gate.
The guard showed us to the security pavilion. The X-ray went cleanly
for me but I was gonged at the magnetic gate. After checking for
residual metals, I was still gonged.
A security agent frisked me, finding nothing out of order. I then
remembered that once in a while I got stopped because the magnet
detected the surgical rod and pins in my elbow and hip. They were
inserted as repair from my car accident in 2016. They only trigger the
magnetic gates occasionally.
We were ushered to the Secretariat building and then to elevators
to the conference room. Because we moved off of the public area of the
UN, we had to keep our tickets at ready to show guards dotted here and
there on the way to the conference room.
From prior events i found that the ticket gets wrinkled and
creased from repeated handling. I'll consider putting it in a badge
holder, like for conventions. I didn't have one this time but I'll get
one for future UN events.
We got into the meeting room at about 10:20AM, missing the first
moments of opening statements. The main deck of the hall was already
filled. We were steered to the upper deck, the peanut gallery. As luck
had it, we came across NYSkier Myrna Cofino. For the rest of the day
we three stayed together.
For the rest of the 22nd we found no other NYSkiers. In days
after the conference i heard of other NYSkiers who attended but I
didn't yet hear from them.
We took seats on the far left side of the hall, where the video
screen was visible almost edge-on. it didn't matter since virtually
everything was fully discussed in audio. The opening remarks were in
progress as we were settling in our seats.
It's free!
--------
One speaker commented on the registration process. Many guests
from overseas complained that some other guests didn't have to pay a
fee. These folk showed officials their own payment receipts as
evidence. The conference officials were highly irritated because the
conference was free of charge. it seems that bogus 'UN registration
buros' opened in some countries. The, exploiting the ignorance of the
overseas delegates, added tens or hundreds of dollars in their service
fee as 'conference registration'. The buros pocketed this extra money.
The speaker emphasized that the United Nations is the home for all
peoples and its offerings are free. Any one who paid a fee to attend
were, uh, cheated.
Global problems
-------------
There was no slate of problems to be discussed as 'global'. Each
speakers noted several of the grab-bag problems such as hunger,
health, education, poverty. But only in general terms with stock
examples in the Biafra model.
More than than, even a generally accepted problem has vastly
different meanings across countries. For just one instance 'education'
in a western country could mean`raising young citizens to become
effective stake holders in society, including holding public office.
It includes training in arithmetic, algebra, litterature, grammar,
national and regional history, arts, science, homemaking, honor and
social duty.
In some other countries 'education' means training the young
citizens to be obedient loyal servants of the ruling party. Only a
minimum of skills are taught, else they may enable the students to
think for themselfs and develop contrary views of the party. In
extreme cases it is only necessary that the students learn to write
their own name and behave in class.
While all participants favor solving the problem of 'education',
each country wants to handle it in its own way. how education is
treated beyond their frontiers is not their problem.
The procedings
------------
I myself found the bulk of speakers were mouthing catch phrases
for vaguely stipulated situations. They divided into two grand
classes. One common theme was an appeal to an international or global
authority to resolve the situation. Am other called for individual or
small groups to deal with the situation.
This yin-yang could make sense if a roof authority organized the
groups under its command. It could not let them operate by their own
initiative. In this sense people are like sports players working under
their mangaers and coaches, altho they do play as the game procedes.
Entirely missed out is the raw fact that the United Nations is a
forum of sovereign nations, not a government over the world. The
silliness of the latter premise is that the UN as a ruling entity
would not let one part of the world function in conflict with others.
it would call the leaders in the dispute to its headquarters and read
the riot act to them.
A curious mindset came out in the conference. So many speakers
treat the world as if it was built like the United States, with
'states' in a world federal scheme. These folk at times held out the
UN charter or assorted declarations like sections of a global system
of by-laws and rules. While the charter and declarations have lofty
ideals, they have no application of force on the separate countries.
Any incorporation of UN material into a country's own laws is solely
by its own discretion.
In spite of an overall shallow treatment of the problem-solution
theme, there were many important features discussed about UN
operations.
Dialog with Security Council
--------------------------
One section of the UN Charter opened the Security Council to
public dialog. Any person or party on Earth may send comments,
suggestions, complaints, warnings, &c recta mente to the Council at
its New York office.
In the first decade or so of the UN hundreds, maybe a full
thousand, letters were received by the Council. They are now deposited
in the UN archives and are open for public perusal.
After some ten years, the number of submissions fell off. It dried
up completely by the 1970s. There is no obvious reason since the
public access section remained in force and still does today.
Some speakers suggested that countries didn't let on to their
citizens that such dialog was allowed. Others noted that some
countries simply forgot all about this dialog. For sure, only a few
Americans, even well educated ones, know about it.
With today's expanded comms channels, like email and social media,
the UN Security COuncil is orders more accessible to world inhabitants
than it ever was in the past.
Rule of law
---------
A significant theme of many delegates was that there should be a
roof system of law that must be followed by countries. This is one
example of 'Aericocentric' bias. It's also founded on the societies
generally called 'western' like in Europe. In these countries there is
a fundamental body of rules and laws for government. In the US this is
the Constitution and its derivative legislation. Violations are judged
against this set of tules for possible remediation.
Altho many countries have a 'constitution' it is hardly the
equivalent of the American one. For one feature, many constitutions
are revised by the national party in office as they may from time to
time decide, If the party wants a feature not in the existing rules,
it makes up the rules and reissue the new set. Under this scheme of
government there few or no violation of law because it is written
away by revising the law.
An other feature for many delegates is the role of the public in
running their government. In 'western' countries the party in office
is accountable to the public, usually by elections, recalls, no-
confidence sentiment. Holding office in thee countries implies looking
after the needs and wants of the peole and adhaering to the
fundamental set of laws.
In many counties there is no effective role for the public in
their government. The party in office does what it feels is good for
the public or, in some cases, disregards the public.
Big vs small countries
--------------------
Some speakers argued that the UN is dominated by the big
countries, leaving the little ones out of effective power. Other
speakers showed otherwise. In fact, many major projects of the UN were
started or promoted by small countries.
I recall three examples of several mentioned. The International
Criminal Court, for dealing with mattes of persons rather than
nations. It was proposed by Trinidad & Tobago. The UN'S WORK WITH of
'climate change' was agitated for by a coalition of island countries
in the Pacific ocean. Costa Rica promoted the Arms Trade treaty..
Other speakers reminded that the UN treats all of its member
countries as equals. Their influence is not weighted by population,
domestic production, or other national figure of merit.
After the conference I looked over a tabulation of UN members. it
seems that apart from the very largest countries, over 200 million
population, the size of countries reasonably smoothly decreases in
population all the way to the smallest ones. There's no obvious
division between 'big' and 'small' by population. I did notice that
the smallest UN members have fewer people than a large housing estate
in New York City!
Other parameters for 'big' and 'small' could be territory,
domestic product, political influence, trade, creative talent,
financial skills. These were not specificly discussed at this
conference.
What's the 'UN'?
--------------
Several speakers griped that their home country has little, if
any, awareness of the UN. It's some outfit on Manhattan that doesn't
relate to the country's own affairs. These countries aren't hostile
against the UN. Most at the top government level work well with it.
Activities of the UN just don't reach the general public, who
occasionally read news of a this or that UN peacekeeping or special
meeting. The country treats UN activity simply as interesting news
without particular relevance to it.
The delegates are looking for ways to raise public enthusiasm for
the United Nations. Else it would be hopeless to involve the public in
dialog about solving global problems.
Lunch
---
We three after about 1-1/2 hour at the main session left to do
lunch and sit a separate focus meeting. There were perhaps dozens of
these over the two days. Many ran concurrently with the main session.
We happened upon a fellow delegate who in small chat mentioned he
was from Chile and knows the observatories in the Atacama district. He
was holding a focus group later in the day and we could join it. We
assumed it had something to o with the observatories or astronomy.
WeNYSkiers accepted his invite. `
Myrna from her other work with the UN knew this building's layout
well. She took Peggy and me on a walk thru the renovated areas to show
how neat and modern the facilities are. i have to say that while the
structures and services seemed up to date, the furniture in the
various rooms looked, uh, ratty. They were like castoffs. of course, I
don't know if the rebuild of the UN campus included new furniture and
furnishings. It may be that the stuff I saw was carried over from
before the rebuild.
Myrna took Peggy and me to one of the many cafeterias scattered
thruout the UN. This was on an upper floor with a patio. She had, in
addition to the conference pass, her other UN -related work pas that
allowed access to this cafeteria.
When we started lunch the patio was closed. It opened later during
our meal. Delegates were sitting at tables all across the floor for
lunch and chat. We stayed indoors looking out pictures windows at the
East River and Roosevelt Island.
We filled our plates with assorted sandwiches, salads, desserts,
drinks. At the paypoint Peggy was amazed how cheap her meal was, quite
2/3 that of a coffee shop or deli.
Myrna and I went to lunch at the UN a couple times before and were
used to the low prices. I also once in a ehile when I'm near City Hall
do lunch in the federal dining room, which has low-priced service.
I pointed out that the spacing from Roosevelt is to us is the same
as that for the recent gunshots incident. A few days earlier a shooter
on Roosevelt Is fired rifle bullets into a housing tower on Manhattan,
breaking windows on high floors. The distance is some 500 meters
across East River.
We lingered at lunch, the room being also a sitting room for UN
staff.
In the lulls of our own banter I listened to the ambient chat at
other tables in a variety of languages.
I remind that thee is only one public food service in the UN, the
Vienna Cafe' in the visitors area. The internal cafeterias are beyond
public access.
Astronomy? Nope
-------------
With lunch over and done, we went back to the meeting floor to
take in the discussion about astronomy. Yes, the chair fellow was
there ready for his discourse. His audience, seated around a
conference table, numbered about fifteen.
The presentation had nothing what so ever to do with astronomy!
Altho he was familiar with the Chile observatories, his part in the
global problems conference was to discuss a local problem of Chile
children. They suffer severe burns from fireworks, pyrotechnics.
Fireworks are openly available in Chile. Children buy them in
stores or get them from adults in their households. They are not
limited to holidays and celebrations but are played with as casual
toys all year round.
Most children with fireworks live in districts with flimsy
flammable houses. General carelessness sets the homes on fire, burning
their occupants. The kids are often scared or injured beyond easy
escape, making their burns much worse.
Chile is a modern country with good medical services but the
number of burn victims is way too large for social tolerance. The
burns commonly are severe, penetrating beneath the skin and covering
large portions of the body. Treatment takes months, plus follow-up
rehab.
The presentation was illustrated on a projection screen with
graphs, charts, and sample photos of victims. The damage was far more
than from a firecracker exploding in the hand. They were of the kind
suffered by victims trapped in a major house fire.
OK, this was not what we expected. Yet it did demonstrate one
problem that the UN can provide assistance and support.
Back to the conference
--------------------
We returned to the main conference room in late afternoon. Only
about 1/3 of the seats were filled, leaving a wide selection for us to
sit on the main deck. Such a fall-off of attendance is common for
meetings with many peripheral sections running concurrently. Guests go
to them in the stead of the main session. It is also common for
national or international conventions for guests to do shopping,
networking, visiting, sightseeing.
The lower floor had the standard UN tables and clumsy heavy
chairs. They digged into the rug and were tough to nudge while seated.
A second row of seats behind the one at the table was almost vacant.
It is normally used by assistants to the delegates sitting at the
table. They prepare papers for the delegate, who carries out his
country's interests.
The tables had the standard audio and sign modules. We listened
thru the ear piece for clarity because at times the speaker had a low
voice. The second row of seat and the gallery seats had only the audio
module. panel.
The entire conference and workshops were presented in English.
Delegates and guests spoke in native languages privately but switched
to English to take part in the meeting. With no need of translation,
the language selector on the audio panel was inactive.
Finishing the day
---------------
We saw that the schedule by mow was slipping badly. The speaker
was one slated for a hour or so earlier. Apparently thee was
frictional delay during the day such that the conference would, if
allowed to continue at its present pace, end at around 6:30PM, not
5:30.
After a few more speakers we had our fill for the day and left for
an other focus group. This one concerning malnutrition in children.
It was supposed to start at 6PM, after the scheduled end of the
main session. We found the other meeting room mostly empty with a few
people milling around at the front. One announced over the mike a
welcome with assurance that the meeting will start soon.
After some ten minutes there was no obvious progress toward
starting the meeting. Hosts were still ambling about at the front of
the room. We three left, calling it a day.
Going home
--------
All of us rode the 42nd St bus from the UN. Coffino got off at
Grand Central where she got a train to her nabe. Fitzgerald and I
continued to Times Square. We both needed a Brighton train, which
stops at Times Square. The train ride was uneventful, with us getting
off at our proper stations.
Conclusion
--------
This particular United Nations event was one of the weaker ones I
went to. Maybe the second day went better?
Regardless of the quality of time I spent, it has always been a
delight to attend shows at the UN, a newer venue of cultural activity
for me. The early years I some how was favored with select invites for
these events. Now more are open to the public with no special invite.
Registration is required for each event to enter the campus and
keep track of seats. This process varies from event to event. The
ticket becomes a spiffy souvenir, along with takeaways from the show.
As at late August 2018 there are two more UN public shows:
September 4 and September 26. Announcements come irregularly and
sometimes on short notice. I'll sign up for which ever moves me.
On the whole the United Nations is doing the world a most
rewarding service by allowing public attendance at certain meetings.
It opens the greater public awareness and appreciation for the UN
beyond the nickel tour. The events I sat, both by invite and public
notice, demonstrate the enormous range, scale, variety of situations
it handles all over the world. Some are prevalent in the United
States. Some other situations are completely strange to us.
As I come onto future UN public events I'll advise NYSkies of
them. Please avail of them according as your preferences allow.