A Lot Going On

Since I've last written, I've been involved in two major events. One was the United Nations Association of the USA's Biannual Convention. That took place in Washington, DC, from June 12 - 14. Photos are online at the www.unausa.org Flickr account, and I've written an article for the UNA Southern New York State Division's website: www.unasouthernny.org. Anticipated by all was a chance to get to know Ambassador Tom Miller, UNA's new president. Tom plans to work closely with Chapters and Divisions of UNA-USA, a departure from the previous president, and this was welcomed by all.

The other event, on Ethanol and Bioenergy, was organized by the Public-Private Alliance Foundation. It featured aspects of investment in bioenergy, with participants from the financial sector, producers, non-Governmental organizations, and the United Nations. A report on the event will be available soon at www.ppafoundation.org Meanwhile, you can view one of the participants speaking about investment issues on PPAF's YouTube account: www.YouTube.com/ppafoundation

Year of Change, Year of Choice: America and the UN

The UNA Mid-Atlantic Conference, will take place on Friday, February 6, 2009. Feel free to contact Catherine D. White (CatherineDWhite@aol.com) or George Garland (GAGarland@gmail.com) with any questions. As details become available they will be posted in this blog and also at www.unasouthernny.org

Going Global with the UN Videos

You can now watch Bill Miller's interviews with UN and related notables on your computer! Bill (Global Connections, UNA Frankfort, UNA-USA Board member and Rotary International) creates his programs at UN Headquarters, working with UNTV. These 30-minute programs are great for anyone who wants to learn about the UN through the eyes of those involved, or for students active in Model UN. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, UN historian Stephen Schlesinger, Ambassador Francis Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic, David Stillman of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation, Bettina Luescher of the World Food Program and Pera Wells of the World Federation of United Nations Associations are just a few of those Bill has interviewed.

The Dallas Chapter of UNA and Richland Community College, with the Lecroy Center for Educational Communication, have just uploaded videos 53to 70 of Going Global with the UN. I want to thank Noeli Biggs and all others involved. You can watch the videos at http://www.rlc.dcccd.edu/modelun/videos.htm

I want to thank the UNA Southern New York State Division for its financial support for the series. The videos are again being shown in fall 2008 in Westchester County, New York on many cable TV networks, sponsored by the UNA Westchester Education Committee, whose chair is Marcia Wallace.

I also want to thank, again, the people involved in production of the series: Dan Hamilton, who is responsible for all of the technical work, making many disparate videos into seamless 30-minute productions. Dan also created the "bumpers" - the front and end pieces of the series, and Gregory Stillman's voice is heard in these. Nicoletta Barolini generously created the lovely Going Global with the UN logo.
Several interns, starting with Julianna Koch, have worked the series, sifting through many hours of potential source material, and obtaining permissions. Vanessa Van Arendonk, Ebi Spahiu, Declan Galvin, Samantha Young, Charlotte Ambrozek, Kristyn Kadala and others have supported the project.

If there is demand in future, we'll create more videos for "Going Global with the UN". Bill Miller interviews several notable UN-related people each month, so that content is available, and after a year's hiatus from looking at other source materials, I'm sure we can find many excellent new videos from throughout the UN System.

Special thanks go to David Stillman, who was president of the UNA of Westchester when the project started, and who has lived with hundreds of videos and dvds in our home and office!

Now the job is to market these across the country. I'll be glad to answer questions, and to ensure that any order you may place is quickly filled (with Dan's help, of course). DVD's are $10 each plus shipping and handling. Contact me at jbs@stratdev.com, or phone 914-478-3450. For a full list of all 70 videos, see a related article earlier in this blog, or look at the Richland Community College Model UN website.

"Ginger" Stillman

Year of Change, Year of Choice: America and the United Nations

As I write on September 11, 2008, seven years after the World Trade Center disaster, I feel sorrow for all affected by the event. Over 3,000 people, including from 80 countries, lost their lives at the World Trade Center, and others on American Flight 93 and at the Pentagon. They deserve mourning and our respect. I regret that the United States squandered much of the good will the world poured out toward America just after that date.

The US and the UN have had a rocky relation since the advent of the US war on Iraq, undertaken without UN concurrence and based on erroneous information. This has colored US-UN relations in many other ways, although the US continues to support a significant piece of the UN budget and that of its agencies.

Many important treaties and conventions are awaiting US ratification or signature: Law of the Sea, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and others. Others have been abrogated by the current administration. Beyond this,the administration has vetoed Congressionally-mandated funding for the UN Population Fund. It has also overridden the Geneva Conventions on Treatment of Prisoners of War and has challenged the existence and authority of the International Criminal Court.

On November 4 we will elect our new president, congress, and one-third of the Senate. And on November 8, with those results in hand, the conference "Year of Change, Year of Choice: America and the UN" will take stock of the potential direction for US-UN relations for the upcoming years.

This First United Nations Association Mid-Atlantic Conference will be held at the UN on Saturday, November 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. YPIC and the Council of Organizations are co-sponsors with the UNA Southern NY State Division and the New Jersey Division.

Ramu Damodoram, Deputy Director of Outreach of the Department of Public Information, will give the welcoming address. Opening plenary invited speakers are New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. The Conference will focus on three topics: Human Rights, Peace and Security, and Climate Change. A Youth Speaker will be invited to participate in each panel.

Updates on the program and information on registration will be posted at www.unasouthernny.org