I visited the UN Security Council about two weeks ago. Here is an article I wrote on the experience for the intern newsletter.

One of the perks of being an UN intern is the ability to waltz into open Security Council meetings. While attempting to inconspicuously dance your way past security might raise a few eyebrows, by simply flashing your badge you gain immediate access to the world of high diplomacy.

On January 27th the Security Council held an open debate entitled “The Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question”. Held in the Security Council chamber, it was the first opportunity for many interns to witness the operation of arguably the most important UN decision-making institutions. Along with the regular Member States, representatives from the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as the Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, were in attendance.

While not a debate in the traditional sense, the topic did stimulate some interesting discussion on the current situation in the region. Centred on the plight of the Palestinian people, Oscar Fernandez-Tarano, assistant secretary-general for political affairs delivered a sobering assessment of the situation on the ground one year after the Gaza Conflict had erupted. He elaborated on cases of denial of food and aid to the Palestinians and argued that the continued stalemate is precipitating a humanitarian crisis in the region.

Many nations urged Israel to loosen restrictions on the transport of aid and fuel into the occupied territories and stop the continued expansion of settlements into East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Israel stated its willingness to negotiate with the Palestinians, but demanded the cessation of the continued rocket attacks into its territory. Israel also noted Hamas’ continued denial of its sovereign legitimacy. Lebanon provided the most vitriolic reaction, whereas the United States condemned Hamas’ rocket attacks but urged Israel to restrict settlement building in the occupied territories.

While this meeting seemed informal, it gave the interns an interesting look into how the council operates, as well as the nuances of international diplomacy and debate. It also gave insight into the somewhat overwhelming complexities of attempting to solve an issue as old and volatile as ‘the Palestinian Questions’.

I couldn’t stay for the entire debate, but you could see that Israel was in for a bad day. Apart from the US, all other nations condoned Israel’s behaviour. While I don’t condone violence of any kind including the Hamas rocket attacks, but what Israel are doing – namely the expansion of settlements – is not constructive. The rest of the world can see that but not many seem interested in helping the Palestinians people.

The UN issued a press release that includes information concerning the entire breadth of the debate which you can read by clicking here.

I also attended the UN’s Holocaust Memorial Ceremony held in the General Assembly that same night. I have to say, I was disappointed. While the music was quite good, the speeches were sloppy. The keynote speaker seemed a charming old lady and had some interesting stories, but rambled on a bit more than was necessary.

One speech by the Israeli minister for Information Yuli Edelstein could only be described as outright propaganda. He did not really talk on the Holocaust at all, instead gave a demagogic lecture about the right of Israel to exist and the threat of Iran’s (conveniently forgetting Israel’s own alleged nuclear arsenal), glossing over anything that actually had anything to do with ‘remembering the holocaust’. You can tell by his previous press statements, that there wasn’t much hope for the exercise of rationalism.

While I don’t disagree with Israel’s right to exist, nor disagree with their right to be suspicious of Iran, the whole manner in which Edelstein preached to the crowd, taken in context with the current plight of Palestinian, left a bad taste in my mouth. I cannot support the utilisation of human tragedy as contemporary political currency. Simply put, it wasn’t the time or place to talk about such subjects.

There was what seemed like a moving speech from a Sinti representative who talked the 20,000 deaths of the Sinti people during the holocaust, but the sound was so awful that it was really hard to hear.

Still an impressive day – getting to hang in both the Security Council and the General Assembly was pretty special.

I’m going to miss the two old guys that used to dish out the meals at the German guesthouse. Despite their somewhat sour demeanor, they were quite amusing. I have no idea what their names were, but fellow resident Ben and myself dubbed them Basil and Manuel after the characters from Fawlty Towers.

“What’s the matter? You no eat eggs, eggs are your balls, they make you grow big balls, you don’t eat eggs, you no have balls!” – Words allegedly spoken by Basil Fawlty to a guest.

However, I can now walk to work without the bother of the subway, which is super handy. That’s pretty radical.

Bob Dylan and the Kids

On the weekend I visited the Brooklyn museum to check out the excellent “Who Shot Rock and Roll” exhibition. It was an exhibition which celebrated over 50 years of music photography and it was pretty darn good. Highlights include an awesome black and white shot of Pavement playing at the Reading festival in the 90s, a great Bob Dylan shot (shown above), a great shot of Paul McCartney in a car looking back through the rear view mirror (taken by Linda McCartney), as well as the classic Paul Simonon bass-smashing photo taken by Pennie Smith, often judged the greatest rock’n’roll photo of all time. Australia was even represented there, with a video installation of the Vines clip “Outtathaway” playing on loop (surely, they could have picked a better song/clip though!).

Arlene’s Grocery

Last night, I took up the opportunity of heading to Arlene’s Grocery – a bar on the lower east side famous for its live music. From the outside, it looks just like the name suggests – a grocery shop. Monday night means rock’n’roll karaoke, with punters getting up from the crowd and playing songs with a live band. The place was absolutely jammed and some crazy characters got up to sing some songs rarely heard at traditional karaoke. There was people doing Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and AC/DC. The best of the night was some dude getting up to sing thrash metal classic “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica. The band ripped this version out even including Hammett’s epic solo. I never expected to see that one played!

Anyway, I’m in my third week here and it is going pretty well. More to come.

By the way, I was saddened to hear that god-damned phony J.D Salinger died last week. I haven’t really being paying attention to the news, so this managed to pass me by.

Anyhow, he films his popular ‘Daily Show‘ in New York City and myself and my two interning buddies, Lisa and Ben, got the opportunity to go along to a filming. Tickets are notoriously hard to come by and are usually booked out several months in advance, but every so often people cancel, thus opening space for less organised people like myself to grab the opportunity to go along.

Still, getting a ticket does not guarantee a place in the the audience. One must line up outside the studio well in advance in order to achieve any certainty. So there we were – all three of us, lining up at 3.30pm in the west side of Manhatten on the coldest day since I’ve got to New York in order to get into the audience. But it was worth it – we got in.

They sit you down and let a random comedian warm you up for about 15 minutes before the filming starts. Luckily we got someone very amusing, a guy who described himself as a ‘fat Val Kilmer’ (quite accurate). I think his name was Peter. Someone in the crowd was unfortunate enough to come from Dickshills, Long Island. You can imagine what this Peter guy made of that location.

Jon Stewart then comes out to do some Q&A with the crowd. No sooner than he is out than people are firing questions at him. One guy asked if it was accurate to compare Bush to Darth Vadar and Cheney to Darth Sidious. Stewart then proceeded to give an extended history of Star Wars, talking about how Sidious’s master, Darth Plagueis had discovered the secret of immortality only to be struck down by his apprentice in his sleep and the irony that engendered.

“Bet you didn’t think I was that nerdy. Hell I even know the shit that happens AFTER the movies” – Jon Stewart.

I was pretty blown away by Stewart’s knowledge of Star Wars.

Another person asked Stewart if he plans to retire, give his show to Steven Colbert, then come and take it back years later, a clear reference to the Leno-O’Brien late night tv saga.

Obama’s State of the Union address had been the previous night, providing the Daily Show team with a lot of opportunities for joke-making. He also had on Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Nobel prize winning presidential historian. I’m not going to go into detailed specifics of the rest of the show, but the bit on the Republican’s version of the State of the Union was classic. It was interesting to note that there was little retakes of ‘bits’. They decided to reshoot the opening, removing a joke regarding Jessica Simpson farting during a business meeting but that was it – it was all done at a blistering pace.

I believe you can view the entire episode here for a brief time.

Stewart is a charismatic guy. He came out and thanked the crowd before departing, leaving everyone with big happy grins. My friends and I left, back into the bitterly cold night for some ethiopian food (which was an experience in itself) and a few drinks.

It has been a hectic few days for me in the Big Apple. I’ve started my internship with the United Nations and I’m already in the thick of it. I’m working in Peacekeeping with some awesome people and I’m glad my meager skills can contribute to something that is of worldwide importance. I’m also glad that I have plenty to do because there is no risk I’ll get bored. I’m not at the secretariat building (you know the famous one that everyone knows about) but closer to Grand Central station in midtown east. I believe my section might be near the security or disarmament guys. I note a lot of example landmines on display, which is quite interesting.

My UQ colleague Fanney (also a UN intern) and myself at our orientation session

I’ve only been in the internship a few days, but we’ve done an orientation session, organised some intern activity committees and had a few social outings with my fellow interns. Orientation was interesting – we were addressed by Gillian Sorenson, senior advisor to the United Nations foundations and former assistant secretary general for external relations during Kofi Annan’s tenure as Secretary-General, as well as Anita Sharma, the North American coordinator for the UN Millennium Campaign. I’ve joined the newsletter and sports committees (naturally) and there looks to be some great little activities being organised. There are about 200 of us, so there is always something interesting planned.

Today I got my free tour of the UN secretariat building which also took in a walk through the general assembly and other interesting little exhibits.

AK-Stratocaster

I’ve sorted my accommodation. After a brief stint in Long Island City with the awesome Gabe and Jade, I’ve moved ever so slightly closer to the UN building. I’ll be moving to midtown in a few weeks but for the meantime I’m staying in a Catholic German Men’s Guesthouse in the Upper East Side. The rent is affordable and I get a free meal a day. Sure, it might be operated by some people who may or may not have inspired the character of Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers, but overall, I’m pretty happy here.

Managed to grab a shot with Ban-Ki inside the UN Secretariat.

I’m thinking of hitting up some central park ice skating this weekend, followed by a gig in Brooklyn. I note White Rabbits are playing, which is a band I’d be interested in checking out. Helps that it only cost $15!!

More…..soon.

I know, I know. Posting the minutiae of my daily life can get a little bit tedious, but this is my blog and I can do whatever the hell I want, OK?

Most know that I’m fairly obsessive about Arsenal football club. If Arsenal lose, that immediately ruins my day. I try and watch as many matches as possible, and while I was living back in Dutton Park with my similarly obsessed house mates, I could regularly feed my addiction through cable tv coupled with the occasional late night trip to the Pig and Whistle to watch the games in the company of other fans.

Of course, one of the first thing I did when I got to New York was to seek out a place to watch football. And in Nevada Smiths, I have found the perfect place. Along with another fellow intern – a Bolton supporter (poor guy! ha!) – I went and watched Arsenal beat Bolton 2-0 at the Reebok at 11am in the morning. A few pints blurred my vision, but it was well worth it. The bar had a great atmosphere with much singing and chanting, much like you’d hear at an Arsenal pub in North London. Though, this is a football pub so many teams were represented – Villa, West Ham, AC Milan. I’d expect I’d be there every weekend from now until I return to Australia.

Anyway, work officially begins tomorrow. I’ve found permanent accommodation. Exciting times.

Today, I went to look at some accommodation. I also visited Times Square and the International Center of Photography.