In 2005, The Interpreter was the first feature film to be shot at the United Nations. Now, NBC's long running series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit will hold the title as the first television show ever shot at the United Nations building in New York.
It seems the UN agreed to this because the episode's "special victim" is a former child soldier, presumably with the Lord's Resistance Army. From Reuters:
Executive producer of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" Neal Baer said in a telephone interview that the U.N. had been open to filming the episode since the plot centers around a child soldier from northern Uganda.
The United Nations has been stepping up efforts in recent years to halt the recruitment of child soldiers in northern Uganda and elsewhere in Africa and around the world. "We hope the show will have some impact, and will push leaders to take a stand," Baer said.
No word on whether any UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors will make any cameos.
UPDATE: In other TV related news, Maureen Ryan reports that the United Nations is going to host a panel discussion with UN officials and Battle Star Galactica actors and producers. The discussion will take place on March 15 at the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council.
More bad news on the state of the global economy. According to a World Bank study prepared for next Saturday’s meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors in London:
The global economy is likely to shrink this year for the first time since World War Two, with growth at least 5 percentage points below potential. World Bank forecasts show that global industrial production by the middle of 2009 could be as much as 15 percent lower than levels in 2008. World trade is on track in 2009 to record its largest decline in 80 years, with the sharpest losses in East Asia.
This is especially troubling for those least responsible for the crisis -- the extreme poor. The study goes on to warn of financing shortfalls of anywhere between $270-700 billion as commodity prices continue to decline, global trade collapses, trade finance and private capital flows dry up and remittances drop. The poorest countries lack the social safety nets to deal with the crisis and are becoming increasingly dependent on overseas development assistance.
On Friday the government of Kuwait pledged $10 million toward the International Atomic Energy Agency's proposed nuclear fuel bank. And $10 million, it seems, was the magic number that pushed the proposed fuel bank over the $100 million mark that was required to start setting it up.
This is some all-too-rare good news on the nuclear non-proliferation front.
The nuclear fuel bank is an idea that (United Nations Foundation sister organization) the Nuclear Threat Initiative has been pushing for a few years. In 2007, billionaire investor Warren Buffet breathed life into it by providing a $50 million seed grant, which would be paid once countries raised $100 million themselves.
The idea behind the bank is this: Countries that want nuclear power, but do not have the will or capacity to enrich their own uranium must import the so-called "low-enriched" uranium. The problem here is that countries that depend on importing low-enriched uranium must be assured that their supplies are reliable and uninterrupted. Fears that uranium supplies might be disrupted can encourage countries to develop their own enrichment capacities, which raises the specter that uranium enrichment facilities would eventually be used to create nuclear weapons-grade uranium.
This is where the nuclear fuel bank comes in. A standing reserve of low-enriched uranium, housed by a neutral body like the IAEA, would act as an insurance policy for countries that seek to develop civilian nuclear power, but must import their enriched uranium. If supplies are interrupted, the bank can step in and resume shipments. It is sort of like an FDIC, but for fissile material.
I, for one, am glad that this ideas' time has finally come.
In a blog post that the Sudanese embassy would assuredly characterize as "tired and desperate…propaganda," Nick Kristof reveals this interesting tidbit about Sudan's recent (and reprehensible) reprisals against humanitarian organizations in Darfur:
Bashir surprised most of his own ministers with the decision (the first vice president didn’t know of it), and they seem to have mixed views.
If this decision was in fact carried out totally under Bashir's command, then it may be a very revealing indicator of potential turmoil in Sudan's inner political circle. Now, the first vice president is a Southerner, and his being kept out of the loop is much less surprising than if Bashir's own party apparatchiks were similarly kept uninformed. But if -- and I stress the if -- this was not a move carried out without the full connivance and support of the ruling party, then it looks a lot more like Bashir trying to save his own skin than a unified retrenchment on the part of the regime. If it was only the SPLM, Southern opposition party, that was not consulted -- which, unfortunately, seems more likely -- then this bit of policy-making is yet another signal of the SPLM's marginalization within the halls of power in Khartoum -- a dangerous development with elections scheduled for later this year.
An invite from Sen. John Kerry initially spurred his trip down - sort of a second "introduction to Washington" type of trip for the UN chief who was pushed for the job by the Bush administration.
Ban Ki-moon pushed hard subsequently for a personal meeting with Obama, which was granted. He's also meeting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Senate Foreign Relations Committee members also have a private, members-only coffee scheduled with the UN chief. Issues on the agenda are expected to include Iran, climate change, Sudan/Bashir/ICC peacekeeping and human rights council/Durban Review.
Ambassador Thomas Pickering discusses the desperate need for a more robust State Department budget and a greater civilian role in foreign policy planning. Alas, we did not get into l'affair Chas Freeman, as the interview was taped a few days prior to the publication of a letter in support of Freeman, signed by Ambassador Pickering and other former diplomats and foreign policy luminaries, in the Wall Street Journal.
I always enjoy my conversations with Ambassador Pickering--who has served at the UN, the State Department, and in posts all around the world. Thanks again to the Ambassador for making the time.
George Packer writes in praise of Lori Scialabba, associate director of the Refugee, Asylum, and Operations Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, for her tireless advocacy on behalf of Iraq asylum seekers.
Scialabba was hearing from Iraqis on a regular basis. And this is why she deserves some sort of medal: far from discouraging the correspondence, she always wrote back quickly. My friend’s first e-mail has a time stamp of 2:26 P.M. Scialabba’s reply came at 4:52 P.M. on the same day. He thanked her at 8:21 P.M., to which she replied at 8:37 A.M. the next morning. One of her e-mails, to an anxious Iraqi-refugee applicant who was languishing in Jordan, was sent at 10:06 P.M. on a Friday evening. To Iraqis who had grown accustomed to a sluggish and indifferent American bureaucracy after growing up with a sinister Iraqi one, Scialabba’s responsiveness must have seemed angelic. And her alacrity was matched by her efficacy: she always got the case moving, and she persisted until it was resolved.
It's worth noting, though, that there is change coming from the top as well. In his big Iraq speech at Camp Lejeune last week President Obama clearly stated his administration's attentiveness to the needs of Iraq's displaced.
Diplomacy and assistance is also required to help the millions of displaced Iraqis. These men, women and children are a living consequence of this war and a challenge to stability in the region, and they must become a part of Iraq’s reconciliation and recovery. America has a strategic interest – and a moral responsibility – to act. In the coming months, my administration will provide more assistance and take steps to increase international support for countries already hosting refugees; we’ll cooperate with others to resettle Iraqis facing great personal risk; and we will work with the Iraqi government over time to resettle refugees and displaced Iraqis within Iraq – because there are few more powerful indicators of lasting peace than displaced citizens returning home.
That's via Refugees International, which is circulating a petition on behalf of Iraqi refugees.