 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 14 - 20 September 2000 Issue No. 499 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 14 - 20 September 2000 Issue No. 499
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
||
Egypt Region Interview International Economy Opinion Culture Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Pomp and circumstance
By Thomas Gorguissian
Over 150 world leaders descended on the Big Apple for last week's Millennium Summit amidst a great deal of fanfare and posturing. About 90 groups with various demands -- from Falun Gong to Mujahedi Khalk -- were there too, vociferously protesting. Extraordinary security measures were taken (or, as New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani preferred to say, "were being provided by New York City"), with a hefty price tag of $25 million. Some 6,000 uniformed personnel, in addition to 750 detectives, were assigned the task of summit security. The whole neighbourhood of the United Nations headquarters was not only barricaded, but even sprayed with insecticide as a preventive step against "West Nile virus" carrier mosquitoes.
For New Yorkers, it was business as usual, punctuated by traffic gridlock and driving headaches; as the summit coincided with the MTV Awards and the final games of the US Open, not to mention the final performance of the ultra-long-running musical Cats. Manhattan streets made room for an additional 180 summit limousines; President Clinton himself had almost 50 cars. "Cow-mania" was on display, with 200 fiberglass cows, artistically painted and presented, posturing on sidewalks throughout the city -- an art fad that took hold a few months ago.
The favourite word of speakers both at the General Assembly podium and in roundtable discussions was "divide", as in the repeatedly-mentioned "digital divide" (between those who have Internet access and those who don't). Meanwhile, The Guinness Book of World Records announced that it has awarded Danni Ashe of Los Angeles the title of "World's Most Downloaded Woman on the Web". Danni's explicit nude photos were downloaded more than 840 million times since February 1996. It's a record and a site just "enjoyed by those who are not suffering from that digital divide" one journalist noted sarcastically, adding, "So digital justice is a must too."
And if you had the chance to see the UN summit photo, you should know that the person at the top right end, next to the foreign minister of Niger, was not supposed to be in the photo: He is Count Carlo Marullo di Condojanni, of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (no link to the country of the same name). The group, which runs 200 hospitals and clinics all over the world and is a stamp-issuing authority, is based in Rome. Although it has representation at the UN, it is not a nation.
Before taking the photo last Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hosted a big luncheon that was to be the venue for an unusual exchange. "It just happened, you know?" President Clinton remarked, commenting on his first and only encounter with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in which the two reportedly shook hands and exchanged brief greetings. Clinton claimed later that Castro had initiated the encounter. "There were a whole lot of people in line, and I was talking to them, and I turned around and he was standing there. He had apparently come up and waited," Clinton said. "The encounter lasted just a few seconds," he added. "That's all that happened."
The White House was obviously trying to control the expected damages of the exchange. "They exchanged a few words. It was nothing substantive," White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said the following day. National Security Council spokesman P J Crowley called it "a momentary exchange", and noted that Castro was among a number of leaders and officials -- from Iran, Iraq and Libya -- who were not invited to a reception hosted by Clinton at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thursday night.
It was Castro's first visit to the UN since 1995 and from day one Mayor Giuliani was outraged that "dictators" and "murderers" were going to be the guests of his city. Before the summit, Giuliani criticised Castro in a speech to the Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami, saying "a dictator [like Fidel Castro] who oppresses people is someone who should be ostracised by the United States."
On Friday, the day after the handshake was revealed and the last day of the summit, New York GOP Senatorial candidate Rick Lazio slammed Clinton, saying, "I think we send the wrong message when we embrace -- whether it's Mrs Arafat or Fidel Castro" -- a reference to his rival Hillary Clinton's much-publicised greeting of the PLO chairman's wife. Less than 48 hours later, the White House released a photo of Lazio shaking hands with Arafat.
Lazio reacted by saying his Arafat encounter "wasn't a hug, it wasn't a kiss, and it certainly wasn't a call for a Palestinian state." He defended the handshake, saying it took place during a 1998 trip whose occasion was to eliminate the covenant in the PLO charter calling for the destruction of the state of Israel. "I know they'd like to talk about anything other than her [Mrs Clinton's] record and the fact that she kissed Mrs Arafat" after Mrs Arafat accused Israel of gassing Palestinians, Lazio said.
One of Lazio's supporters complained that Mrs Clinton has the White House in her pocket, but Mrs Clinton reportedly mentioned that it was the decision of the White House to release the picture. "I think, from the White House perspective, [Lazio] attacked the president," Mrs Clinton said. Mayor Guiliani refused to comment on the photo, but said, "We've got to have, like, a wake-up call about Yasser Arafat." He added, "Wake up! Tiame out! The hugging, the squeezing, the handshake -- this is a murderer. This is a man who killed Americans."
Glad that the summit didn't become "another Seattle", New Yorkers have slipped back into their regular lives. On the nights of 10 and 11 September, "thank you ny" was spelled out in lights on the UN headquarters building. "This is our way of thanking the people of New York for all they have put up with this week," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement. Annan added, "I am aware that there has been a great deal of disruption in the lives of ordinary New Yorkers, but I hope they are proud of this re-affirmation that our city is truly the capital of the world."
See also:
A world of meanings
Crocodile tears
Fighting povertyRelated stories:
A defining moment 7 - 13 September 2000
