Peace Day
I don’t know what is special in September, 21, to call it a Peace Day.
Well, if the UN Peacekeeping Forces were established on this date in the forties of the last century, I would not say that calling a particular day as PEACE DAY is a very good idea because the rest of the year should be not less peaceful to a modest, mine understanding.
Anyway, I was intrigued with the UN-originated e-message inviting “if in New York” to the United Nations Foundation meeting at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and, also this Wednesday evening was packed with what-to-do, found a room made it there.
Used recently to some precarious attitude to the US visitor already, I was not surprised by awaiting letting me in an auditorium a doco “The War against the War” was to be screened, a discussion following up, the UN prominent employees and a film creator in a Discussion Panel at a stage.
Leaving aside Panel’s general speculations of possibilities to be employed for the UN System (networking, networking and once again, networking which what might be translated from a diplomatic into common language as “a mere pure protectionism”), a very topic of interest for too many round the globe as to extent of being discussed even during the Peace Day celebration, a half an hour film presented was really a masterpiece required a really cinematographic expertise and producing skills Mr. Stevens Fischer is famous for (The Flamingo Kid, Short Circuit).
Being scrutinized a bit for omitting the role of female contingent in the UN peacekeeping, an author looked happy and joking funny-to some-on a topic while this his work is a next good produce to approaching the issue softly-softly as Haiti, a place where no war activity factually, was mentioned as the greatest recent UN peacekeeping success.
No wonder, sitting beside me, a complete strange participant sparking huge diamond hearings told me to express her visual disappointment for Mr. Edmond Mulet, the Panelist- an Acting Head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) refusing factually to answer a question “Is any personal responsibility, any accountably existing for the UN officials over failure if any, of peacekeeping activities?”
Regrettably, day afterwards my Twitter does not work properly-I checked this phenomena with kindly help of others library-goers twitter-users – hopefully, my post-meeting interview was recorded as organizers' camera was, eventually, working better than this social site today.
The Peace Day Panel, by M. Kerjman
