On Tuesday (19 Sept 2006), Global Voices is going to try and engage people in a conversation on UN Reform. From a mail Rebecca sent out –
What is your opinion of the United Nations? What kind of impact has it had on your country and people? How should it be reformed? Who should lead it?
When you talk, will the U.N.’s largest private donor listen to you? He should. Let’s find out on Tuesday if he will.
In conjunction with Reuters, Global Voices are going to engage in conversation with the U.N.’s largest private donor, media mogul Ted Turner.
In case you thought the UN wasn’t really relevant, think again. While smaller bilateral organisations are being forced out of India, it is the multilaterals that will stay. Needless to say, multilateral agencies often “share” policies. UN of course directly impacts the work of UNICEF, Unifem, UNHCR, UNESCO, UNDP, WHO and the World Bank. Whether we like it or not, a lot of funds meant for development are controlled by the UN. A little more on the process of UN Reform here. I’ll have an update on this post on how exactly a person can join the conversation tomorrow. This should be interesting.
Update – From the GV post on the conversation, joining in and posing questions to Ted Turner.
HOW TO JOIN US ONLINE: On Tuesday September 19th at 4pm New York time, 19:00 GMT, Ted Turner will sit down with Reuters journalist Paul Holmes and conduct a conversation which will be webcast live online around the world. Click here to watch the webcast and read more about the event.
HOW TO SHARE YOUR QUESTIONS AND VIEWS: As you watch or listen, you can join the discussion by clicking here and participating in a live online chat. I will be in the room, along with Caribbean editor Georgia Popplewell and Alice Backer, and the three of us will be raising our hands aggressively to ask questions on your behalf.
HAVE MORE IMPACT BY BLOGGING: A great way to help influence the conversation is by blogging your views on the subject before the event even starts. Please tell us what questions Paul Holmes ought to be asking Ted Turner, and what you think the conversation should focus on. When you write your blog post, please be sure to tag it with “gv-un” in Technorati and/or del.icio.us. Or share the link with us as trackback to this post, or paste it in the comments section of this post.
Posted on September 18th, 2006 by Neha Viswanathan
Filed under: Global Voices
[...] In the IRC chat, Neha Viswanathan asked Turner who he represents: “Where does he gather his agenda from? Who does he identify with – America or the third world?” Turner responded that he represents “humanity.” There was much applause. But does he really listen when many members of that “humanity” want to tell him what they think of his efforts? [...]