President’s Letter
As
this is my first letter to the
Chapter membership since being
elected as your President, I
thought I might begin by
re-introducing myself. I am
Gregory C. Flood, generally
known as “Greg”. I am originally
from New York where I began a
career in human resource (HR)
management, first in local and
then in state government. In
1980 I joined the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organization, where
I served in a series of
increasingly responsible HR
positions at its headquarters in
Rome, Italy, until my retirement
in 2008. During the period from
1998 to 2007, I acted as
Secretary of the Finance
Committee, one of the
Organization's governing bodies.
I also participated in meetings
of the International Civil
Service Commission and served on
a number of HR policy working
groups with representatives of
other UN agencies. I am a
founding member of the
Association for Human Resources
Management in International
Organizations and a
long-standing member of the
International Public Management
Association for Human Resources.
I served in the U.S. Navy from
1966 to 1970 and am a veteran of
the Vietnam War.
My
wife Catherine (“Kitty”) and I
moved to North Carolina in 2009,
where we discovered the UNA West
Triangle Chapter. I was asked to
join that year and was elected
as Vice President in 2010. I
look forward to working with the
Board and the membership to
maintain the quality of programs
and to expand our work here in
the Triangle in promoting the
importance of the United Nations
to the United States. I
appreciate the confidence you
have placed in me. Thank you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Lunch and Learn
to Take Up “The Arab Spring:
Uprisings, Revolutions, and
Wars” at January Meeting
A
revolutionary phenomenon whose
implications are still playing
out, the “Arab Spring” is
changing the face of Middle East
politics. It began a year ago in
Tunisia with a young fruit
vendor in Tunisia setting
himself on fire to protest a
slap in the face by a low-level
government functionary seeking a
bribe, and swept like wildfire
through Egypt and more than a
half-dozen other Middle East
countries, toppling three
government heads along the way.
The
implications of the upheaval are
many and varied, but one sure
result will be the need for the
political systems and
governments of the affected
countries to be redesigned
according to the new conditions
that will evolve in each country
- a process that has already
begun. Our January Lunch and
Learn speaker, Professor Andrew
Reynolds, Chair of UNC’s
Department of Global Studies, is
already involved in helping
affected governments to sort out
their responses. Professor
Reynolds is a foremost expert on
democratization, constitutional
design and electoral politics
whose research and teaching
focus on democratization,
constitutional design and
electoral politics. When he’s
not teaching at UNC, he serves
as a consultant for the United
Nations, the UK Department for
International Development, the
US State Department and the
Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
assisting governments - some 25
to date in Africa, Asia, the
Middle East (including Egypt and
Libya) and Latin America - to
address these issues. Widely
published in eight languages,
he’s written many books and
articles in these fields and is
currently working on a book on
the Arab Spring.
Professor Reynolds will be
speaking to us on the subject
“The Arab Spring: Uprisings,
Revolutions, and Wars” at
our Lunch & Learn meeting
(Noon-2PM) on January 25 at
Carolina Meadows. Reservations
may be made by $18 check to
“UNAWTC” and sent to Warren
Glick 83203 Jarvis, Chapel Hill
27517 by January 20.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Know Your UN
International Telecommunications
Union
by
Gregory Flood, President,
West Triangle Chapter
This is part seven of a series
addressing the work of each of
the Specialized Agencies within
the United Nations system and
the relationships among them.
Earlier articles in this series
dealt with some of the larger
agencies (FAO, UNESCO and WHO)
and two of the smaller ones (WIPO
and IMO). In this article, we
look at another of the smaller
agencies, the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU).
In
functioning in the highly
interconnected world in which we
live today, it is important to
recall that it wasn’t always
like this. In the early 1800s
when telegraph systems were
first introduced, every nation
had its own, and they were not
linked to each other. Indeed,
they were not even necessarily
compatible. In order to send a
message from one country to
another, the telegraph company
had to transcribe it onto paper,
ensure that it was carried to
the receiving country and then
re-transmitted by that country’s
system.
In
order to address such issues,
the International Telegraph
Union (ITU) was founded in Paris
in 1865, thus making it, today,
the oldest international
organization in the UN family.
With the subsequent introduction
of new technologies such as
telephony, wireless telegraphy,
voice radio, television and
satellite communications, its
mandate expanded. In the course
of expanding to meet its mandate
to coordinate this increasingly
complex world of communications,
the agency took its present name
in 1934, and became a UN
Specialized Agency following the
establishment of the United
Nations.
Founded on the principle of
cooperation between governments
(Member States), the private
sector and academia, the agency
is the global forum through
which the many parties involved
in the global information and
communications technology sector
- from digital broadcasting to
the Internet to mobile
technologies to 3D TV - work
toward achieving consensus on a
wide range of issues affecting
the sector’s future direction,
developing technical standards
that ensure tha
telecommunications networks and
technologies seamlessly
interconnect, and working to
improve access by developing and
underserved communities and
nations worldwide to them.
Its
membership includes 193
governments, some 700 private
sector entities (a cross-section
of the telecommunications and
information technology industry,
from the world's largest
manufacturers and carriers to
small, innovative new players)
and academic institutions
working in the
telecommunications field.
Headed by a
Secretary-General based in
Geneva, Switzerland, the 750
people working for the
organization are international
civil servants, who come from
countries all over the world and
work at its headquarters and
twelve regional and area offices
spread across the world.
The
agency’s policies are set by its
“Plenipotentiary Conference,”
consisting of its 193 member
nations.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UN Peacebuilding Commission
by Amanda Conklin - UNA-WTC
Outreach Intern
(This
is the second installment of a
series addressing the purposes
and functions of the UN’s
intergovernmental Councils, and
the relationships among them.)
The
UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC)
was established in 2005
during the 60thsession of the
General Assembly. It was
designed as a subsidiary organ
of both the General Assembly and
the Security Council to support
peace efforts in member states
emerging from conflict. In
particular, it brings together
all of the relevant actors in a
conflict, including national
governments, non-governmental
combatants, troop contributing
countries international donors,
and international finance
institutions, and organizes
resources and advises on and
proposes strategies for
post-conflict peacebuilding and
recovery. As such, it hopes to
change the reality that many
countries emerging from conflict
relapse within five years of
signing a peace agreement, and
instead end the violence and
build lasting peace.
In
the past, the Commission has
supported efforts to mediate
crisis between political parties
in Sierra Leone, promoted return
to constitutional order in
Guinea, and reintegrated armed
rebels in Burundi. It also
currently has representatives in
the Central African Republic,
Guinea-Bissau, and Liberia. For
countries to receive assistance
from the PBC, they must be
emerging from conflict, have
concluded a peace accord, and be
functioning with a minimum
degree of security. In addition,
the governments of those
countries must ask the UN for
international help. However, the
PBC’s ability to assist
countries relies on donations to
the UN Peacebuilding Fund. The
fund has recently been doing
very well, but last month, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
had to call for “generous
donations” to ensure the
long-term sustainability of the
Fund, indicating a serious
fall-off in donations.
The
PBC is set up into three main
structures – an organizational
committee, country-specific
configurations, and a working
group on lessons learned. The
organizational committee
consists of 31 UN member states
chosen on the basis of financial
and troops contributions as well
as geographic diversity. These
states establish the PBC’s work
agenda and develop integrated
peacebuilding strategies.
Country-specific configurations
look at particular issues in
individual countries through
field representatives and
support staff in New York. The
working group on lessons learned
does exactly what its title
implies: it holds meetings to
distill lessons from previous
post-conflict engagements so the
PBC can continually improve the
way it approaches peacebuilding
and bring an effective end to
violence around the world.
A
new innovation in the classical
United Nations approach to
meeting its mandate to “maintain
international peace and
security,” the peacebuilding
Commission the Commission fills
an important gap in the UN
system’s relief-to-development
continuum.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education Outreach
By
Jean and Tuck Green
U.N. Contest for High School
Students
Our
Chapter’s U.N. Contest for High
School Students is now in its
eighth year. It is designed to
encourage students to learn more
about the U.N. by creating
original projects which pertain
to the U.N.’s mission. The
winning entries for the past
three years may be viewed at our
web site:
On the website, click
on the
UN
Contest tab on the
left margin of our site’s home
page.
We
continued publicizing the
Contest during December through
visits to local high schools and
reminder notices sent to Model
U.N. Club officers and advisors,
and to the social studies
curriculum coordinators in the
four school districts we serve:
Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Orange
County, Durham County, and
Chatham County. Students are
expected to notify us of their
interest in the Contest by
December 15th. As of this
writing, we have received
notices about forty-nine
possible projects, some of which
came from teams, for a total of
fifty five individuals
interested in the Contest.
Notices were received from
students at seven high schools:
Chapel Hill High School, East
Chapel Hill High School,
Carrboro High School, Cedar
Ridge High School in
Hillsborough, and Riverside High
School, Durham Academy, and the
N.C. School of Science and Math
in Durham. (Based upon past
experience, it is very doubtful
that we will receive complete
entries from more than a
fraction of the fifty-five
interested students, but we
remain hopeful!)
Judging of entries will occur on
the first two weekends of
February. The Judging Committee
consists of a diverse array of
people. Besides the Greens, the
Committee includes Jerry and
Barbara Berke, Gregory Flood,
Björn Hennings, Robert Howes,
Kaori Lopez, Ivan Remnitz, and
Jim and Barbara Terry. The
winning students will summarize
their projects at our April
Lunch and Learn.
(If you would
like to support this Committee’s
work, please check off
“Education Outreach” on the
Lunch and Learn Registration
form and send your donation in
together with your Lunch fee.
Suggestions? Please contact us
at
cgreen17@nc.rr.com)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
West Triangle Chapter Promotes
Awareness through Social Media
by Amanda Conklin, UNA-WTC
Outreach Intern
The
West Triangle Chapter’s campaign
to spread awareness of the
United Nations, the UNA-USA, and
its own activities through
online social media is in full
swing. In November, the
Chapter’s blog had 68 page
views. On Facebook, we have 53
“Friends”, and on Twitter, we
have 12 “Followers” and are
“Following” 43 people and
organizations. In early
December, the national UNA-USA
took attention and re-posted our
“tweet” urging followers to gift
a UNA-USA membership for
Christmas. Through these social
media sites, we have connected
with the UN Refugee Agency,
UNICEF, the UN Foundation, the
World Food Programme, multiple
UNA-USA chapters, and local
Model UN clubs. If you have not
already, you too can connect
with us at the websites below.
Read our blog at
http://una-westtriangle.blogspot.com/
Follow us on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/UNAwesttriangle
Friend us on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/unawesttriangle
Better yet, in addition to doing
so yourself, since in today’s
“connected” world, it’s a safe
bet that your children and
grandchildren are active
denizens on line, tell them
about our sites and suggest that
they “join” us and learn more
about the UN. It’s worthwhile
for them, us and the world!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congress Agreed to Fund UN in
2012
(From the Better World Campaign)
We
are happy to share with you that
your phone calls, emails, and
letters paid off!
The
Senate and House have passed
their spending bills to fund the
government for the coming year,
including critical funding to
the UN and UN peacekeeping.
While many international
programs faced significant cuts,
the House and Senate have
basically met the President’s
request for the UN regular
budget and UN peacekeeping.
Taken as a whole, this
appropriations season showed
that our lawmakers understand
that engagement at the UN is an
essential foreign policy tool.
In
these difficult economic times,
it is more important than ever
that America stretches every
dollar. When it comes to our
national and economic security,
investing in the United Nations
ensures that we collectively
share the burden with our global
partners.
It
is more important than ever that
the U.S.-UN relationship is
strong and effective. The next
year will be an uphill battle.
As the budgetary environment
continues to see significant
challenges, we will need your
help to show policymakers in
Washington that an overwhelming
majority of Americans across the
political spectrum believe in
the incomparable work of the UN.
Thank you for your support. We
will continue to keep you posted
on all of the happenings related
to the UN here in Washington.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archived December 2011
Newsletter
Archived November 2011
Newsletter
Archived October 2011 Newsletter
Archived September 2011
Newsletter
Archived May 2011 Newsletter
Archived April
2011
Newsletter
Archived March
2011
Newsletter
Archived February
2011
Newsletter
Archived January 2011 Newsletter
Archived December 2010
Newsletter
Archived November 2010
Newsletter
Archived October 2010 Newsletter
Archived September 2010
Newsletter
