So what's new at the UN?

[Wezil]

Not much.

OTTAWA - The government is announcing Wednesday that Canada has abandoned a UN anti-racism conference slated to take place in South Africa next year.

A government official has told The Canadian Press the so-called Durban II conference has turned into a "gong show" with Libya elected to chair the gathering, Cuba appointed vice-chair and rapporteur, and anti-Israel rhetoric building.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban was a fiasco as Arab and Muslim countries ganged up in their criticisms of Israel.

Israel and the United States walked out of that conference in protest; Canada remained in an effort to decry the attacks.

The official says things are not getting any better. For one thing, important prepatory meetings have been called on Jewish high holidays, preventing Israeli officials from participating.

The official said: "All the warning signs were there that Durban 2009 was going to be the same gong show as Durban 2001."

He says the conference is "dead in the water" as far as Canada is concerned.

"We're out," he said. "We're always interested in anti-racism forums, but this was a racism forum at the end of the day."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/01/23/4789282-cp.html

[Wezil]

Where did Poly's UN groupies go?

WASHINGTON - A U.S. senator says the United States has decided not to attend next year's followup to the 2001 UN World Conference on Racism because the panel seems certain to repeat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions of the original gathering.

The United States and Israel walked out of that conference, which ended two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Thursday that the United States had not yet determined whether to participate. He said the decision would be up to the next U.S. administration because the conference is to take place after President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

But, he said, the United States has seen nothing from the organizers that would change Washington's view that the conference's tone will be anti-Semitic. "I certainly don't think that presently we view it as a particularly valuable activity," Casey said.

Word that the United States would reject the conference again came from Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman. In a news release, Coleman said the decision came in response to a letter he and 26 fellow senators wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"The U.S. walked out of this conference after the anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli activities reached such an intolerable level that it was beyond repair," the letter said. It called the conference "yet another example of a seemingly noble UN agenda item being hijacked by member states to spew anti-Semitism."

Canada already announced it is boycotting the conference, known as Durban II for the South African city hosting it. In announcing the decision last month, Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, said: "We'll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance."

The Bush administration showed its distaste for the conference in December by refusing to accept a consensus vote on a preliminary UN budget for 2008-2009 and demanding a recorded vote. The vote was 141 to 1, the no vote coming from the United States.

A separate recorded vote on including the Durban II language in the budget also passed, but the United States, Canada and 38 other countries voted against it. Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland abstained.

In the letter, Coleman and the others had particularly bitter words for governments and people being appointed to run Durban II. Libya was appointed to chair the Executive Committee of the Preparatory Committee; a vice-chairman is Iran, "despite the fact that this country's leader has called for the destruction of Israel and been a leader on one of the most despicable forms of racism - Holocaust denial."

In 2001, Rice, then Bush's national security adviser, explained on television why the Americans and Israelis had walked out: Participants "spent far too much time trying to condemn Israel and single it out, and I think the United States made the right decision to leave."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/02/07/4833012-ap.html

[Riesstiu IV]

The UN is boring. Post pics of boobies instead.

[Japher]

Ok, now what?

[Zkribbler]

Ok, now what?

Bounce your boobies

[Riesstiu IV]

Now that's just sick. Why would you post a pic of underage boobies?!

*right click/ saved*

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Riesstiu IV
The UN is boring.

Boring? They can be endlessly amusing. I take it you didn't read either of the articles?

[LordShiva]

Of course not. Who ever reads those things?

[Alexander I]

Hmm.
Yep. UN still sucks.

[Perfection]

Norm's my senator

[Arrian]

How does Canada not chair these things? Seems a reasonable choice that no one should get pissy about. How about New Zealand? Sweden?

But no, let's have Lybia and Cuba run it. Brilliant.

-Arrian