World Bulletin
 The President’s Corner
Tom Miller
Ban Swings Through the Northwest, Pausing to Reminisce
Nov. 4 -- My trip to Seattle with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the end of last month involved two days of full schedules to meet not only civic and business leaders but also reserve time to converse with local UNA members. In a city that combines the drama of the Olympic Mountains with the beauty of Puget Sound, the setting could not have been more serene for our whirlwind itinerary.
I was eager to go, especially since Ban, who was joined by his wife, Yoo Soon-taek, had personally requested that I accompany him. Robert Orr and Choi Soung-ah, Ban advisers, were also on board, as were others from the UN.
In Ban’s efforts to promote the United Nations to the American public, a tough act in the last few years, he has been making periodic forays to US cities. This year, he traveled to San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis and now Seattle. UNA often helps arrange these trips, and I was gratified to be part of the planning. As we hopscotched from one event to another, it was clear to me that Ban’s immersion in Seattle was leaving an indelible impression in a city that may be far from UN headquarters but close to its democratic principles.
We arrived Sunday afternoon, at which point Ban took off from the hotel to meet staff from The Seattle Times and moved on in his motorcade to a session with Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, and other company officials.
Dinner was organized by Jonathan Roberts, UNA-USA’s executive committee chairman and a Seattle venture capitalist, and held at his house with his wife, Elizabeth. The party included Bill Gates Sr. and other Gates Foundation people as well as Microsoft executives, about 50 guests in all. For UNA, the dinner was also a fund-raiser, resulting in a successful turnout. In the morning, Ban ate breakfast with more Gates family members -- Bill Gates Jr. and his wife, Melinda, at their home in Bellevue. The UN collaborates on various programs with the couple’s foundation.
Ban headed back downtown to address several hundred people at a World Affairs Council meeting, where we were welcomed by Ian Moncaster, the council’s president. Like UNA, World Affairs is a membership organization; it is also a leading light in the Pacific Northwest for its global forums and community programs. Its main supporters include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing, Microsoft and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.
A Chamber of Commerce lunch was spiked with the proverbial media stakeout as well as short speeches provided by local business leaders from the likes of Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser and MTI Worldwide Logistics. Next: the University of Washington, where a ceremony awarding Ban an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws awaited.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, seated at right, listens to a presentation on Oct. 25, 2009, by Jonathan Roberts, chair of UNA's Executive Committee and founder of Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm for Information Technology services. |
Before he received his degree, Ban spoke to the audience about the UN and the work that every country must do to resolve international problems, reminding everyone that "America's great strength," he said, "is that its citizens trace their heritage to all corners of the world.”
He also reinforced the UN’s role in fixing these problems, including the negotiation of 170 peace agreements; helping to establish over 500 multinational treaties; and assisting more than 80 countries to gain independence. Besides these long-term efforts, the UN feeds more than 100 million people a day and helps more than 30 million refugees, mostly women and children, find safe havens and sustenance. Moreover, about 115,000 peacekeepers are deployed in the toughest corners of the world to restore order where it can.
In a classic Ban moment reflecting his good will and innate modesty, he then told the story of how he competed among other young Asians more than 40 years ago for an international scholarship to study at the Washington campus, way back in the Nixon years. (Remember then?)
The program was meant to draw more Asians to the US, an appropriate venture for Ban, who was a young diplomat in Korea at the time. Ban won the Korean portion of the contest but faced more competition among the rest of the Asian candidates. Ultimately, as the runner-up, he stood close to winning the chance to live in the US – but only if the winner could not make it.
Forty years later, the call was finally made, Ban said, but at least it came with an honorary degree.
Needless to say, this was a heartwarming event for Ban and everyone else, including 20 Seattle UNA members, who were seated in a VIP section at the ceremony. Yet their proximity to the secretary-general did not stop there, as UNA members later gathered at the hotel for a photo-op with him in his suite.
What happened next was a surprise for everyone – perhaps even Ban himself – as he sat down and engaged in a long conversation with the group to talk, really talk, about his mission on global warming and what UNA members could do for the UN’s cause.
We couldn’t have asked for a more illuminating moment than this – the secretary-general of the UN conferring with UNA members on particulars of the climate change conference and what needs to be done to achieve success in Denmark. As I observed this turn of events, I couldn’t help think that the whole reason for UNA-USA was encapsulated in that half hour, as our members listened to Ban and Ban listened to our members.
What did they come up with? A plan for UNA’s Seattle chapter to pester Washington’s two senators to push forward on the climate bill under consideration in Congress -- a grassroots approach to a whole-earth problem.
I am very impressed with the secretary-general. Climate change is at the top of his list. He doesn't miss an opportunity to push for a Copenhagen success. But by the same token, he doesn't neglect all the other issues. He is concerned with the impact of the financial crises on the poor. He constantly shuttles among world capitals, trying to persuade governments and people to work together toward peaceful resolutions of conflicts. He has a lot on his plate and tremendous amount of responsibility in these endeavors, yet he lack the necessary authority to carry out those duties.
He is at all times a very hard worker. He has meetings after meetings and is always well prepared. Indeed, returning on the plane with him from Seattle, I dozed for a little while. Just before I went to sleep, I saw him working, and when I woke up, he had not stopped.
To read more about the trip to Seattle, click here.
Tom Miller is president and chief executive of UNA-USA.
|
The InterDependent:
UNA-USA’s online news magazine.
|