Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Dress Code Violation: UN Headquarters

Senioritis always hit hard the last few weeks of high school. Hallways abandoned, lack of enthusiasm, countless absences and unproductive students. All the seniors were itching to leave and move on to the next phase of their lives.

And after a visit to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, that atmosphere was all too familiar.



From the outside, the sleek 18-acre site on the East side of Manhattan posts an air of sophistication. Flags from around the world stand erect at the entrance, welcoming all onto international territory.

I walked up the stairs to the plaza where the visitors enter, to be welcomed by a beautiful, magnificent and glorious tent. A canvas tent with a sign saying VISITORS crudely pasted on the front. I didn’t realize that the Ringling Bros. were part of the architects who constructed this place.

After shuffling into the hot tent, I encountered a third rate airport security checkpoint. Two metal detectors on either side of the welcome tent with people quickly walking through into the Headquarters.

In a building that calls itself the “headquarters” of the United Nations, a place that is supposed to facilitate international relations and developments, I expected the hustle and bustle of Times Square or Wall Street (perhaps not lately!). But the only crowds of people I saw were the tourists crowding the information desk waiting for their tour to begin.

The place felt like a museum. Don’t talk. Don’t touch anything. Stay in a single file line. Keep moving! The hallways were virtually empty for a building with as many foreign connections as the UN has. I have seen a rest stop bathroom more crowded than this place. I was incredibly underwhelmed.

I witnessed one international meeting about the Middle East and the question of Palestine. And apparently, this meeting is not really a course for concern but rather a monthly activity—like paying your phone bill.

“The Middle East has become a bit cliché here. It’s always the same questions, the same argument and nothing gets done.”

It’s no secret that, for the last eight years, the UN has been the girl on the wall at a high school homecoming waiting for the most popular guy in the school, the class president, to ask her to dance. But as Obama is being ushered in, “there is a sense that the UN will once again be engaged in international affairs” according to a UN official.


It’s about time.


The same UN official claimed, “This place is 60 years out of date and has asbestos in it.”

With a $1.8 billion construction project underway to renovate the UN Headquarters, hopefully these physical changes will create a more inviting atmosphere so people will actually want to come into the building rather than admiring it from across the street or across the Atlantic.

It’s graduation time. It is time for the UN Headquarters to wave to the crowd and leave "high school" behind.

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