A stopover at the UN -- the hottest global hangout joint

Tony Hotland ,  The Jakarta Post ,  New York   |  Sun, 02/17/2008 1:16 PM  |  Travel

CRACKING GLOBE: A golden-ish "cracking" globe is positioned at the United Nations Headquarters' entrance for visitors on the corner of 46th Street and First Avenue. JP/Tony Hotland 

The more than 37 million people who have taken the tour of the United Nations Headquarters since 1952 can't be wrong. I spent three months working in the building and I miss it -- even just sitting in the cafeteria, gazing out the window at the glistening "Pepsi Cola" ad across the East River.

Tranquil is the mood in the cafeteria, but political hustle-bustle and life-saving, peace-keeping missions are what the rest of the building is about.

As your Saturday night date may have mentioned in one of those ice-breaking chats, the UN is the site of some of the most high-profile events in history -- from the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the Millennium Summit in September 2000, which brought together about 150 world leaders.

When you pass through the UN gates, you enter international territory. The land does not belong to any one country, but to all the 192 states that have joined the organization.

The UN has its own security and fire forces, issues its own postage stamps and conducts business in its six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Let me kick off with what a regular guided tour gives you. It runs between 45 minutes to one hour and starts with a brief overview of the UN and its structure.

The main part of the tour consists of a visit to the chambers of the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council and the Economic and Social Council, all of which are located in the Conference Building.

During the tour, you might briefly observe a meeting. An average of 5,000 official meetings are held at the headquarters annually. The guide explains the functions, composition and current actions undertaken by each council, as well as the activities of the UN system.

Visitors also get to see exhibits on such topics as peacekeeping operations, decolonization and disarmament. An art collection, presented by Member States, is also part of the visit. It consists of tapestries, murals, mosaics and sculptures.

The final stop on the tour route is the General Assembly Hall, the largest and best-known room. Visitors are then escorted to the Public Concourse where the UN postal counter, the gift center, the bookshop, a coffee shop and restrooms are located.

The UN is the only organization in the world that is neither a country nor a government that is permitted to issue postage stamps.

In arrangements with authorities in the U.S., Switzerland and Austria, the stamps are issued only in three denominations -- U.S. dollars, Swiss francs and Austrian schillings.

Now here's the cool(est) part: you can get your face printed on the stamps.

So while you're still in the building, send out postcards using the "personal" stamps since they can be used for posting only from a UN post office located at UN offices in New York, Geneva and Vienna.

Or you can just keep the stamps as collectors items. Either way, remember the objective is to rub it in your friends' faces.

Since I was working there, I was free to flounder around bumping into Michael Douglas, Roger Moore or Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (It would've truly rocked my socks off had it been Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sean Connery or, err, Boutros Boutros-Ghali?)

I digress.

My spot was on the third floor, where the press rooms and a bull-pen are located. This is where UN-based journalists have an office, or in some cases like mine, just a desk.

The third floor of the Conference Building is also where the media center and the spokesperson's office are, as well as the office of the UN Correspondents Association.

One flight below is the press conference room and the Security Council chamber. When the Council adjourns or completes meetings, the thumping noise of reporters rushing down is not uncommon.

But if they have no specific questions to fire away at the diplomats, normally they just sit in their desk and watch the Q&A time broadcast live on the website.

Press releases are disseminated in a few different languages. No Indonesian yet, I'm still working on that.

Lifetime foes George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were in the building one time for last year's General Debate week, and it felt like time had stopped.

Every living element was nailed to the TV screen and every working brain was digesting the speeches to read between the lines.

The UN is indeed political. When the U.S. alone is financing nearly 30 percent of its expenses, it's no wonder that we are seeing bags of Washington's interests.

But the global melting pot that the UN is, with employees from every corner of the world, proves in the end that the planet is much more diverse than one could ever suggest.

Tolerance, I believe, is what should come out of it.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.