PUBLIC EVEnTS AT THE UNITED NATIONS
---------------------------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
nyskies@nyskies.org
www.nyskies.org
2013 September 5 initial
2020 January 5 current
Introduction
----------
The campus of the United Nations on Manhattan was under an all-/
points rebuild. The structures were substantially those of the late
1940s when the United Nations moved in. They were only incrementally
modified over the decades. The campus until 208 looked like a gigantic
construction site, as if the campus was newly going up.
The goings on within the UN campus historicly were secluded from
public view, save for its news issues, formal reports, and comments by
UN delegates. This off-limits posture could create a hostile reception
to the construction by the surrounding districts.
The campus is hemmed in by the East River to the east and dense
commercial and residential areas on the other three sides. About
100,000 people live within a kilometer from the campus. The area
within this radius has urban activity equal to all of Boston or San
Francisco.
Brief history
-----------
I remind that the UN when foundedI after World War II had no
headquarters. It took residence in the New York City pavilion left
over from the 1939-1940 World's Fair. This building still stands today
as the Queens Museum of Art. Repeated alterations since then
oblitterated vestiges of UN residence. Occasional exhibits and
ceremonies at the Museum recall the history.
The UN moved into its shiny new quarters in 1948-1950. it had
about 50 member countries, mostly those affected by war. These
nations, and later ones joining the UN, contributed artpieces,
decorations, ornaments for the campus. The UN became the showcase for
world human intellect, culture, education, arts.
The UN now houses, as at 2019, 193 members. Each must have
facilities and services equal to the original members. this imposed
severe demand on the existing campus.
In spite of many threats, often silly, over the years to
quit the City, the United Nations is inexorably fixed here for all
time to come.
In 2012 the UN began renovating its campus, mostly to bring its
structures, facilities, services, utilities into the 21st century.
This is a several-billion dollar project, funded by donations from the
member countries.
I wrote the initial edition of this article in 2013 soon after I
started getting specific invites to certain UN meetings. I at first
thought there were several associates and many remote readers so
favored. It turned out that the article received almost no attention
for the apparently few readers who receive UN invites.
I left the article in place on the web for history's sake. When
the UN's open-to-public program began in 2017 I did a rough revision,
mostly a patch-up work. It was well received as readers caught on to
the new program. Th 2020 piece is a mass upgrade and cleanup. Smoother
some historical bits remain to show the evolution from the dedicated-
invite period to now.
Civic outreach
------------
Large-scale construction is one of the major disturbances endured
by New Yorkers. By its noise, congestion, machinery, dust, spills,
barriers, piles of materials and debris, *c generate massive
complaints from its surrounds. For the UN the agitation was enlarged
by the supposed secret activity within the UN walls. News accounts of
some UN diplomatic and political actions adverse against the United
States added more cause to community anger.
To alleviate at least some discomfort among its neighbors, the UN
asked its offices to somehow open their internal procedings to
outsiders. The goal of letting outsiders sit the meetings was to let
the surrounds better understand what the hell goes on behind the tall
fence, guarded gates, and construction barricades.
The construction and expansion will be easier for the surrounds to
accept and accommodate. Hey!, the UN tries to get whole countries to
be more transparent toward each other, why not apply that concept to
districts of a city?
In late spring of 2013 many UN offices, from small commissions to
the whole General Assembly, opened some of their meetings to outside
spectators. Each office made its own choice for operations to open for
outside attendance, apparently with little definite guidance or
direction. The meetings were reviews, summaries, briefings, films,
explanation of assorted topics under study or debate by the UN.
Admission was free and sometimes included refreshments or a
reception.
I have no idea how the open sessions were selected nor how many
are scheduled. For sure there are perhaps six to eight per year.
That's from what I hear of.
I also have no idea how the invites were issued. Admission to each
event was only by specific invite. There was no open registration or
application. Based on my own and colleagues's experience, each person
was invited with little regard to his relevance to the event's topic.
In my own case i was invited for events of good interest and use and
to some of none, and a couple glatt disgusting ones.
Public is welcome
---------------
By mid 2017 the United Nations was more or less completed with its
rebuild. The street was cleared of major machinery and materials.
Construction activity continued inside to build out new rooms and
halls, I believed, since my dedicated invites seemed to peter out,
that the community outreach was finished.
By then I already had the enormous privilege to witness first-hand
the workings of some UN offices, a privilege probably quite rare for
the general public. This is in spite of the sometimes full spectator
galleries for some events I attended.
In mid 2017 I got a new invite for a UN function. This was not a
dedicated one. It was clearly presented as 'open to the public'.
Inquiring about, I found that the UN shifted its welcome from only
selected persons to a more general public audience. Apparently the UN
found its outreach earned good favor and support. It decided to expand
the program to allow anyone to register. Approval of your sign-up is
still discretionary by the UN office running the event.
As far as I can tell the UN offices individually pick the events
for public audience. The selection seems as peculiar as for the
dedicated invitation phase. The new class of notice seems to circulate
to various event calendars, but to the general news media. I only
learn of the event thru the email invite, not from reading of it in a
newspaper or hearing it thru the radio.
I pass along these UN notices to the NYSkies circle. I quickly
found that many are issued on short leadtime, sometimes only a day in
advance. These I can't pass along for there would be too short time
for readers to register.
None of the events have anything close to astronomy. NYSkies
astronomers are a very litterate and wisely community,, so I let them
decide for themselfs which events to go for.
It's free!
--------
The United Nations is the house of all humankind. All of its
events, public or dedicated invite, are free of charge. A person does
pay for incidentials, like meals and souvenirs, but there is no fee
for the event itself.
On o occasion under the new public phase many atttendees came from
places remote from New York, even from overseas.. They signed up thru
booking agencies, who said their fee includes the cost of the event.
Since ordinary conferences and shows can cost several tens to a few
hundred dollars, registrants never caught on. The booking agency
pocketed this extra money.
At one event that I attended some overseas attendees found out
that the show was free and raised complaints. The moderator had to
announce that from now on know well that events at the UN have NO
charge, price, fare, toll, fee, cost. The persons at this events were,
well, cheated.
For those getting reimbursed or fronted funds to attend there
could be hell to pa if you add in a bogus amount as 'registration
fee'. All the major funding and grant outfits know very well that the
United Nations welcomes its guests with no charge.
Topics
----
From what I see and colleagues tell me, the subject of the
meetings ranged over the whole field of UN concerns. They are not just
'science' or 'education'. They include the obvious items like border
disputes, military action, and disaster relief. Other lesser known but
important themes are farm improvement, radio interference, disease
remediation, immigration, smuggling,heritage care, human rights.
In the days before the meeting, deliberately study the topic thru
Internet and current news media! You'll understand the procedings and
better engage with other attendees and officials.
The meeting host, by an internal procedure, assesses the need and
desire for public spectators. It seems there is no unified roster by
which you can ask consideration for desired subjects. This is likely
due to the lack of a single clearing house for public spectators. Each
meeting's host makes its own decisions.
The invite
--------
I hardly can be the only astronomer to be favored with UN invites.
At least two others asked me what to do with their just-received
invite to actually sit at a United nations meeting. They wanted to
know: Is there a uniform to wear? Is fluency in French required? Is a
thank-you gift in order? Is arrival by public city bus acceptable?
I assume the invites I get will be occasional, there likely being
thousands of potential candidates, each getting a sporadic invite now
and then. Getting an invite every couple months is enough for me. Else
I might as well get a job at a UN member's office.
In the early years when I got dedicated invites, I could not
give it or share it to an other person. Only the specific invited was
on the event's guest roster.
Now that invitations are open to the public, you may get one by
pass-along from an associate, referral to a link for it, as well as
directly from the UN. You may exercise the invite in all three cases.
When I got the specific invites I felt obligated to accept. Being
that the UN, by some unknown means, selected me as a honored guest I
should go and be an honored guest. It was probably not wise to
snub the UN by declining its specific request to witness one of its
events.
In the current open-to-public program I do pass up the lesser
interesting invites. You may, too, by merely not responding to it.
Please consider passing it on to other possibly interested other folk.
You could be rejected! This typicly is caused by missing a
deadline to RSVP or the event's seating being full. There's no further
action required but you may want to send back a polite thank you note.
The RSVP
------
The invite is like any other for a show, giving the date, hour,
location,title of the event. It commonly offers a description or
purpose for the the event, with topics and presenters.
it will give a means of responding to apply for approval. with
just about all correspondence being via internet the RSVP is thru a
web or email. I can't recall an option to answer by personal visit to
an office or by voice phonecall.
Follow the instructions for replying! The reply may be a form to
fill in and submit on a web. Be extra careful in your typing. A single
wrong character or digit could invalidate your response or cause you
to miss a return approval or confirmation.
The form may ask for only a few personalia; name, email address,
home town. it could ask for details at first irritating, like a birth
date, passport number, demographic items. it's up to you to procede
with the response or bail out. the response my call for a manually
keyed in email. Keep it short, concise, and mature. At least tell
which event you're applying for, your basic personalia, and some words
of thanks. Assure that the event host may contact you for further
needed items.
Make SURE you save and print the response form/email!! At the very
least, with no printing facility, capture the response into a
directory where you can fetch it easily and quickly. This is probably
the situation if you work Internet thru a mobile device.
I haven't heard of problems from having only the saved paperwork
displayed on a mobile device's screen, as if increasingly common for
tickets and coupons. Yet I haven't heard of a electronic paperwork
allowed by the UN. Play safe and have hardcopy with you.
Event envelope
------------
Make an envelope to hold all your paperwork for the event. Label
it with the event title and date. Put in this envelope the invitation,
application or response, approval/confirmation, other correspondence,
notes and articles about the event topic, copy of your identity
papers.
Bring this with you to the event and other places associated with
it, like an office to get the event ticket. doing so ensures that you
have in hand any item which could be requested. It can happen that
some clerical mishap occurs and your paperwork will walk you thru it.
The envelope after the event is a one-place keep-sake for the
event materials, including souvenirs and takeaways from the event.
Identification
------------
Have with you positive photo identification! This must be issued
by a competent government entity, such as a passport, employee badge,
motor vehicle driving licence, social benefits card.
A corporate photo ID badge Is usually accepted if the company is a
major one, specially with worldwide operations. Ask at your personnel
office about its use for attending UN shows. Some companies restrict
its ID for internal functions and not as a general identification. It
may give you an 'external' ID card to use for outside events.
Please know that the IDNYC card promoted by New York City was on
occasion rejected as valid identification. This card has been
forged or duplicated or obtained by false application. Have a second
corresponding photo ID to resolve disputes.
Badge
---
You need a 'badge', a paper ticket, for entry onto the nonpublic
parts of the UN campus. The event instructions may call this a
'ticket' or 'pass'. You may be instructed to get this badge on prior
days at a certain office near the UN or at the entry gate on the day
of the event. Just do as instructed!
The badge states the event place and hour. You could be barred
from entering the campus too soon before the start hour.
When the event lets out, you must leave the meeting hall and
return to the public areas of the campus. The badge expires at or soon
after the end of the event. It does not allow free roaming around
beyond the event's hours.
Take care of your badge! Keep it clean and smooth, not wrinkling
or folding it. Have it handy for inspection by UN crew. Losing your
badge turns you into a stateless person subject to detention and some
nasty inquest. Understand well that the United Nations is NOT part of
the United States. It is foreign realm under its own jurisdiction.
I myself put the badge in an ordinary convention badge holder
that loops around the neck. Don't use the one that pins or clips on
the clothing. It's too easy to fall off and go missing.
I wear my badge cross-shoulder to prevent snagging and flopping.
The badge is held in sight without having to dig it out of my pocket ,
where it can be wrinkled or crumpled. The elastic cord lets a UN guard
pull it closer to inspect it.
Wear the badge for the whole time on campus, even during breaks or
intermissions. A UN staff may ask to see it. You don't have to hand
it in or have in stamped/punched. When you leave the campus after the
meeting, the badge is yours as a souvenir.
Getting the badge
---------------
When the ticket is issued at the UN entry gate, arrive good and
early! This prevents congestion in the minutes before the event
starts. Have at ready your confirmation/approval and ID.
For events with small audiences you meet an event agent who checks
you off a roster and hands you the ticket.
For large audiences the agents crew tables spaced out by guests's
last initial. Stand on the line for your last initial. The agent
checks you off and hands you the ticket.
As simple and direct as this process should be, there are
instances of disorder and chaos. The tables may be wrong tickets, long
lines, irritating delays, conflicting or vague instructions. On the
other hand there may be no hassles and you have your ticket in hand
within a couple minutes.
The approval letter may tell you to obtain a ticket at an off-
campus office on certain days before the meeting. Do the trip to this
office early in the pick-up period. This assures you in fact are duly
enrolled for the event and avoids last-minute rushing around .
Thinking you can save trouble by showing up and asking for the
ticket at the UN gate is really asking for trouble. Tickets not
claimed during the pick-up days may be declared no-shows or cancelled.
You may be denied admission to the meeting.
The office premises, in my experience, vary from neat clean modern
business rooms to what I can politely call reeking slums. In all
cases, behave as if visiting any regular business office. Show the
receptionist your confirmation letter. and ask for the event agent.
Like in many commercial buildings nowayears, there may be a
scanner to pass thru or a bag inspection. In other cases, as I at
times went thru, the receptionist points to the elevator and grunts, '
'fourth floor'. You damn better keep a straight face.
At the ticket office be professional and mature! The ticket
officer greets you and you return the greeting. State your purpose. He
may examine your ID and confirmation letter. He then hands it to you.
Verify that it is your ticket by event and name. Thank the
officer! Ask for the way out if the path is not obvious.
You're done! All documented for the event. Put the badge in a safe
place and make SURE you take it with you for the event.
Be on time!
---------
Arrive EARLY for the meeting! At least a half to a full hour
before event time. If the meeting is much earlier than your usual
daily routine, grit your teeth and get on your way early.
There could be a large audience milling around to be admitted,
tickets may be issued at the entrance, there could be some burocratic
glitch to clear up. And you lose time going thru the security check as
you enter the campus.
Arrive EARLY also because in some instances the audience is taken
into the campus in a group. You could be closed out by coming late. If
you are admitted, the event host has to pull an official from the
meeting to escort you. This is a n imposition accompanied by
substantial delay. The only useful gain for you is learning
interesting curses in some foreign language.
After presenting your badge and ID to the guard, he'll direct you
to a security check, like that of an airport with magnetic gates, bag
inspection tables, and X-ray scanner. According as the nature of the
event and number of guests for it, the security check may be
abbreviated. Follow all instructions!
At the UN
-------
Arrive lightly burdened. leave at home your backpack, heavy
shoulder bag, rolling luggage. Come only with a lightweight day-bag.
This not only eases your travels within the campus but speeds up
security checks. The bag may have extra room for any takeaways or
souvenirs.
It can hold items from your pockets that could trip the magnetic
gate, like coins, pens, keys, metal gadgets. Put the bag, folded or
closed, thru the X-ray scanner.
Like at an airport you should consider wearing belt-less slacks
and slip-on shoes. Removing these if the security agent asks can be
clumsy and time-wasting. if you do have a belt, remove it before
entering the campus and put it into the day-bag.
Have handy the event paperwork and your photo ID. Present the ID
as requested and then keep it at ready during your visit. UN guards
posted thruout the campus may ask to see it.
Decorum
-----
Clean fresh street clothes are sufficient. If you normally wear a
business suit, that's OK. Don't 'dress up' with feathers and jewels.
The general dress code is regular office or business style.
Bathe well, use soft-scent lotions, wear clean linen. Lay off
strong perfumes and oils!
ALL forms of smoking, effumations,liquor, other obnoxious subtabce
use is strictly forbidden and strictly enforced. Don't being any with
you, for partaking after the event off-campus. Tough it out until you
get home.
Please keep good hygiene! Visit the restroom and take care of
personal circumstances before the event. Restrooms are scattered
around the halls with at least one a skip and hop from the meeting
hall. Have simple fresheners and tissues for touch-up during the
meeting.
Be calm and polite. You may chat with other spectators and
delegates in the corridors, on wait lines, during breaks. You may show
your badge if that helps break the ice.
Always keep in mind that the other attendees come from all parts
of the world, other cultures, other social climates. As offensive as
some aspects of their life may be, DO NOT EVER get into a fight, not
even a dust-up, with any one. Keep cool! You could be hauled out of
the event and barred from future entry onto the campus.
You may banter about the event topic and related world activity.
General convo about New York, the scene outside a window, the weather,
are also good starting points.
On campus
-------
Once on campus you can relax and act more casually, like walking
in the public street. You'll be steered to the meeting by signs and
ushers. Please go recta mente to the event. Do not wander around on
your own. Usually, if the meeting lets out in daylight, you may stroll
around the campus for sightseeing. At night you'll have to head
straight to the street.
Altho the heavy construction is finished, there's ongoing work
inside the buildings. You may encounter barriers, tools and machines,
noise & dust, water splash and puddles, dark corners, all the features
you find at any large building site on Manhattan. Keep your eyes open.
Mind your step.
The meeting room is in one of the pavilions you see in postcards
and movies. Now YOU are INSIDE the place! You may get an initial rush
while walking thru the corridors of the United Nations!! This floor,
door, chair on other days saw delegates from your home country, or a
country you thoroly dislike.
In many spots there are artworks supplied by member nations. Do
admire them and study the captions. The greater number of the pieces
are in areas away from the public view. You may see them as a
privilege of your visit. -
ADA concerns
----------
Please understand that the United Nations was built in the late
1940s Standards and practices for occupant handicaps were vastly
looser than today. And the United Nations technicly is outside normal
US jurisdiction, altho it does on its own or thru agreement follow
many US standards.
Even tho the campus is now renovated, there are plenty of
impediments, hazard, barriers for ADA folk.
Most instances involve stairs and ramps. Some have open risers,
slippery steps, no grip-strips, weak handrails. Also hazardous are
short or weak fences and polished slippery floors.
Elevators may have obsolete panels, with no tactile button labels
or positive button action.
On the other hand, signs carry large text, clear wording,
contrasting colors. And lighting, while almost entirely of the
original style, is quite even, ample, attractive. Yet here and there
are puddles of dark, like in a recess or behind columns.
There are plenty of guards thruout the campus to offer or obtain
assistance for ADA-qualified persons. If you have ADA concerns, do ask
at the vent RSVP contact.
Photography
---------
Even tho you are in the interior zones of the campus, you may take
personal photos of the meeting, exhibits, hallways. Use only small
handheld cameras and imaging devices. Be polite and quiet while taking
pictures. . MAKE SURE the flash is turned off. Some cameras have
'museum mode' that shuts off both flash and sounds. Shooting flash
could trigger a threat alarm because it can look like a gun shot or
explosive. You can get into all kinds of messy complications. There is
strong ambient light in all areas of interest to shoot without flash.
To take pictures of individuals and small groups, specially during
breaks or after the session, please purposefully ask the person first.
and abide by his answer. To signal that you do respect his decline
for photography, pocket your camera and thank the person.
You may record audio, again with small devices in a polite and
quiet manner. I learn that audio capture is usually lousy. There's too
much ambient moise and crosstalk impressed in the recording,
smothering the target narration.
Meeting room
----------
On the occasions I attended UN functions, the meeting room ranged
from classroom-size rooms to mid-size lecture or conference rooms, to
the very General Assembly chamber. All rooms I and others sat in were
neat, clean, well-acclimatized. The smaller ones with a couple tens of
seats, were cluttered with props, books, papers from previous uses,
yet otherwise well maintained or newly refreshed.
All of the rooms had modern audio-visual apparatus, flat screen
displays, computers and digital devices, motorized blackboards and
projection screens.
All rooms have seats along curved tables facing the stage or
podium. Persons sitting at the table have a flat wide working space.
There may be extra seating along the walls or in the rear of the room.
a separate peanut gallery has only seats, no tables.
Chairs vary in style among rooms. They may be light-weight rolling
chairs to heavy clunky 'lobby' chairs to chairs mounted to the floor..
There isn't a standard 'United Nations' model.
Spectators are seated in a designated zone while the officials sit
in front or center of the room. There may be a peanut gallery or just
a roped off section for you. The arrangement is a function of the
number of officials and spectators and of the furnishings in the
room.. This may vary among meetings in the same room.
For small audience, specially if it is allowed active engagement
during the meeting, everyone, spectators and officials, are seated
mixed together.
THOSE plaques
-----------
In every news media picture of a UN session you are awed by the
little name plaques at each seat. They are mounted at the front edge
of the table where the leaders of a country's delegation sit. The
country's lesser officials sit in seats behind them. The plaque shows
the name of the country. The number of seats taken by a country can
give it several plaques with its name.
In the old days the name was a plastic plate set into the plaque's
frame. Today the plaque is a digital screen which can show not only a
country name but other text germane to the meeting. Plaques at the
spectator seats are blank or show the title of the meeting.
THOSE earpieces
-------------
To serve the diversity of languages and to speed up dialog, the
United Nations invented 'realtime translation'. The speaker's dialog
is repeated in all five UN language: Chinese, English, French,
Russian, Spanish. Occasionally Arabic is added.
The translation is worked by a team of humans skilled one or more
of the UN languages. In addition, by prior arrangement, a translator
may be call led on for any non-UN language anticipated at the instant
meeting.
The translator listens to the speaker's narration and then
INSTANTLY repeats it in a UN language! Each human works an assigned UN
language.
The translators sit in sound booths outside the meeting room. Each
translator speaks into his own microphone, which is wired to each seat
in the room. The seats, even those in the gallery, have an earpiece
and control panel. All five UN translations come into the control
panel, where you select one by push-button.
The earpiece is made of hard plastic to hang on the shell of your
ear. Nothing inserts into the canal, like a bud or plug. . A
disposable foam pad inside takes care of hygiene. It is replaced as
part of setting up the meeting room. Yet on Once in a while I had no
pad in my earpiece. Perhaps it fell out.
If you want to practice language comprehension, this is how to do
it! I sometimes switch to Spanish to catch how a certain English
phrases are translated.
The earpiece amplifies its audio. A button on the control panel
adjusts the volume. This is handy for general comfort when listening
to English. when a meeting is all-English, only the english selection
of language is active. it is piped directly to the earpiece without
translator interaction.
On the occasion when spectators join the discussion a gooseneck
microphone next to the name plaque lets you speak to the floor. YOUR
WORDS are sent into the 5-way instant translation!! Thru the earpiece
you may listen to the translation in the other languages, WHILE YOU
select, WHILE YOU ARE SPEAKING! It's weird.
Movement
------
Within the validity of your badge, you may wander around without
much interference. You may examine artwork, look out windows, sit
hallway seats, cruise litterature tables, and so on. Always keep your
badge at ready for any requested inspection.
In general you must keep within the hours and areas stipulated on
your badge. The meeting sponsor applies its own constraints to its
badges. When you go home you may keep the badge as a souvenir because
by then it is expired.
When on breeak, take your coat and bag eith you. The meeting room
is under watch or closedmbit it's plain good horse sense to keep your
gear with you at all times.
Here and there and every where, mostly at entrances to buildings,
are turnstiles. They control admittance only to those with the proper
clearance, as indicated by their badges. The machines work like those
in a transit station or large office building. UN officials and crew
dunk their badge in the turnstile to be let thru.
Because the badges for outside guests are temporary ones and made
of paper, they don't engage the turnstile. I I want to pass thru a
turnstile I let the guard inspect my badge. If it's copasetic he
manually unlocks the turnstile for me.
Please be VERY CAREFUL! If you LEAVE thru a turnstile, you could
be closed from RETURNING thru it! This can happen if you want to
sightsee beyond a turnstile. Show your badge to the guard and ASK if
you can step outside and come right back.
With the guard's assurance, do your sightseeing and GET BACK
QUICKLY!! The guard may forget who you are when you return or, worse,
he's replaced by the next shift who knows nothing about you. If
feasible, stay in line-of-sight view of the guard during your
excursion. He'll feel more at ease about you.
According as the event's program there may be a lunch or exhibit
recess. The sponsor arranges for the spectators to pass thru the
intervening turnstiles as a group under its watch. STAY WITH THE
GROUP! Lagging behind will likely bar you from catching up.
Food and drink
------------
Like in most interior spaces, you may not eat or drink. Such
activity is fully forbidden in the meeting room. You can chew candies
entirely in mouth, but please don't have any open food or drink.
Collect all wrapping, napkins, tissues, and put them in the waste
bins. These are near the exit doors of the meeting room, else use
those in a nearby restroom.
Occasionally a UN show includes snacks or buffet. Serving tables
are set up in a corridor for attendes to tank up.
This service is the exception. UN events typicly have no food
associated with them.
UN workers take meals at the internal cafeterias among the
pavilions. For certain events you may be usehered to one of these
cafeterias.
One cafeteria commonly used for events overlooks East River. It's
not at all fancy, being like a large college or museum type of
facility.
The favored tables are at the picture windows facing East River,
Roosevelt Island, Queens.
Food is good, plentiful, and comfortably priced. Refuse is put in
separate bins for food waste and recycling
You'll love the banter among the UN people in native languages!
What a way to see first hand how peoples of the world can sit together
in harmony and peace!!
Outside the picture windows is a broad terrace, open in mild
weather. Cocktail tables are deployed for guests to take in the air
and sun. This is entirely at the discretion of the cafeteria
management.
I must remind that the UN internal cafeterias are in nonpublic
parts of the campus. You can not reach them without the proper badge.
Don't figure to come back tomorrow for an other round of riverfront
noshing.
With no nourishment at the event, you may eat at the public
cafeteria, Vienna Cafe', in the visitors hall of the Secretariat
Building.. With constraints on guest movement for spectators, you may
have to eat before or after the event, when you are already in the
public space. I noticed that it's sometimes closed or reserved for
some internal event.
items are taken from shelfs, hot and cold, with frequent
replenishment as they run out. Tableware is given at the paypoint.
Circle around to the adjacent tables.
A caution about the tables. I at times find an empty table, set
down my meal, and poof!, there are no chairs. it seems that chairs are
too few to match the edge space of the tables. if you miss a chair,
there are benches along the nearby walls. Please be extra neat and do
clean up when finished.
Off-campus there are many eateries on the side streets. They offer
a large range of meals and prices. Some have sidewalk seating with
views of the UN buildings.
After the event
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You may be conducted straight to the street on First Avenue or
released into a public zone of the campus.
If the latter, only offered during campus open hours, you may
explore around. On the regular tourist visit you're herded around with
no free ranging. This new occasion is a perfect chance to
inspect.artwoek, gardens, cityscapes.
When done with your visit, ask for the way to the street. If you
get lost, ask any UN crew for directions. Show your badge and follow
instructions.
The campus buttons up for public visits at about 6PM, wandering on
the clock with season and activity. Make SURE you are off the campus
by closing hour! It is more work for the UN crew to walk you thru
darkened halls and locked gates and off the premises.
Darksky freak-out
---------------
The United nations was built IN THE LATE 1940S,before the bulk of
present-day astronomers were born. It maintains about the same
exterior aspect ever since opening day. It is casual to think it has
the horrible outdoor lighting so common in comparable large structures
else where in the country.
Not. A darksky agitator, after seeing the campus at night for the
first tie, could WEEP for tue sky-friendly lighting on the United
Nations!
Nighttime lighting is delicately applied to the walls of certain
pavilions, the garden lamps are partially or fully shielded, outdoor
artwork is viewed only by natural daylight. Temporary construction
lights are moderate in number and are often under canopy or roof.
This parasigmaof illumination was embedded in the design of the
UN, a capital house for planet Earth. The motif is grandeur in both
majesty and modesty.
Altho the gardens are closed from the public at night, their
lighting is such that useful observing can be done under it. This is
only two kilometers from Times Square!
The interior lighting, while not intended to be star-friendly,
carries the soft majesty theme. There is hardly any where a glaring
lamp! Most area lighting is in ceiling recesses, sconces, coves, and
other shielded housing.
The United Nations is the project your grandfather built! What
kind of project are you building now in your town?
Conclusion
--------
A prime goal of NYSkies, in league with other astronomy centers in
the City region, is to meld our profession into the civic and social
fabric around us. Unless we make astronomy one among the other
cultural amenities of city life, we will forever be a fringe element,
In that state, astronomy will be treated as a cute hobby or fuzzy
academic toy. It will be passed over in the flow of urban life,
struggling to maintain entropy, stuck in the deep and distant 20th
century. That's when home astronomers were marginalized as 'amateurs'.
The UN's current public program is an orders capital means for
astronomers to further our profession's standing in society.
We must grab it now