these last few days

On Thursday I was around the demonstration area at the UN. I love being near the UN and all the action that goes on there, especially during this week of the summit. There were protests against the Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi, for a free Tibet, in favor of the current administration in Togo, against the Chinese communist party, in favor of Jewish settlements in Palestine, and against poverty. I reveled in the excitement. Everywhere there were big black sedans with papers in the front windows saying, "China," "Kenya," and all the others.

On my way home, I stopped in a Duane Reade (a drugstore, for those of you not from around here) to pick up some stuff for my new place, which I was about to move into, and I discovered the real reason why delegates come to New York. Forget the summit. Forget the UN. Forget diplomacy. UN delegates descend on New York for a much more pragmatic reason, the same reason US citizens descend on New York: to buy stuff. There were African and Latin American women in the makeup aisle filling their carts. European men grabbed bottled water out of the cooler. Two men from Kazakhstan passed me in the deodorant aisle. Everyone was wearing their UN badges - did no one tell them not to wear them just around in case they got stolen or they are targeted because of them? Maybe this isn't a problem in New York. I was quite possibly the only non-UN person in that store, other than the employees. And just so you know, Central Asia is now fully stocked with candy and women in Africa now have enough lipstick to paint every house on the continent.