Millions risk not receiving aid to fight Covid-19 as a result of corruption

Millions risk not receiving aid to fight Covid-19 as a result of corruption

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Irwin Arieff

Irwin Arieff is a veteran writer and editor with extensive experience writing about international diplomacy and food, cooking and restaurants. Before leaving daily journalism in 2007, he was a Reuters correspondent for 23 years, serving in senior posts in Washington, Paris and New York as well as at the United Nations. He also wrote restaurant reviews for The Washington Post and Washington City Paper in the 1980s and 1990s with his wife, Deborah Baldwin.

The UN Cafeteria: Nowhere Else to Go

April 1, 2013

by Irwin Arieff

They say that an army travels on its stomach. If the same is true of international diplomacy, the United Nations is in big trouble. The main UN cafeteria in New York recently sprang back to life as headquarters staff members started returning to the painstakingly renovated landmark Secretariat tower. But it appears the troops …

UN EATS

Aramark, Restaurant Associates, UN renovation, UN Secretariat, UN Secretariat Main Cafeteria

3 Comments

Diplomacy: An Insider’s Guide

March 21, 2013

by Irwin Arieff

International crises are not always resolved on the battlefield or at the negotiating table. Sometimes breakthroughs come around a table at a restaurant that is continents away. Or they fall in place because of a thoughtful gesture made by an important player at a cemetery years before. This is one of the lessons of …

BOOKS, UN Diplomats

Alphonso Jackson, Bruno Ristorante, Columbia University Program on Peace-building and Human Rights, David L. Phillips, Dayton peace agreement, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Eliot Engel, Ibrahim Rugova, Jim Xhema, Joseph DioGuardi, Kosovar Albanians, Kosovo, Monocle, Nora's Restaurant, Senator Bob Dole, Slobodan Milosevic

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Kofi Annan: The Back Story

January 28, 2013

by Irwin Arieff

Frederic Eckhard, the United Nations spokesman for eight and a half of Kofi Annans 10 years as secretary-general, was certainly well placed to write a tell-all account of that action-packed era. But readers of Eckhard’s new book, “Kofi Annan: A Spokesperson’s Memoir,” get that and something more. Along with the insider accounts, there’s the …

Africa, BOOKS, Secretary-General

Benon Sevan, Dag Hammarskjold, Fred Eckhard, Kofi Annan, Kojo Annan, oil-for-food program, Paul Volcker

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Past Haunts the Present at a Neighborhood Fixture

January 8, 2013

by Irwin Arieff

Alcala Restaurant has been dishing out traditional Spanish fare to the United Nations community for decades, and a recent move from East 46th Street to East 44th appears to have done nothing to change it, from the old-fashioned menu to the regulars at the next table. You’ll find the same dishes the last time …

UN EATS

Alcala Restaurant, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, Spanish restaurant NYC

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Master of Science in Humanitarian Studies at Fordham University

Iran’s ‘Grand Bargain’ With the West

January 1, 2013

by Irwin Arieff

Iran’s nuclear crisis has been dragging on for a decade, so it sure would be great if someone in the know finally laid out the definitive plan for resolving the dispute and ending Tehran’s international isolation. In “The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir,” a veteran Iranian diplomat, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, modestly puts himself forward …

BOOKS, Disarmament, Middle East

1979 Islamic revolution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, George Perkovich, IAEA, Iran and UN sanctions, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, NPT, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, UN Security Council

4 Comments

Fussing With New Fusion

December 2, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

What are we to think about a place named Amaze Fusion and Lounge? Its Web site says that “Amaze’s atmosphere, which complements and attracts a fashion, music and entertainment clientele, takes you off the busy streets of Manhattan and transcends you to the middle of the Asian culture.” But that doesn’t really seem to …

UN EATS

Asian fusion, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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Kofi Annan: Lessons in Futility

October 24, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Kofi Annan‘s existential crisis during his decade as United Nations secretary-general was without question related to the US-led invasion of Iraq. But the most fascinating part of his new memoir, “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace,” is the account of his numerous attempts to nudge the world toward a Middle East peace …

BOOKS, Secretary-General, US-UN Relations

Benon Sevan, Bill Clinton, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Cotecna, George W. Bush, Iraq war and the UN, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Javier Solana, John Bolton, Kofi Annan, Kojo Annan, Obama and the UN, oil for food scandal, Palestine, Responsibility to protect, Syria, UN and the Middle East, UN General Assembly, US-UN relations, Yasser Arafat

4 Comments

Socarrat, Where the Reigning Star Is Paella

October 8, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

It’s not every day that you want to drop $30 or $40 on lunch. But if you have the time to pamper yourself with a nice relaxed meal, check out the new Socarrat Paella Bar. It looks, feels and tastes more New York than Valencia, but Socarrat, located on Second Avenue just above 50th …

UN EATS

Lunch Midtown East, paella in Midtown Manhattan, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, Spanish food Midtown Manhattan

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Master of Science in Humanitarian Studies at Fordham University

At Last, Sandwiches That Taste Divine

September 4, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

A life-changing stint in Philadelphia during my formative years left me with an irrepressible yearning for a truly great sandwich, coupled with enormous sadness over the difficulty of finding one. The hoagie of yore — a generously filled, crusty Italian roll doused with olive oil, vinegar and Italian spices and lined with shreds of …

UN EATS

hoagies NYC Midtown, Khmer food Midtown NYC, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, sandwiches Midtown NYC, submarine sandwiches Midtown NYC

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The Ethics of Chocolate

August 1, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Given longstanding reports of slavery, economic exploitation and corruption in the West African cocoa trade, how guilty should you feel about eating a chocolate bar? How about one made with cocoa marketed under the fair-trade umbrella – a loose international system aimed at providing growers with fair prices while also imposing fair labor standards …

Africa, BOOKS

Fair Trade USA, fair-trade chocolate, Ghana cocoa farming, Ivory Coast cocoa farming, Millennium Villages Project, Orla Ryan, Tom Neuhaus, West African cocoa farmers

2 Comments

Some Like Their Dumplings Really Hot

July 23, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Chinese dumplings, one of the world’s great comfort foods, are steaming into the UN neighborhood. Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, a Manhattan chain with aspirations to go national, opened a branch at Lexington Avenue and 45th Street last fall, offering a slick and somewhat ethnically cleansed version of the plump little delicacies at uptown prices. In …

UN EATS

dumplings Midtown NYC, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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Eat&Go Istanbul/New York: Right Place, Wrong Cafe

July 3, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

What a tragic missed opportunity. The Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, which runs along East 47th Street between First and Second Avenues, is one of the most pleasant open spaces on Manhattan’s East Side and home to one of the city’s best greenmarket. United Nations employees traverse the plaza throughout the day on the way to …

UN EATS

Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza Greenmarket, dining on Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, Turkish cuisine NYC

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Master of Science in Humanitarian Studies at Fordham University

BonChon Midtown: Stop! You’re Both Right

June 13, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

BonChon Midtown is an ambitious new Korean Asian fusion restaurant just up the street from the UN campus. Or BonChon Midtown is a lively Midtown sports bar with 27 draft beers, a loud rock soundtrack and four — count ’em! four! — giant TV screens. Take your pick. This is a clearly a restaurant …

UN EATS

Korean bbq NYC, Korean food NYC, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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Matisse, Where Comfort Surpasses the Cooking

May 11, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

In many a French neighborhood, there’s a corner hangout frequented more for its comfort than its kitchen. The food is good, but the ambience is the draw. Often, the place will serve as the unofficial cantine for neighbors and office workers in the vicinity. For those who live near or work at the United …

UN EATS

French bistros NYC, Lunch Midtown East, Matisse bistro, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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Judging Charles Taylor

April 24, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, displayed a talent for troublemaking from a young age. Convicted on April 26 by a United Nations-backed tribunal for numerous counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Taylor appears to have kept up his bad behavior for most of his 64 years. As a boy in rural …

BOOKS, Child Soldiers

Charles Taylor, Colin Waugh, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Special Court for Sierra Leone

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Millions risk not receiving aid to fight Covid-19 as a result of corruption

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