CAIRO: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon spoke at a conference in Cairo on Monday, as part of his first visit to the country since ex-president Hosni Mubarak was ousted. The conference, called “Listening to the People: a changing Arab World and the United Nations,” was held at El-Sawy Cultural Wheel. Opening his speech in front of an audience of a few hundred, Ki-Moon praised a UN resolution allowing the bombing on Libya and called for a minute of silence in honor of the martyrs of peaceful revolutions around the world. Ki-Moon declared that the aim of his first official visit to Egypt was to listen to the people's concerns and aspirations. He highlighted Egypt's “vibrant democratic society,” underlining that democracy can be obtained by strengthening civil society, as well as through the “empowerment of women and minority rights.” “Egypt has inspired the whole world to build a modern-day Pyramid of Democracy,” said Ki-Moon, asking for the aspirations of the youth to be fulfilled without any more “waiting for tomorrow.” Among the other panelists was Weal Ghonim, a Google employee and co-administrator of one of the most famous Facebook pages that supported the revolution, and Anisa Husein, activist for women rights. Ghonim addressed Ki-Moon, saying that “democracy comes from internal needs and not from external forces.” He also added that Egyptians do not what any vendetta against the world, but are driven by a strong desire to “take part to the world with dignity.” Ghonim expects the UN to help Egypt with its economic crisis. “If there is no money, the people are going to chose another dictator,” he said. Anisa Husein's intervention was warmly welcomed by the audience, as she asked for more cooperation between UN and civil society. “While the UN are supported by the people paying taxes, UN prefer to trade with governments that most of time are not representative of their own societies,” she said. Ban Ki Moon welcomed the objection of the panelist as a proof of the strength of Egyptian civil society. Ki-Moon met the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hussein Tantawi, and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Monday morning. BM
