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Ban was in Japan to discuss with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone ways of handling intractable problems in North Korea and Myanmar. Their talks also included issues of climate change and the environment, nuclear non-proliferation and the reform of the U.N. Security Council, according to Foreign Ministry officials.
Yet Ban took time out to recognize the contributions of Japanese who have devoted their time and efforts to supporting programs under the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Development Program, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The goodwill ambassadors included popular performers, academics, and an accomplished tea master. They have visited many nations to hold fund-raising and promotional events for their chosen causes.
The youngest was 27-year-old fashion model Kurara Chibana, a celebrity partner of the World Food Program. She traveled last year to Zambia, where 75 percent of the population live on less than US$1 per day. She learned that 182 out of 1,000 children die before they reach the age of 5 in the country.
Chibana, who was runner-up in the 2006 Miss Universe Contest, has raised sympathy and funds for poverty-stricken Africans.
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, one of Japan’s best-known actresses and the longest-serving goodwill ambassador, has reportedly raised US$37 million in 29 tours stretching over 25 years on behalf of UNICEF.
Ban’s other activities included a breakfast meeting with a Japanese businessmen's association, where he called on business leaders to promote “green investment” and reduced emissions to help fight global warming. He also had a town hall meeting with students at Tokyo University, where he described Japan as an “exemplary model member state of the United Nations.”
Japan contributes over 16 percent of the entire U.N. budget, amounting to about US$421 million last year. But only slightly more than 700 Japanese individuals were engaged in the U.N. system as of the beginning of 2009, seen as a chronic shortage of Japanese presence in this international body.
Ban Ki-moon cannot talk about humanitarian mission as he has miserably failed to prevent bloodshed and genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Japan is another mockery nation that contributes and provide funding to the murderous Sri Lankan regime that is involved in ethnic cleansing of Tamils.
These Japanese celebrities should advise their own governemnt to make some green funding, save humanity, freedom and democracy and not to fund those regimes involved in criminal activities.