Little girl, big city - Episode 4: Translators, delegations and celebrity sightings.

So the UN General Assembly is in session and it’s been causing some chaos as entire avenues have been sectioned off to make way for the Pope, President Obama and other VIPs. I find it annoying all of the security measures being taken to be honest. Does the Pope really need an entourage of six SUVs and 6,000 police? The guy rides around in his little Fiat with the window down. I mean if someone really wanted to shoot him, it wouldn’t be that hard. 

Snipers on the roof of UN HQ

Also, the avenue sidewalks are more crowded than usual with delegates in from all over the world. Cultural differences manifest themselves in a number of ways, including the time it takes to get through a speech or down a sidewalk. Africans don’t seem to be in a hurry ever, and are completely immune to time constraints. I freely admit, I have no idea what this feels like. 

In other news, I’ve been here for six weeks now and I still haven’t seen any famous people walking around. The only celebrity sightings I’ve had have been at the UN this week. I missed seeing David Beckham by a couple of hours which is unfortunate (Instagram informed me of this). But I have sat in the same room as Kaká (the Brazilian fútbol player and WFP ambassador) and Laura Carmichael (the actress who plays Lady Edith in Downton Abbey). Shakira and Connie Britton (actress from the TV show Nashville) also spoke at forums I couldn’t get in to but watched via UN webcast. Normally I’d be able to get in to most seminars with my UN badge, but since everybody and their grandmother is in town for the General Assembly, only delegations and staff are being allowed in to certain events and suddenly I’m much less important than I used to be. It stings, I’m not gonna lie. 

That's Kaká to the far left

I feel I’ve been a little bit negative in my attitude regarding the UN. But there is one aspect that I am sincerely impressed by. Every high-level event will have translation into the six official UN languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. This is reasonable and not that impressive until you take into consideration that each of these languages is being translated into each of the other ones. And when there are non-UN languages being spoken on the floor, they also have to be translated into each of these six. Which means we are talking about translators who are translating to and from upwards of five languages. That to me is amazing. For example, one time I noticed the same natively British male voice translating from Kazakh, Belorussian, Russian, French and Arabic into English. How does a person learn all of those languages to such a sophisticated level? That takes years of study and/or immersion in those languages and cultures, which makes me tremendously curious about the lives these UN translators have lived…