United Nations speechwriter speaks about memoir

A former speechwriter for the United Nations, Gregory Levey, entertained and enlightened students last night in the Student Union Theater as he humorously relived his time in the UN.

More than 50 students came to hear Levey speak about his memoir "Shut Up, I'm Talking," written about his time writing speeches for the Israeli mission to the United Nations. The speech was co-sponsored by the SUBOG Outreach program and UConn Hillel.

Levey began his talk recounting how he became hired in the United Nations, which he said involved two weeks of random phone calls and security checks, before later discussing humorous and important events he experienced there. The author centered much of his lecture on what he called "gallows humor," but also emphasized the humanity of the United Nations; he uses humor to delve into the topics, he said, because "you have these serious events, but underneath the serious events, you have people."

Rohan Saxena, a 7th-semester finance major and vice president for SUBOG Outreach, said, "I thought it was a successful event, everyone we reached out to came and were able to ask their questions. I think they got kind of a different perspective of what they were expecting to hear from the Israeli government."

The stories Levey told ranged from his first days at the UN, where he was frequently asked to sit in on meetings, to his final days there where he was hired to travel to Israel as then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's English-language speechwriter. Many were about his humorous early experiences as a novice, one of which he described as "one of my near-misses of causing international incidents."

Levey was able to give many glimpses into the United Nations and examples of "culture clash" he experienced there. For instance, Libyan diplomats were not allowed to make eye contact with Israeli diplomats, while in another story, he told of a time when he was supposed to sit next to an Iranian diplomat during a meeting, a situation he could only describe as "awkward."

Many of Levey's stories, however, were more humorous, speaking of one incident where he was told by a boss, "We need a speech about science," and his difficulty with the vague topic. Another featured a situation where he had to translate a statement from another country using an online translator because he didn't know the language, only to discover the unsure translation hitting news services immediately after he had finished.

Esti Nof, a 2nd-semester pre-medical student, said, "I thought it was very special that they brought an actual UN diplomat to UConn and we were lucky to have a speaker like that. He revealed to us in a humorous way that the UN isn't just a structured body, it's just made up of people who sometimes make mistakes."