Posted on 12/10/2006 12:32:29 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is preparing to leave office after 10 years and his successor, Ban Ki-moon, is in New York getting ready for his new post.
The December party season at the United Nations has a particular poignancy this year.
All over Turtle Bay, where the diplomats live, farewells are being said to Kofi Annan.
Mr Annan and his elegant wife Nane are the United Nations equivalent of royalty.
No matter what diplomats may really think of Mr Annan's time in office, he is personally very popular, seen as gracious and dignified.
Watching Mr and Mrs Annan work a room is like observing a diplomatic master class in action.
No guest is ignored, no spouse neglected, inquiries are made after all known children.
Sensitive subjects - Iraq, Darfur - are tactfully broached.
No-one is made to feel they are boring the first couple of the United Nations, or that there is a more interesting guest they would rather be talking to.
The Annans arrive at the very minute they are expected and depart just as punctually.
"We shall miss them," sighed one rather reverential diplomat. "They're the closest to Hollywood glamour we'll ever get."
Efficient and hospitable
Just as the couple say their farewells at drinks and dinner parties across town, so Ban Ki-moon of South Korea - the incoming secretary general - is equally feted.
Ban Ki-moon is in town with his transition team and everybody wants to meet him.
So far he is not giving much away about his intentions, other than to reiterate his desire to reform the ageing institution.
"The South Koreans want to make the place hum like an electronics factory in Seoul," one diplomat told me, adding: "There are worse fates for the place than to be like Daewoo, I suppose."
"We're very efficient, you know, us South Koreans," one member of his transition team explained to me.
"When we give out hospitality gifts to visitors, we don't choose traditional crafts that will never get used, we give out flash drives for your computer."
Leadership qualities
Rumours of a platoon of efficient South Koreans installed in the secretary general's suite of offices on the 38th floor turned out to be greatly exaggerated.
The platoon had only four members.
But there is a palpable air of anxiety as the staff here wait for one era to end and another to begin.
And there is a real sense that Kofi Annan's emphasis on human rights and fighting poverty may be replaced by a more prosaic, less ambitious UN agenda in which efficiency is the priority.
But then, as one senior official cautioned: "If you think it's going to be boring with Ban, remember you thought it would be anodyne with Annan."
Much speculation
Over cocktails and canapes, there is much gossip about what are known as the holy trinity of UN posts: head of peacekeeping, boss of political affairs and director of humanitarian assistance.
Mr Annan's appointees are due to leave their posts early next year.
So who will Mr Ban choose?
The Americans have let it be known that they want peacekeeping, a post which the French regard as theirs.
"We are the only developed country that puts actual peacekeepers on the ground," pointed out a senior French diplomat.
"The Yanks can't have peacekeeping," said a developing world ambassador. "It would turn peacekeeping into a minor branch of the US army."
Meanwhile the British are insisting that they are not lobbying for political affairs, a powerful position which has traditionally been held by the UK.
The poorer nations at the UN have told Mr Ban in no uncertain terms that he cannot carry on giving the plum posts to the organisation's paymasters.
"It is time for us to get something more than just protocol," one African ambassador told me.
"We are watching Ban very closely and he had better not disappoint us - the status quo is not an option."
Farewell serenade
As diplomats trade gossip, and journalists brave the whistling December wind to trudge from one mission building to the next in search of insights, there is one event which reporters do not have to travel to.
The action comes to us.
That is the UN correspondents' association annual dinner and dance.
It will have happened by the time you read this piece and I shall no doubt be feeling somewhat the worse for wear.
Kofi Annan is due to bid us farewell while Ban Ki-moon will say hello.
Awards will be given out and the BBC's Mark Doyle and Karen Allen will be honoured for their reporting from Africa.
Then after all the speeches, there is due to be a little entertainment.
Yours truly has been roped in to sing a farewell ditty to Kofi Annan, to the tune of Arrivederci Roma.
It goes something like this:
Arrivederci Kofi, goodbye goodbye New York, city of a million resolutions, city of a thousand competing solutions, where I found a world of many faces, far from home.
Let us hope he likes it.
Where is the puke alert?
Don't let the door hit ya on the way out, Kofi.
Sounds like he and his wife are better suited at being Concierges.
Ya gotta admit, he's got a pretty smooth hustle.
That, more than anything, is what triggers my "hang on to your wallet" instinct whenever I see his face.
Especially at the deposit window at his favorite Swiss Bank!
Kofi is a small time crook who hit the jackpot.
He should be in guantanamo sharing a cell with William Jefferson and Mrs. Clinton.
The poorer nations at the UN have told Mr Ban in no uncertain terms that he cannot carry on giving the plum posts to the organisation's paymasters
FINE<THEN LETS STOP PAYING !!!!!!!!!!
If the U.N. really wanted "change", then the U.N. should start by "getting the U.S. out of the U.N. and then getting the U.N. out of the U.S."!
DFU SONG: Food Glorious Food (U.N. oil for food)
DFU SONGS | 9-2004 | Lyrics, Doug from Upland
Posted on 09/19/2004 7:57:53 PM PDT by doug from upland
We'd debate in the U.N....goodness, here we go again
All we saw was their stonewalling
This one really takes the cake...many had been on the take
All those scumbags should be falling
Marc Rich had been where he shouldn't have been
Thanks to Bill, he would get away clean
And we're ready for major league *ss kicking now
That is nothing like we've ever seen
Food, oil for food...the U.N. was scamming
Kofi, you are toast...FOX News says it damning
No wonder they voted NO...money had been flowing
They hoped that their bank accounts kept on growing
Food, oil for food...10 billion they'd gather
This story does not...interest Mr. Rather
Saddam had paid terrorists...connect all the dots
It's food...oil for food...they are so screwed...oil for food
Food, oil for food...the U.N. was scamming
Kofi, you are toast...FOX News says it damning
Money had bought weapons that killed some of our soldiers
Chirac, we should make sure you don't grow older
Food, oil for food...10 billion they'd gather
This story does not...interest Mr. Rather
Saddam had paid terrorists...connect all the dots
It's food...oil for food...oil for food...they are so screwed...oil for food
Oil for food...they are screwed
I sincerely hope that this next UN Secretary General is a complete butthead who has all the skills necessary to really offend our Senators, Congressmen, the entire White House staff and every American voter!
Maybe he will build a house on the same beach as Rush...wouldn't that be a hoot!
too bad kofi won't go home to his village in africa...and tend to his goats...that's where he belongs and should have never left!!!!!!
Looks like Annan, Chirac and Putin are all going to walk away from oil for food - probably the biggest financial scam in history.
What else is there? While I would hate to ruin the market in canape futures I am at a complete loss as to why this reporter is gushing over the chief gander in this gaggle of particularly stupid geese. Of what, precisely, do these fond memories consist? Parties and posturing? What has the UN accomplished under Kofi's tenure? Anything?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.