FWIW – Farewell, Kofi, Alas We Knew You When

The era of Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations is over. A person of uncommon grace and dignity has stepped down at that organization, as its rules require.
There are those who view him as a resounding failure. Digging deeper into the backgrounds of those who view him in that light, it turns out that their displeasure stems from his resistance to dance to the tune called by the United States. These people believe that since the U.S. is assessed for approximately 22% of the dues of the United Nations, that organization should follow, for the most part, the official U.S. ‘line’.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
Rather, it works much like our Federal Tax system (system? We’ll get into that can of worms in the future) does. Essentially, the philosophy is that we choose to ‘tax’ ourselves to provide for the things that are to keep our society in order, and, as set forth in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, “..to provide for the general welfare..”, there being certain necessities that the free marketplace cannot or will not provide.
NOAA comes to mind. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is charged with monitoring the natural forces that shape our weather. The private sector is not capable or even interested (in my humble opinion) in performing such a task. Our private sector, however, is intimately connected and dependent on accurate weather forecasting. It goes much deeper than the blow-dried weather guy on the 6 o’clock news telling us that some trough of high pressure forming 100 miles north of us means it’s going to be warmer tomorrow. Commerce that must move over hundreds or thousands of miles is affected by the currents that move in the oceans and the clouds that drift overhead. Disruptions to the movement of that commerce have large financial repercussions. You would think that such important data would be so critical to the world of commerce that someone in the private sector would be certain to seek to capitalize on such data and the interpretation thereof, wouldn’t you. However, you would be wrong. At least up to now.
Of course, there are financial institutions that fund their own meteorological departments. And, they fund them richly. At least to the extent that the datum those departments provide enable them to manage weather-related risk relative to their own corporate bottom line. Yet, even there, they are still data mining the resources of NOAA to provide the raw numbers that their departments interpret.
I hope I’ve made my point. We fund the United Nations because we, as a nation, wish to show our commitment to the principle that all living persons, as well as those who will be born in the future, are best served by meeting together at one common location and attempting to mediate our differences in an arena where the powerful and the powerless can talk, rather than resort to weaponry. This is the essence of Civilization, as opposed to Tribalism (referred to in an earlier post).
It ain’t perfect, friends, but then again, humans are not perfect either physically or intellectually. An old African saying goes something like, “The steps are many from the tree to the plain”. We humans like to think of ourselves as being highly developed. As long as we seek to kill those who are not like us, may I suggest that, yes, we have a long way to go.
Into that context came Kofi Annan. As he assumed the post of leadership, much was written about him. The more I read, the more I was impressed with his dedication to the belief in the dignity of man and his personal humility. It was tragic that the oil-for-food scandal marred the career of this servant to civility. Actually, if you will research the oil-for-food scandal, you may conclude, as I have, that this program was constructed to be corruptible, and thus destined for failure even before it was implemented.
The post of Secretary General of the United Nations has been likened to herding cats. The best that can be hoped is to have all the participant’s attention for the blink of an eye. In History’s eye-blink, we are certain that Kofi Annan will be regarded as a man of remarkable grace under pressure.

Tomorrow: Assault on the First Amendment, Again

Today is December 14th; 766 days until the end of the Bush Administration.