Ban Ki-moon has come out fighting against recent criticism in a pretty strong interview with AP. But I’d hoped not to hear this cliché about leading the UN ever again:
“You don’t see any other nation or government or even private organizations where you have equally important 192 shareholders,” Ban said. “How to balance all these different 192 countries, that is quite time consuming.”
Feel familiar? Here’s Kofi Annan in 2006:
Sometimes it’s hard to get agreements across the board. But one has to persevere. When people say: “The secretary is like a CEO,” I would love to see a CEO manage his company with a board of directors of 192 and has to get things done as effectively and efficiently.
Now, I suspect this cliché is almost as old as the UN. But in Annan’s case, he was parrying Senator Norm Coleman, now the just-ex Senator from Minnesota. Back in the day, Coleman was Annan’s nastiest American foe, demanding that the SG resign over the oil-for-food scandal. Like this:
It’s time for Kofi Annan to step down. The massive scope of this debacle demands nothing less. If this widespread corruption had occurred in any legitimate organization around the world, its CEO would have been ousted long ago, in disgrace. Why is the U.N. different?
So, for old-time (well, not that old-time) UN watchers, at least the “CEO+192 shareholders” gag reeks of bad times. Don’t take us back there, Mr. B.
