Graph of the day
On the web: overconfident bankers, China on the high seas, the Iraq War Inquiry and the Geneva Conventions…
– Writing in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell explains how “the roots of Wall Street’s crisis were not structural or cognitive so much as they were psychological”. Overconfidence among bankers, he suggests, in addition to the more familiar arguments about poor regulation and simple incompetence, played a significant role in the financial crisis.
– The Prospect blog, meanwhile, discusses how “the Indian Ocean is emerging as a focus for Chinese logistical and naval expansion” – something being felt acutely in Washington and New Delhi. Staying with the US and India, WPR takes an interesting look at Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to South Asia.
– Elsewhere, the Channel 4 News blog has more details about the UK’s upcoming Iraq War Inquiry – suggesting that it is due to hear “mountains of evidence” and, given the expansive nature of its remit, is unlikely to have lawyers present.
– Finally, Adam Roberts has an interesting piece in The World Today assessing the current state of the Geneva Conventions. Sixty years later, he ponders, are the laws of war still relevant to the changing nature of conflict?
Ban Ki-moon: top UN staff in anarchic briefing frenzy
Over the last month or so, we’ve kept you up to date on the spate of attacks on Ban Ki-moon’s leadership at the UN and his responses. Ban’s willingness to address criticism – and accept that it is sometimes justified – has been impressive. This round of criticism has arguably had at least one positive effect: it has made the Secretary-General face up to the accusation (highlighted in the Economist piece that set the ball rolling) that he is a poor communicator. He has been communicating like crazy, and may have emerged as a stronger leader as a result.
The spirit of openness appears to have convulsed Ban’s advisers. A bunch of senior officials are quoted in an AFP piece out today. They’re loyal, but not cautious:
Ban’s aides view some of the criticism against their boss as grossly unfair and portray him as a compassionate workaholic whom they admire for his decency, integrity and fierce dedication to his job.
Nicholas Haysom, a South African who is one of Ban’s key advisers, thinks the issue of Ban’s lack of charisma is overblown. And “suggestions that he’s not outspoken, not very visible are simply wrong and not borne out by the evidence,” Haysom said. “On humanitarian crises and conflicts, he has been extremely active. The truth is that he’s not always reported, not always heard.”
Much has been said about Ban’s struggle with the English language.
“English is not his mother tongue so he sometimes appears scripted, stiff and uninspiring,” his spokeswoman Michele Montas admitted. “But he communicates in ways that are unfamiliar in the West and I think there is a cultural gap here,” she added.
Robert Orr, an American who is one of his top policy-makers, says of Ban’s English: “It’s a handicap but not a fatal flaw.”
“I’m not worried by the fact that he is not the most eloquent as long as he produces results,” he added.
“He is influenced by his diplomatic background,” says Haysom. “He put a premium on direct engagement. Face-to-face, he is effective, direct and straightforward.”
Orr said Ban’s major achievement is that he has brought the 21st century issues of climate change, global health and food security into the heart of the UN agenda. He added that his boss deserves credit for his willingness to take risks in undertaking missions that no other world leader could.
Orr said relations between the UN and Washington have significantly improved in large part thanks to Ban. “He has already produced a very different approach from the US Congress toward the UN both in terms of funding and a dramatic uptick in US payment to the UN,” Orr added.
Is it now UN policy to brand Ban as “reassuringly dull”? Or is the heat of the (much delayed) New York summer getting to people?
North Korea’s secret weapon!
Who do you think wrote this poem?
“My Ideal World.” It begins: “If I had my ideal world I would not allow weapons and atom bombs anymore. I would destroy all terrorists with the Hollywood star Jean-Claude Van Damme. I would make people stop taking drugs…” He wrote a somewhat chilling short story called “My Father Was a Ghost,” in which his father haunts him by pretending to be a spirit.
Can’t guess? It’s Kim Jong Chol, second son of probably-dying North Korean despot Kim Jong Il, or so says well-known Asian politics site Gawker. Sadly, he’s not the son likely to take control in Pyongyang. One can only imagine the joyous international reaction to a covert Belgo-Korean mission to take down Bin Laden…
Please someone save me! (updated)
India Knight, writing in the Sunday Times, wishes a state-employed magician could come along and make her feel better about swine flu. As that’s not possible, she’s putting her faith in larceny and homeopathy.
We’re not supposed to take our swiney selves or our swiney children into doctors’ surgeries, and doctors are far too busy for house calls, so, as far as I can see, we’re all in the dark. Also, I don’t like the sound of Tamiflu, with its side effects and lack of long-term trials. But then I don’t like the sound of death, either.
No wonder every parent I spoke to last week was in a state of controlled panic — except for the ones who’ve had swine flu, who were all cheerful and said, “Pah, it’s not so bad; you just go to bed for a few days” — although they all said there was absolutely zero support or advice available to them other than: “Don’t go to work.”
This — “it’s not so bad” — had been my take on it until healthy people started dying. Now I’m hovering between, “Yes, but healthy people still die of normal flu — not many, but some, just as some women still die in childbirth and nobody gets pregnant and then starts running around wailing about death,” and, “Oh my God, oh my God, what are we going to do?”
So far I have failed to come up with a plan. I used my low journalistic cunning to sweet-talk two chemists into telling me where the stocks of Tamiflu for my area of London were held, so now I know where to break into if we suddenly find ourselves burning up in the middle of the night. And I’ve ordered some homeopathic remedies.
Update: In the comments, Eleanor suggests a dose of homeopathic A&E.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0[/youtube]