So, it wasn’t a great week for Michael Ignatieff, what with the catastrophic Liberal performance in Canada’s elections. But he’s got a new job at the University of Toronto, and has offered an endearingly frank farewell…
“I’m going back into a classroom because the only damn thing I can do that’s any use to anybody is to teach kids what I learned and what mistakes I made,” Mr. Ignatieff said.
Fair enough!
Earlier this week, the UN General Assembly voted to give the EU an “enhanced observer status” in its deliberations. This is a relief to European diplomats, who had been unable to get the proposal approved last year. I’m writing a short piece on what went right, but have to pause to highlight that the General Assembly also found time this week to “designate 30 July as International Day of Friendship in an effort to strengthen amity between peoples and cultures.”
The resolution creating the International Day of Friendship was adopted unanimously in recognition of the fact that friendship can contribute to the efforts of the international community to promote dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.
The resolution invites all UN Member States, organizations of the UN system and other international and regional organizations, as well as civil society, to observe the International Day of Friendship in accordance with the culture and other appropriate circumstances or customs of their local, national and regional communities, including through education and public awareness-raising activities.
Frankly, I can think of no more effective way of destroying a friendship than having it endorsed by the UN General Assembly.
H/t Chris Albon.
Article by David Steven published in World Politics Review on scarcity of resources in Pakistan and what it means for the country. Available from World Politics Review here (subscription should not be required) (May 2011)
Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching:
“Weapons are instruments of bad omen, not instruments for the noble. [The noble man] uses them only when he cannot help it. Quietness and peace are his highest values. He gains victory but he does not rejoice in it. Whosoever would rejoice in it would, in fact, rejoice in the murder of men. Whosoever would rejoice in the murder of men cannot achieve his goal in the world … Whosoever has been victorious in battle shall linger as if attending a memorial service.”
New York Daily News:
H/t Casper ter Kuile.
Update: Meanwhile, in Abbottabad, the Telegraph’s Peter Oborne has some breaking news:
The whole world may be alive with excitement as it digests the news that the biggest manhunt in history has reached its gory conclusion, but the most important death of the 21st century so far seems to have made little impact in Abbottabad.
There is no tension in the air, no menacing groups of young men at street corners, no religious slogans scrawled on the walls or shouted in the streets.
The shops are open, selling fruit, groceries and kebabs. The restaurants are full as local people sit in the open air smoking cigarettes and munching naan bread.
Er… thanks Peter. And we’ll have more from Peter Oborne a bit later in the programme.