Kofi Annan’s Legacy

October 20, 2006 at 8:36 pm (Uncategorized)

The only thing Kofi Annan will be remembered by is his being the first black African to be the Secretary General of the United Nations. But this organisations has had many shortcomings with other precedent General Secretaries. Many resolutions were passed without finding their way to implementation. The UN should be accountable only through the Security Council whose permanent members bear responsibility for many current situations in the world through their vetoes or conspiracy of silence.
As any UN General Secretary must first be approved by the Security Council permanent members, Kofi Annan should be judged on how effective he was in relation to currents international crises that he inherited like the Middle East crisis or those that came about during his term like the Iraq and Iran crises.
His being outspoken on many issues isn’t enough. The UN needs teeth to enforce its policies. Statements are easy to make even by members of the public who are inexperienced in politics.

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World Top Ten Polluted Cities

October 20, 2006 at 3:52 pm (Uncategorized)

From the top ten polluted cities in the world, it seems that pollution and economic deprivation goes hand in hand. What is striking is the polluted cities in India and China, two countries with a population exceeding one billion each. But sometimes ironically economic affluence causes more pollution through polluting consumptions like vehicles and plastic bags. In rich countries we can have apparently clean cities, but the air remains toxic due to polluting elements coming from economic activities that should be far from densely populated areas

When a city is teeming with a predominantly poor population that can hardly make both ends meet, environment concerns is given the lesser priority. Any piece of land is seen for lucrative buildings and not for creating a green space that can invigorate the lungs of the city.

Environmentally clean cities depends on good planning concerning population distribution, the adequate economic activities and above all civic sense that can make the task of the local and regional authorities easy.

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Putin Joking about the virility of Israeli President

October 20, 2006 at 3:47 pm (Uncategorized)

It seems that some world leaders don’t learn from the mistakes of their counterparts. It was in Moscow G8 Summit that PM Blair and President Bush were overheard speaking about Hezbollah derogatively. In a similar incident, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been overheard joking about the virility of his Israeli counterpart, who is accused of multiple rape.

Mr Putin as a former member of the KGB must be aware that whatever a prominent personality does is overwatched. This reminds of a statement by former Soviet President Gorbatchev in which he said that when he had to talk in private to his wife they went to the garden because inside their official house was wiretapped.

Concerning the joke it can be read both ways. I see that Putin was joking at the Israeli President himself since he uses his might in sex rather in something else, abusing his authority and the weakness of his victims. Whatever, political leaders are expected to be tact in their moves. As celebrities the world press is ready to catch any mild bluff by them to make of it a scoop and a hot debate.

After all Putin wasn’t speaking officially behind a microphone for the whole world to listen. As a person having a personal chat he is free to have his say. No one has the right to interfere with him even contributors to BBC WHYS like you and me.

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