The Wrong African

Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea, was sworn in as the eigth Secretary General of the United Nations this week. Mr. Ban replaces Kofi Annan of Ghana, who served in this post for the last 10 years. As regular SpaceBeagle readers know I am NOT a fan of the United Nations especially since I have long advocated moving their headquarters to Strasbourg, France (because the European Parliament only uses its building there for about one week each month thus they could stay in their Brussels building all the time thus saving taxpayers money) or any Third World/developing nation in order to get the UN-crats close to world poverty versus the night life of New York City.

I wish Mr. Ban well as he manages the UN's $5 billion budget and 92,000 (currently) peace keeper soldiers complete with their baby/powder blue helmets -- easy targets!! But for Mr. Annan let me say, "you have have left 10 years ago!!!", since you have allowed or even encouraged (the legal system and US Congress are still deciding) a whole range of people including your son to use the UN as a personal slush fund to rob taxpayers around the world of their money. The Iraq "food for oil" scandal is a glaring example. May your retire include a prison sentence for being asleep at the wheel of this broken ship we call the UN.

As I noted earlier Mr. Annan is a native of Ghana which you can see an overview here from our friends at the CIA :-)
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gh.html

Here is a quote from this website:

"Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has roughly twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Even so, Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance. Gold, timber, and cocoa production are major sources of foreign exchange. The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 34% of GDP and employs 60% of the work force, mainly small landholders."

Instead of Mr. Annan the UN should have selected a SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENUER from the African continent -- Mo Ibrahim of Sudan -- who is a multibillionaire who founded "Celtel" , an African telecom company. Mr. Ibrahim has created the "Ibrahim Prize" which is a cash prize that will be given to one retiring African head of state (president, prime minister, etc.) who "was elected fairly, improved living standards, and transferred power peacefully to successors." The prize pays $500,000 per year for the first 10 years of private life and then $200,000 thereafter.

"Secretary General Ibrahim" has a very nice ring to it sadly the UN has overlooked hiring such a talented and visionary person opting instead for the career bureaucrat Mr. Annan who will likely join the speaker circuit to lend his "wisdom" to others. That is a lecture I will plan to miss!!

Move the UN,
Todd